Most of the time, those who need developers are not themselves going to be developers, so when you're the CEO of a small company in need of a developer, how can you go about finding the right developers with the right level of experience for your website, application or mobile app?
Firstly, let me make things clear with regards to applications. If you're not considering commercial off the shelf packages rather than inventing it yourself, then you're mad, In all likelihood a package already exists to do what you want to do. No, really it will. Go look and save yourself a lot of heart-ache.
Now, if you're still determined to develop something yourself, you need to be sure that you're getting the right person or people to do it for you. So, how do you know? You're not a coder, you've probably interviewed and assessed many, many individuals in your time, but from the interview process you'd never know whether they can code or not. Here's some news: You don't need to because someone else knows for you.
If developers are who they say they are then they'll have a long list of happy and successful clients. Taking the time to take up references is the way to ensure that you get someone who is capable of delivering what you want.
The important bit is not to take up just one reference, but to take up several, maybe as many as five. It should only take you about half an hour to do all five, it's not a big time-waster. You need to take up several because developers can always find one client who'll say they were great, but if they're not that great, they're going to struggle to find five who'll be willing to sing their praises.
On top of that, here's the kicker: The actual development skills the person has will probably end up the least important part of someone's package for you. If your developer can't communicate, can't take your hazy, high level requirements and produce what you really wanted, can't manage their time properly and give you accurate estimates and deliver on time, then you don't want to work with them. Guess what, all this can be gained from the interview and a few decent telephone conversations with the candidates references.
So, don't get hung up on coder technical tests, go talk to their clients recent and in distant past and do a decent face-to-face interview. That's the best way you can find out how good someone is going to be for your company, not by them getting more than seven out of ten on a technical test.
Firstly, let me make things clear with regards to applications. If you're not considering commercial off the shelf packages rather than inventing it yourself, then you're mad, In all likelihood a package already exists to do what you want to do. No, really it will. Go look and save yourself a lot of heart-ache.
Now, if you're still determined to develop something yourself, you need to be sure that you're getting the right person or people to do it for you. So, how do you know? You're not a coder, you've probably interviewed and assessed many, many individuals in your time, but from the interview process you'd never know whether they can code or not. Here's some news: You don't need to because someone else knows for you.
If developers are who they say they are then they'll have a long list of happy and successful clients. Taking the time to take up references is the way to ensure that you get someone who is capable of delivering what you want.
The important bit is not to take up just one reference, but to take up several, maybe as many as five. It should only take you about half an hour to do all five, it's not a big time-waster. You need to take up several because developers can always find one client who'll say they were great, but if they're not that great, they're going to struggle to find five who'll be willing to sing their praises.
On top of that, here's the kicker: The actual development skills the person has will probably end up the least important part of someone's package for you. If your developer can't communicate, can't take your hazy, high level requirements and produce what you really wanted, can't manage their time properly and give you accurate estimates and deliver on time, then you don't want to work with them. Guess what, all this can be gained from the interview and a few decent telephone conversations with the candidates references.
So, don't get hung up on coder technical tests, go talk to their clients recent and in distant past and do a decent face-to-face interview. That's the best way you can find out how good someone is going to be for your company, not by them getting more than seven out of ten on a technical test.
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