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Development ServicesIs it possible to hire an entire team of professional iOS developers in just one month? For most people, it isn’t. Expert iOS developers are some of the most sought-after experts in the IT domain, and it might be rather challenging to find a developer that matches your requirements and project needs.
Large corporations actively compete for talented developers, and some even hire people straight out of college and train them on-site to build a loyal and deeply devoted talent pool in-house. For that reason, a considerable portion of the iOS developers never even hit the job market, which makes hiring an iOS app developer even harder.
If the question of where and how to find an iOS app developer is a pressing one, you should check out our comprehensive guide. Intersog is a leading software development company that’s been delivering top-shelf software solutions to clients around the world for over 15 years. We leverage our vast experience in developing superb iOS applications for clients across industries to help you find and hire the world’s best developers for your project.
Assess Your Needs and Capabilities
Before you even get to hunting and hiring the developers, you need to figure out exactly who you need to hire. iOS developer is a broad term that encompasses a variety of skills and areas of expertise. That is why you need to know what you are shooting for and what your project goals are.
First and foremost, you need to figure out what your project objectives are. Make sure you have a clear idea and vision for your future project – what is your target audience, what is the primary purpose of your app, what are the additional features it will have? You must know exactly what you are shooting for, and once you do, you’ll be able to move further to planning your budget and mapping up the software development life cycle.
You need to set a budget for your entire project and see how much you are willing or able to spend to hire expert developers. It is quite challenging to put precise figures on your budget straight from the start, but you can calculate the approximate budget for your software development project by taking all of your needs into consideration and by consulting with experienced developers.
After you have your needs and capabilities figured out, you may start looking for the right people to fill the right roles. You might find this task rather exhausting and even frustrating at times, which is why you have to know exactly who and where to look for.
Find the Right People for the Job
There are different types and different proficiency grades of iOS developers out there, and not all of those would be a good fit for your project. As for the proficiency grades of the developers, there are three major ranks – junior, middle, and senior with juniors being the least experienced and seniors being seasoned experts with a wide array of skills and vast experience.
You don’t always need the most experienced people for your project though, and even juniors might do a great job for you when put in the right place:
Junior
Junior developers are the ones with less than 2 years of experience; however, if the developer shows exceptional skills, they may move to the next rank faster. The juniors already have a strong understanding and command of the programming languages and frameworks used in iOS development but they still need some supervision from senior developers.
Hiring juniors is a good idea if you already have one or more senior-level developers who’d be able to oversee their performance and help them navigate through the software development life cycle avoiding some of the common pitfalls. Juniors are good for working on simpler tasks, so do not expect anything crazy from these guys – they are good but their knowledge and experience are still rather limited.
Middle
These are developers with 2 to 5 years of experience behind them. Mid-level developers can work on both simple and complex tasks and are capable of working without constant supervision. Some degree of control is advised, though, so you might still want to conduct regular progress audits and performance assessments.
The mid-level developers do not require supervision but they are not yet ready to manage the development teams on their own. They may participate in training junior personnel but they might lack the experience to run projects on their own, so you might still need at least one senior developer on the team.
Senior
Senior developers have vast experience and a strong command of all the programming languages and frameworks involved in developing apps for iPhone, iPad, and other iOS devices. Their competence may be rather diverse; they may participate in the development process, lead the development and testing of the application, manage business processes, conduct complex API integration, and manage the entire project.
Seniors are your universal soldiers who can embark on a multitude of tasks and bring tremendous value to your project. The skillset of a senior developer should include but not limit to:
- Swift and Objective-C language proficiency
- Knowledge of Apple Human Interface Guidelines
- Xcode IDE standard experience
- A strong understanding of Apple UI/UX standards
- Practical experience with Core Data framework
- Knowledge of Metal and OpenGL
- API integration experience
Soft Skills Matter
Soft skills often are as important as hard skills, especially when it comes to finding freelance iOS developers and remote developers. Respectful communication and efficient cooperation are critical for any team, and it is important for you to hire people who can guarantee that. Most importantly, you need responsible and stress-resilient people who respect their deadlines and are truly committed to your project. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are also paramount for any developer.
The Best Places to Hire iOS Developers
There are many places to go around when looking for iOS developers for your project, and you have many options to choose from. From social media and job boards to freelance platforms and professional software development companies, each can be rather helpful in finding the right people for your project. But what is the best place to find iOS developers? Well, let us take a closer look at some of the most popular options.
Freelance Developers
Freelance developers have become extremely popular in the past decade. With the pandemic making the remote workforce more widespread, it has become rather commonplace for businesses to hire freelance developers. There are numerous freelance platforms such as Toptal, Guru, Upwork, Solidgigs, and more out there, and each of those can offer you a wide selection of experts to choose from. Of course, hiring freelance iOS developers might be somewhat tricky, and you should consider all the pros and cons here.
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Advantages
Fast Hiring
The main advantage of freelance platforms is that you can hire almost immediately – just go there, see who’s available, contact them, negotiate your offer, assess their skills, and that’s it – you’ve hired an iOS developer. This is a rather simple and streamlined procedure that trims off all the redundancies and gets the job done.
Cost-Efficiency
Another benefit of freelance platforms is that you can hire cheap. The prices range widely though, so you will see rates anywhere from $20 per hour and up to $200 per hour or more depending on the freelancer’s proficiency level, location, and personal preferences. They are free to name their price and you are free to negotiate your offer and see where it gets you. Of course, if you want to hire a decent developer, going super low on that price tag would not be the best idea. Try to shoot somewhere in the middle of the price range.
Broad Selection of Talents
Freelance platforms are really good for when you are running low on options. All kinds of people look for opportunities on freelance platforms – designers, developers, content creators, marketing experts, and literally all kinds of experts you can think of are gathering there for short-term gigs and quick money-making opportunities.
Disadvantages
Inconsistent Quality
The main problem with freelance platforms is that they have no quality standards. Basically, you have to simply trust a freelancer who says he or she has the relevant experience for your project, which is why it is so important that you assess their skills before you sign any contracts with them. Even the price tag is not an indication of one’s skills; anyone can slap a huge price tag on their service and it would not mean anything unless they can actually back their hourly rate expectations by relevant skills and knowledge.
You will have to assess the skills of each freelancer you hire and pay attention to the reviews left by their previous clients to see whether they can perform on the level you’d need them to.
Lack of Commitment
Another issue with freelancers is that they are not really your employees. They are not bound to your company in any way other than that contract they might breach on a whim. It does not mean that all the freelancers are like that – most of them are really professional and responsible people who do their job according to the agreement. However, what you might find unsettling is that the freelancer might just leave your project at any given moment leaving you high and dry.
Other than that, freelancers are not really a part of the team; they know they are with you for a short while only and they are not interested in forming any bonds with the team. This might cause inconsistent and inefficient cooperation with the team.
Hiring freelancers is a good idea if you need just one or two developers for a short period of time, a couple of months or so. If you are looking to build a complex application, it would require many months of labor and a full team of developers, so a freelance platform might not be the best place to hire iOS developers for such a complex project.
In-House iOS Developers
In-house developers are the most reliable and generally the best option you have in terms of quality, managerial control, and consistent performance. They are part of your team, they might even work in the same building as you, and they are truly invested in the success of your company. They want the project to come out well because they want the company that employs them to fare well against the competitors.
Advantages
Real Commitment
In-house developers are truly devoted to the cause and are committed to supporting your project throughout the SDLC. These guys are your employees, which means that they are genuinely interested in the success of the project as it directly translates into their own success. The wealthier your company is, the more benefits your employees get, and they know it. You should reward your development team for achieving great results, and you’ll see them put even more effort into it.
More Control
Working with the in-house team gives you more control over the development process and the team itself. Of course, if you work with a professional team that has senior developers on board, you do not need to worry about overseeing it too much but many executives feel more confident having the developers working on site.
Availability
Your in-house team is here for you at all times; these guys are your full-time employees and they are ready to jump on any tasks you have for them at any time. It is really convenient for when you want to start a new project or add new features to your existing applications. You can allocate your human resources to work on different tasks and not worry about having to find more people for the job.
Disadvantages
Slow Recruitment
The main issue about in-house developers is that they are actually hard to hire. Even a recruiter who knows how to find an iOS developer, and most importantly, how to hire an iOS app developer might have a rough time recruiting one. This is especially true if your local talent pool is already depleted. Hiring even a single developer might take you months, and if you need a full team of developers, you might be facing even more problems with that. If you do not have months to spend on hiring, in-house developers might not be your best choice.
Expensive Hiring
Hiring developers is not cheap either, and the cost to hire an iOS developer might be a hit to your pocket, even more so if you are planning to hire the whole team. Considering all the expenses related to recruiting your developers, you might be looking at hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for each developer. This is a long and expensive process that can take its toll on your project budget.
Outstaffing Agencies
Outstaffing agencies or companies that offer software development as a service are the alternative that covers the insufficiencies of freelance agencies and offers certain benefits compared to hiring in-house developers. Intersog, being a software development company with a vast talent pool of 250+ developers, offers you quick access to experienced iOS developers who are ready to join your team in a matter of weeks.
Intersog developers we’ve been delivering top-quality software solutions for clients from all around the world for over 15 years. Thanks to our vast expertise and an impressive talent pool, we can get your project going fast by augmenting your team with senior developers or giving you an entire action-ready team.
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Fast Recruitment
With software development service companies, you just tell them what kind of team you need or what kind of project you are working on and they give you exactly that. At Intersog, we already have all the developers you might need, so you just tell us how many developers you need or what kind of project you are working on, and they will be ready for action in a matter of days.
Laser-Focused Talent Acquisition
If you do not know exactly how many developers you need or what their exact qualifications need to be, just tell us what project you have in mind and we will get you the developers that would fill all the necessary roles without any redundancies. Such a lean approach to talent acquisition allows you to save both time and money not having to hire a redundant workforce you might not actually need.
Flexibility
If you have experience developing iOS applications for mobile devices, you know that the scope of the project might change drastically throughout the software development life cycle. This means that the application design you have in mind right now might turn out to be completely different by the time it’s finished. This is especially true for the volatile markets where new trends emerge constantly impacting your organization and your business objectives.
So, in case you need to change the scope of your project halfway through the SDLC, you can just ask your vendor to add new people to the team or replace some of the developers to account for the newly emerging requirements.
Overall, hiring developers from a software development vendor is a convenient way to get all the experts you need fast and without fuzz. This option works best when you need to hire an entire team of people and do not really have the time to hunt and hire developers on your own.
Final Thoughts
Knowing where and how to hire an iOS developer for your project is the key to getting started strong and giving your project powerful momentum. There are many places you can explore to find and hire developers, and talking about the best places for the task, software development companies might just be the right pick. Of course, if you need just one developer for a short period of time, hiring a freelancer would be enough. If you are trying to build a strong on-site team and do not mind spending some extra time, you might try to hire in-house developers.
However, if you need a dedicated team of professional developers for your project fast, outstaffing agencies would be your best choice. Intersog offers top-quality software development services across industries getting your iOS application development project going fast and smoothly.
