How to Find a Great Freelance Developer
I’ve been working in IT for over 20 years. During my career, I’ve played many different roles in business. I’ve worked as an employee for major companies, as a freelancer, and I have also hired employees and freelancers. In this article, I’d like to provide some recommendations on how to find the very best people to get the work done, while also being a great fit for your business.
When you go to the freelance market for the first time, it can be hard to find a candidate who will be able to complete your project in line with expectations. There are a lot of people who are willing to take your money but do not necessarily have the qualifications to do the job.
You will get tens of proposals but many of them will be from bots. Some proposals will be from junior developers who will take on any project and won’t care about the results. Some will be from fake accounts – freelancers who were banned from the market but created a new identity to get back onto the platform. Others will be good but won’t have the required experience in your area. Only a few proposals will be from true professionals, but finding the right candidate in a list this long can be tricky.
Here are some top tips on how to make sure you find the right person for your project:
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- Create a vision of the product or project
This is the most important step for you. As a customer, you should understand what your needs are, and why you need the project to be completed. What outcomes do you expect from it, and how much do you want to spend on it? Write down your goals and expectations. This step is important as it will define the project boundaries and will allow you to handle it better. It will be the base for your job description and will allow you to better focus on the right candidates. I’ll write a separate article on ‘how to create a good vision’ later on. According to your vision, define which people you will need in order to implement it. - Write a clean job description for freelancers
When you’ve written your vision and understood which professionals you need, you will need to write a job description. Make your job description as specific as possible. I.E, “I need an app written” is a very bad description and will attract a lot of people who do not understand what they are doing.
Provide a short description of what the job entails and add UI mockups if there are any. In case the project is bound to a certain technology, add the requirement to the job description. It will give potential freelancers an idea of what is expected and as a result, deter potential candidates from applying if they are not familiar with the requirements. - Ask questions relating to the developers/freelancers previous experience
For example, “What similar projects have you worked on in the past? Can you give details of the work you have done?” This question will help you to better understand the developer’s qualifications. It will also eliminate spam bots which are not programmed to answer such complex questions. Read the answers carefully. Developers who have had real hands-on experience with similar projects will give more details, and even some insights, which may be useful for you. - Check the proposal
If the proposal contains only common words, most likely the developer does not have the relevant experience. People who can do the work you need are usually more specific and sometimes may provide samples of work. - Ask for code
During the interview stage, it’s worth asking if the developer has a repository at Github or elsewhere. Many will say that they are under a Non-Disclosure Agreement and can’t share the code. Others, and some of the best developers, may have pet projects or contribute to some open-source software, and their code can usually be found fairly easily. If you are looking for the cheapest workforce, this step is probably not so important, but for more senior developers who will be the core of your team, it’s essential as it makes it easier to evaluate their skills so you can hire a better developer. - Conduct a technical interview
If you are making something bigger than a you need to conduct an interview. Hiring unskilled developers at the beginning of your project may well ruin your startup. Bad decisions may hugely increase your costs, add a lot of rework, and cause a loss of customers. If you are not a technical person, you may need assistance carrying out the interview. If you know a developer you could ask them to help with this step or, if you don’t, feel free to ask me. I’ve conducted over one thousand interviews and have vast experience in evaluating tech candidates. - Be sure that you are comfortable to work with the person
Talk to the candidate to understand if you are comfortable working with them. People are different. Everyone has their own experience, communication patterns, personal bias, etc. Sometimes such differences can make it uncomfortable to work together and t’s better to understand this at an early stage. Do not hesitate to use video during the interview stage. It will give you a better understanding of who are you talking to and how he/she behaves. - Check the freelancer’s feedback
Freelance marketplaces allow you to check the freelancer’s history. You can easily see what the developer has done and what result was achieved. But, feedback could be different. Even in the case that a developer has a 5-star rating, it’s worth taking a deeper look at projects which have been performed. It will let you see if the developer has worked on similar projects and what work was carried out. Try to find candidates in tech communities. Most of the top freelancers can easily be goggled to see their true professional experience.
- Create a vision of the product or project
These tips are not exhaustive. I will be writing some additional articles on this topic, but for now, this article will help you to source great people for your team. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need any assistance. Good luck with your business.
Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash