How to hire the best Web Developers? We know, and we are ready to share our experience.

Finding a black cat in a dark room is hard…
Especially if there is no cat!
Confucius

But we know that there are many of them. The correct approach (and a few cool tricks), will get you the best web-developer on your team.

Let’s look at how to find the best full stack, back-end, or front-end developers. Let’s not dwell on the obvious things that are familiar to most people (test preparation, interviewing algorithms, etc. ), which are well-known to the majority of recruiters, but we will consider several exciting tricks that will push research to a new level.

CODE CAN TALK. EVEN IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT COMPLETELY

Any specialist should be judged by his creations. And web developers are not an exception. You can look through their code even without programming skills. For sure it would be better to cooperate with one of your current developers, but it doesn’t matter. How to do this? We use these two ways:

1. We use special online services. Running through the sites or applications from applicant’s portfolio, you can get a clear picture. Such services will help to detect errors, complex combinations in the code, garbage and other bugs. BUT IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND that perfect code does not exist, and the programs will surely find something. It is important here to be able to analyze the developer’s flaws, their number, and significance. Here are some links where you can check the quality of the code: PHP, CSS, HTML.
2. Looking through the code. Yes, even a recruiter without development skills can do it. That’s necessary to prepare and learn such a “beast” as a good programming style. It is not some official document. Rather, it is a universally recognized set of rules, for following them developer will be guaranteed to poke into the karma by those who will have to work with the code. In general, it is not a waste of time to study the information briefly here or here. Edison has useful tips for evaluating PHP code created by Junior, Middle, and Senior.

ABOUT HOBBY, SHADOW AND OTHER QUALITIES OF THE BEST WEB DEVELOPERS

Linus Torvalds (the one who created Linux) believes that the vast majority of good programmers do this not to get money and recognition, but because programming is fun. And, as practice shows, he is right. If a web developer talks with pleasure about what he does, expresses ideas, aspires to develop his skills in this area, you can be sure that this is the right specialist (even if he has not reached a certain level, he will in future).

Laziness and impatience can also be benefits. Yes, it is not a joke. If in some other fields these qualities immediately drag the specialist downhill, then in IT they can help you. This opinion was expressed once by Larry Wall, who created the programming language Perl.The main thing here is to direct these qualities in the right direction. After all, the desire to solve problems more quickly and to make room for your own life can lead to the most effective problem-solving.

Also, self-organization is an essential feature of a good web developer. Especially when it comes to hiring a remote employee. Many companies check this point by using long questionnaires, and setting specific deadlines for filing them. And as practice shows not all specialists cope with this simple task on time.

Do not forget about the ability of the programmer to get along in the team. Even if you get a coding genius, but he does not get along with colleagues, then he is useless. There are a lot of options for determining this quality (various tests, etc. ). Just asking a question about the former place of work, and analyzing how a specialist talks about the team where he has been working for a long time can show a lot to you.

WHAT HELPS YOU IN YOUR SEARCH

The experience of other companies will help. This point requires detailed study, and we devoted a separate article to it. Large employers continuously improve their approaches to finding good specialists and willingly share their experience. Therefore, do not miss the opportunity to get acquainted with it.

Also, it is worth keeping in mind that it is difficult to find the best web-developers sitting in one place. Therefore, it is worth your time to to track events (conferences, master classes, etc. ) for developers and visit them. Some of them have stands of vacancies from different companies, which can help to find the right specialist.

Also, if you analyze an ideal web developer for you, once you can make a list of features. They will make it possible to understand that this is your candidate:

• Using frameworks. Refusing them is bad business. Using frameworks increases the speed of development, the purity of code and has many other positive aspects.
• Ongoing training. Web development is a sphere that develops leaps and bounds. Conservative web developer is not your candidate.
• Ability to understand security issues. A good programmer cares not only about how to implement the task but also about how to protect the project from unfortunate incidents. Talk to the candidate about the secure sessions, CSRF, SQL-injections, XSS-attacks, and everything will become clear.
• Using of ready-made solutions (code reuse). Here is nothing wrong, but on the contrary, the ability to quickly find a ready solution and adapt it to yourself is considered a sign of a high-level professional.

It is clear that finding a right specialist in web development is not so difficult. Go through this process with your head, and we will be happy.