How to Hire Remote Developers for a Dedicated Project Team

Want to hire developers for an existing project team? - This can be a daunting task, don’t you think? The reason behind it is the lack of developers worldwide. Even though statistics show that there were around 18.9 million developers worldwide in 2019, there is still an insurmountable shortage of development teams.

It’s probably because of the digital transformation and requirement of developers in every industry. As a result, businesses are reaching out for global talent and grasping the potential of remote work.

Challenges of hiring remote developers

Besides, nowadays hiring remote developers also comes with many perks, such as:

• access to an exclusive set of experts,
• having issues fixed before you even wake up by taking advantage of time zone difference,
• savings in terms of hiring a more affordable software development team. For instance, hiring software developers from Eastern Europe will be a cheaper option than hiring devs from the U.S.,
• not needing a physical office might help you lose some unnecessary costs for rent, equipment, etc.,
• remote employees are usually happier than in-office ones, which results in better productivity and work based on results, not on hours.

Did you already make up your mind and want to hire remote developers? Great! Now, here comes the more difficult part. How to find and hire valuable remote developers for your project from the vast talent pool out there? Which traits does a good software engineer have? 

To help you find the right dedicated developers for hire, in this article, we’ll go through the most effective steps to hire remote devs. Going through each of the steps and integrating the advice and information in your practice will result in success.

Where Can You Find and Hire Remote Developers?

You should look for remote developers at various channels, according to the type of project you’re going to work on. The two commonly used channels where businesses usually hire remote employees are a freelance marketplace and a job board.

Freelance marketplaces

Checking out the opportunities at freelance marketplaces is a great way to start the remote developers’ hunt! However, you should bear in mind that at a freelance marketplace, you can’t find developers for long-term collaboration. Also, at platforms like UpWork, Freelancer, etc. anyone can sign up and become a member. Therefore, it would be more difficult for you to find a valuable match or an expert in the field. 

Developer job boards

Some of the job boards where you can find remote work candidates are Indeed.com, Monster, LinkedIn Jobs, Remote.co, FlexJobs, etc. On these job boards, you can easily create job offers that will be meant for worldwide remote developers. 

How to Create an Attractive Job Listing?

Are you aware that with the creation of a job listing, your hiring process starts? Many companies don’t know that finding the right candidates depends a lot on an effective job listing. 

Hire talented developers from LATAM, Canada, and Europe

To attract the best remote developers, you should invest in piecing together a valuable job description that makes your company attractive. Some of the key points that a good job description should have are the following: 

• Precise and professional job title.
• Detailed job description including the job and candidate expectations, tasks within the position, salary and benefits, several reasons why remote candidates should choose you.
• The requirements should be emphasized in a bullet point list. The more requirements or specifications you provide in the job description, the narrower the circle of applications you’ll get. 

How to Choose the Right Candidates for Your Project Team?

Once you post a job description, you’ll probably get many applications. Now, the question is: Who is the right team member for your software development project?

So, the simplest solution to choose the right candidates that will go on with the interview process includes filtering, picking the top 5 candidates, and going on with interviews. 

What does the Filtering Process Include?

First of all, you have to take the odd ones out. This refers to the process of disregarding all those applications of candidates that don’t match the job description, haven’t read the job description, or are putting out skills that don’t match the requirements. All of these points can be jot down just by having a look at the candidate’s CV.

The second thing you should do while filtering applications includes removing candidates that have poor cover letters. Candidates that didn’t put the effort in their cover letter might not be worthy of talking to. 

This way you will eventually end up with a decent amount of resumes and you can pick the top 5 to interview.

How to Interview Candidates?

The interview process of candidates that are working remotely is slightly different from interviewing employees in person. Therefore, no matter who is doing the interview, whether it’s the project manager or an HR person, they shouldn’t pay attention only to the candidate’s communication skills. Every candidate must be tested according to the skills that are needed for a certain position. Before the actual talk with the candidates, you can consider the following options:

Coding test

Testing out the developer’s basic skills is an ideal way to check out whether you need to spend time interviewing a candidate or not. 

A short video presentation

Since you can’t meet the candidates in person, it’s cool to ask them for a 5-minute video presentation of themselves. This way you can get a grip of their personality, hear about their skills, check out their passion for coding, and their enthusiasm for the position.

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Technical questions

This section is all about checking the developer’s skills. Asking technical questions within the interview is essential to see whether the developer will have the seniority level, education, and experience tied to the role. 

Pair programming

Pair programming refers to the practical trial between the interviewer and the candidate. Within this agile practice, you can find out the candidate’s ability to collaborate with other team members. Working on a feature or small project with the candidate is the best way to see whether they’ll be the right fit or not.

Who will Join Your Remote Team?

After extensive work within the hiring process, you’ll most probably find the right remote developers for your projects. Nevertheless, if you think that all of this will be too much work for you, draining your resources, you can always partner up with a software development company.

We, at Intersog, provide plenty of options to our clients who are hunting for software experts to join their team. If you’d like to skip all of the steps, just schedule a free consultation with us!