Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.
This week: Google fires hundreds of recruiters, and ARM gets a sky-high valuation. (more…)
Tag: hiring process
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Avoiding Interviewer Mistakes: Freelance Full-Stack Developers
Interviewing full-stack developers comes with its own host of risks and wrong turns. The interview is such an integral part of the process, but it is frequently overlooked by hiring managers.
Missing some key details or questions could lead to the wrong candidate getting hired or the right candidate getting away. It is crucial that your interview questions be effective and revealing.
Avoid these top interviewer mistakes when hiring a freelance full-stack developer:
Skipping the Recommendations
In traditional hiring situations, it’s a given that you’re going to follow up on recommendations. However, sometimes we are tempted to skip this step when quickly onboarding freelance developers.
It is as important to vet freelance candidates as it is to vet full-time hires. Failing to do so can result in disastrous damage to important projects.
If you’re hiring a full-stack developer without utilizing a professional tech-matching service, then you’ll need to make sure to fully vet candidates and follow up with their recommendations.
Not Meeting Face to Face (or Camera to Camera)
These days, hiring a freelancer can be done with a few text exchanges. You can look at their freelancer’s profile, scan their bio, resumé and recent client ratings. You can exchange information and even ask interview questions via email.
While technology has made hiring exceptionally convenient, you should still stick to some traditions, such as the face-to-face interview.
Be sure to host a video call, set up a meeting if they are local or boot up Google Hangouts if they’re not. Find a way you can both get a feel for each other and get a bit of face time.
Failing to Ask About Their Past Freelance Projects
Asking your candidate about their past freelance projects will give you a good idea of how they work and how much they enjoy working freelance.
If the candidate does not speak highly of their past projects or team, then that may signal that they won’t be the most compatible or appreciative candidate. However, if they speak about how they worked on time and produced a great product with little in the way of interruptions, then that will most likely be the freelancer you need for your company.
Freelance full-stack developers, just like full-time developers, still need to have a personality that fits well within the team even if they do not interact physically. Asking about their projects will give you the best indicator of how they will work with your company.
Paying too Little Attention to the Portfolio
The portfolio is arguably the most important aspect of an interview. While chatting up a storm, rifling through a resumé and following up on recommendations can help you get a feel for a freelance full-stack developer, they don’t tell the whole story.
The portfolio will show you, quickly and viscerally, how talented a full-stack developer really is. It can act as a major talking point during the interview. In addition, it can showcase the presentation skills of the full-stack developer candidate and which skills the candidate believes are best.
Ask questions based on their portfolio:
- How much time did you spend on these projects?
- What did you learn completing these projects?
- What was your role on the development team for these projects?
Conclusion
If you want to hire a freelance full-stack developer, then you’ll need to know how to avoid common interviewer mistakes. These mistakes can be extremely detrimental to the interview process, leading you to make inaccurate assumptions and assessments.
With freelance full-stack developers, it’s important to remember to follow up on recommendations, just as you would for a full-time hire. Remember it’s also essential to get the face-to-face time—whether it be in person or via videoconferencing.
Be sure to inquire about past freelance projects and pay great attention to their portfolio. The portfolio can act as a barometer and an excellent talking point.
With these tips, you should be able to avoid the top four most common interviewer mistakes. By inquiring about their past projects, portfolio, recommendations and meeting up with them via video call, you should be able to accurately assess the top full-stack developer candidates.
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5 Questions to Ask Remote Web Developers
Great web developers are waiting to be hired. Your company could seize upon the opportunity—but only if you’re willing to be patient, dedicated and a little creative.
Don’t scare away qualified remote web developers with a few poorly worded questions or a mistimed probe. Ask direct and concise questions that can help you understand the candidate.
Be sure to include the questions listed below to ensure you’re interviewing a remote web developer to the best of your ability:
1. Have You Worked Remotely Before?
Remote work is different from many traditional forms of work. For a company to properly manage a remote web developer, the web developer must have a solid understanding and knowledge of remote working environments.
If an exceptional web developer candidate hasn’t telecommuted before, it doesn’t bar them from the pool of qualified candidates. However, it is easier to onboard and retain remote web developers who have had the experience of working remotely beforehand.
2. Are You Familiar with Popular Web Development Frameworks?
Remote web developers, like any other web developer, must stay abreast of the latest trends and advancements in the web development field. To master their craft, they must keep a running knowledge of the latest tools, frameworks and web programming languages.
An experienced web developer should, at the very least, be aware of a large and robust framework such as Bootstrap. They should be able to explain how the framework works, why web developers use it (it’s much better to utilize a framework to save time, in most cases) and the drawbacks of utilizing a premade framework.
3. How Much Experience Do You Have with Web Programming Languages? Are You Familiar with Server-Side Languages?
Every web developer should be proficient in HTML and CSS. Scripting languages such as Angular.js, Express.js and JSON are important, too. JavaScript adds interactivity to websites. HTML acts as the skeleton and CSS acts as the design.
Preferably, an experienced remote web developer candidate will have three to five years of experience with these languages.
It’s also important to ascertain whether the web developer you’re interviewing has the ability to code the back end of websites. Do they know how to set up a database? Do they understand how to store values in a website’s database?
4. Which Content Management Systems Do You Use?
A content management system (CMS) helps streamline organizing, adding and managing content for a website.
One of the most popular CMS is WordPress. Web developers leverage CMS to utilize built-in structures and architectures to create dynamic blogs and alluring corporate websites.
Setting a website up with a CMS also makes it easier for writers, marketers and designers to tweak already-developed websites. They can add content without needing the web developer to intervene.
5. Are You Comfortable with Regular Phone and Video Meetings? Do You Have Experience with Telework Software?
Remote work has unique challenges. One of the most challenging aspects of working remotely is maintaining communication. Miscommunication can occur more easily for remote workers, so it’s important that you keep communication lines open and stress the importance of speaking clearly and confidently.
It’s much better if a candidate already has experience with telecommunication software such as Zoom, Skype or Slack. Knowing how to interact via these technologies will lessen the chances of miscommunication in telework environments.
Conclusion
How you conduct a remote web developer interview is entirely up to your organization. There are several methods for conducting technical interviews, telework interviews and startup interviews. Each one of them is effective in a unique way; very few are ineffective or harmful. Adding a few questions to your interview script could help make whichever strategy you employ more effective.
Ask remote web developers about their experience working remotely. Remember to ask about experience with certain telework software programs and telecommunication applications. On the technical side, be sure to ask about programming skill, familiarity with web frameworks and their experience with CMS.
Companies that seek to hire remote web developers should take note of the interview questions listed above. By asking these five questions, interviewers can gain a great deal of insight into a web developer candidate’s habits, passions and challenges.
Using these interview questions should make the vetting and hiring process easier for everyone, helping interviewers assess a candidate’s adaptability, experience and dedication.