How to Hire a Web Developer

Every business needs talented developers to overtake their competitors. But finding and hiring great web developers can be challenging. After reading this article, you will know how to find the professionals without much further ado.  We will cover what skills a web developer should have, how much one will cost, how to write a quality job description, and questions to ask in the interview.

Who is a web developer

A web developer is a person who builds sites, services, and web applications - the type of software we're used to using every day. That's why engaging the right developer is a very significant task.

There are three web developers types: front-end, back-end, and full-stack.

Front-end developers are programmers involved in the development of the user interface - the visible part of the site in the browser. The principal task of the front-end developer is to ensure that information is presented to users as conveniently as possible. The front-end developer knows JavaScript well.  They also understand and can use some JS libraries and frameworks like Angular.js, React.js, and Vue.js. He or she is not afraid of preprocessors like LESS and SASS, or toolkits such as GULP.  Working with the DOM, APIs, SVG objects, AJAX, and CORS are simple for a front-end developer. An experienced front-end dev can also create SQL queries. A quality developer will have knowledge of the principles of UI / UX-design, flexible grids and responsive layouts, cross-browser and cross-platform markup, and sometimes mobile development skills. Moreover, the front-end developer must be able to work with version control systems (Git, CVS, etc.), use graphic editors, and understand various CMS templates.

Back-end developers are responsible for creating the "server" side of web applications. In other words, they deal with everything related to the program-administrative part of the web application, including the internal content of the system, server technologies, databases, architecture, and program logic.

The back-end developer should know server-side programming languages and frameworks ​​such as PHP, Symphony, Yii, Laravel, Django, Ruby on Rails, Spring, Grails, Go, .NET, and Node JS. In addition to Node JS, it will be useful for this specialist to study Express (a library for interaction between the Node JS platform and the server) and Mongo DB (a database for receiving and storing information). As you can see, there are a lot of programming languages. So it’s better to choose a developer who knows a couple of them or only one perfectly. 

Back-end specialists work hand in hand with front-end developers by setting server logic for the external elements of the web application. In addition to implementing service logic, the work of the back-end developer includes application optimization to improve its speed and efficiency. Moreover, back-end developers are regularly dealing with large amounts of information in application databases and are comfortable managing large datasets. 

Full-stack developers have a wide skill set and can do both front-end and back-end web development. . A full-stack developer is experienced with design as well as  code.  They are comfortable with user interfaces, algorithms, connecting a database to a browser, managing user connections, and making the whole website work.

How much does it cost to hire a web developer

It seems like full-stack developers must obtain a higher value because they replace some programmers. Based on our findings, that’s not true as the demand for them is much lower. Businesses prefer to hire dedicated professionals who solve definite problems.

We collected monthly developers rates from job posting sites which you can see on the table below. The table gives an overview of average market prices.  Depending on the city, country, and experience of the developer, prices may vary. 

Sources: glassdoor.co.in, upwork.com.

How to write a job description for a web developer

Before you can hire someone, you need to define the responsibilities of the role you’re looking to fill. You’ll need to know the exact technologies and skills your task requires. When it comes to choosing a web developer, this is much harder than it sounds. Here are some statements which will help you to determine what kind of professional you need:

• - Type of project. If you have small or medium projects, like adding a web form to an existing website, full-stack developers are an excellent solution. But if projects are larger, like designing a new site from scratch, you'd better think about hiring front-end or back-end programmers.

• - Skills of the developer. The quality of the product directly depends on technical skills. The more experience a developer has, the more he or she will cost. It's not necessary to overpay for unrequired skills and knowledge. Only look for people whose technical skills are perfect for your project.

• - The budget of the project. If you don’t establish this at the start of your project, you can expect quite a few problems down the line.. The commitment of the developer will be dependent on the salary you offer.  Failure to define the budget can lead to such issues as needing to hire more people with different skills to massively going over the budget while developing dysfunctional websites.

Web developer job description

Step one in creating a quality job description is to introduce your company. Include in your job description brief information about the company to show your candidates the type of your business, mission, and goals of your business. This helps to filter out all those whose work ethic and values differ greatly from yours.

Secondly, include the whole list of tasks showing what your employees will do, what skills they should possess, and for whom they will develop programs.

Now that you know the technical skills and budget for hiring, you should determine what qualities your perfect candidate should have. Here is a list of important qualities for a web developer: analytical mindset, responsible, attention to detail, creative skills, high-grade soft skills, ability to comply with deadlines, teamwork skills, ability to objectively assess their capabilities to solve problems, results-oriented, and a constant desire to learn new technologies and tools.

Let’s go through an example together.  We need someone to create a quality and responsive landing page. We have a design mockup and all we need to do is find a developer. So what kind of developer do we need for this project?

Job description: middle front-end developer

Responsibilities:

• - Implement a quality landing page

• - Create an adaptive web page for desktop, notebooks, tablets, and mobile devices

• - Build reusable code and libraries for future use

• - Optimize the site for maximum speed and scalability

• - Implement security and data protection

• - Translate UI/UX wireframes to visual elements

• - Add other responsibilities here that are relevant

Skills and Qualifications:

• - 3+ years of development experience

• - Strong skills with HTML5 and CSS3 (including SCSS), SVG

• - Front-end Frameworks: Bootstrap, Angular 2+ (with Universal and Ngrx)

• - Languages: JavaScript (including Vanilla JS, ES5, ES2015+), TypeScript

• - Back-end frameworks: Node.js

• - Knowledge: OOP, functional programming, design patterns

• - General understanding of SEO

• - Libraries: Firebase, AWS, Stripe, Branch, Highcharts, Batch, Onfido

• - Proficient understanding of Git

• - Familiarity with Photoshop and Adobe Creative Cloud

The last thing you should do is prepare tech questions for your selected candidates. These questions can be created by you or by developers in your company or project.

What are good web developer interview questions to ask

After you've created a vacancy and candidates have been sorted, the next step is to select developers to interview.  Below is a list of questions that will help to recognize which applicants are suitable for the position and which ones are not. 

Question 1. Describe a web development project you worked on.

What the answer tells you: Previous achievements are the most common predictor of future achievement. Make sure that you hire a web developer for their knowledge and skills, but not just eloquence. Ask to see their previous works. A good developer will be happy to discuss them and provide all information requested.

Question 2. Tell me about a project that disappointed you. What would you change to make it better?

What the answer tells you: Continuous self-evaluation is a must for a developer. Don't employ someone who continues to make the same mistakes.

Question 3. How are you keeping up with the latest changes in web development?

What the answer tells you: This question will determine if your candidate continues to learn programming and makes the effort to stay on top of his skills. 

Question 4. If you were going to start your project now, what technical component would you use?

What the answer tells you: This question will make it clear whether the developer embellished the fact that he was following the latest changes in web development. If he answers that he's going to use certain technologies without going into details, it will say that his level of knowledge is superficial. But if he can describe in detail the entire stack of technologies, including which libraries or plugins he'll use, then it is obvious that he is following the latest innovations and technologies.

Question 5. How do you do testing? What do you think about this? How would you improve QA?

What the answer tells you: Good code means a less buggy web site and fewer coding crises. A good web developer should value testing and respect the QA process because it will cut down the time to find bugs and cost for the job.

Question 6. What is the difference between server-side rendering vs client-side rendering?

Answer: Client-side rendering means your browser downloads a minimal HTML page. It renders the JavaScript and fills the content into it. Rendering is performed by the browser. Data comes from Sitecore via HTTP.

Server-side rendering, on the other hand, renders the components on the server. The output is HTML content. The application is server-side rendered (SSR) by the Sitecore instance means that HTML is delivered to the user without any initial JS execution on the client. This mode allows your Sitecore users to manage the features for your JSS app using Sitecore Experience Editor.

Question 7. Describe your web development workflow.

What the answer tells you: Good web development takes time. It is not a process that should be rushed into. However, it’s important to understand the timeline. If you are expecting a complex app designed and launched in two weeks, you should probably think more carefully about it one more time. The development process will also depend on your specific requirements, but this is something you certainly want to be aware of before signing a contract.

Question 8. How do you allocate time and find balance with your personal life?

What the answer tells you: This question gives us the answer to how a developer manages their free time. If this person says he/she doesn't have time for studying or sports, it's not a good sign. It could be concluded that a person cannot manage time at home, so they may have difficulty managing time at work. 

Question 9. How quickly do you adapt to new technologies in web development? Have you ever switched to a new project and needed to learn new skills?

What the answer tells you: This question helps us find out how flexible the developer is. And since technologies will be quick-changing in the future, a developer who knows a lot, but cannot adapt quickly is worse than a developer who easily learns new things.

Question 10. Ask a candidate about technologies from your task’s stack.

What the answer tells you: Depending on the technology stack that was indicated in the job description, it is worth creating a list of technical questions. This will give you an understanding of the developer’s level of knowledge. It’s also a good way to weed out those who wrote certain technologies in their resume, but don't have enough skills to work with them.

Summing Up

The best web developers are sincerely passionate about their work and usually have many personal projects in their portfolio.  These projects can be web sites or applications for friends, HTML5 games, an interesting personal blog, etc. Rate these works like everything else in the portfolio but also pay attention to the balance. The portfolio should not consist only of so-called “pet projects”.

The web developer is a critical component of your project. After all, this person is responsible for the brand's reputation and its online image, as well as your interaction with customers. Therefore, it's important that you choose the right person for the position of web developer.We hope this article has helped you to solve the tricky issue of hiring the perfect developer.