Please Note: This article is written for software beginners, solopreneurs, and company sizes under 50.
We aren’t all born as technical project managers, so how do we know how to vet, hire, and manage developers for our projects?
The right developers can make or break your project. Lets break down how to go about vetting a good candidate and things we should be looking for before making our decision. Of course, depending on your means you probably aren’t looking to hire a Harvard CS grad with 10 years experience working at Google, those accolades speak for themselves. For our purposes, lets say we want to build software MVP and go to Upwork to look for developers. Really this can be any freelance marketplace, they are all in most cases the same.
On these freelance pages, you are able to see each candidates profile. In their profile they usually will have the following.
Personal/Professional Bio
Tech Stack
Specialties
Experience
Portfolio
Reviews
Lets break down each section and what to look for in each based on your needs.
Its important that you are going to get along with this person as you will be spending lots of time and conversing with them. Ensure that their bio aligns with you as a person and your values. If you see any red flags or immediate off putting things, simply move to the next candidate. At the end of the day its a relationship.
This is where the developer will list out what programming languages, frameworks, cloud hosts, etc. that they have experience with. Typically they are going to list everything under the sun here and anything they have spent even a week using will be listed here so you have to be careful.
If you are looking for specific tech to be used than it is important that you ask the developer for previous work in that specific programming language. To verify this, you can ask for their github profile. Once you navigate to their profile you will be able to see what languages they have used the most. This metric is dictated by github through the code itself so it is not something a developer can alter and can be used as a trusted metric.
Now if the specific tech stack is not of concern to you than you can skip ahead to their specialties.
SpecialtiesTypically ****this is where they list their specialty, eg. “Mobile App Developer” or “UI/UX Specialist.” This will be something more specific than just “Software Engineer.” You wont to make sure that this specialty aligns with your project requirements. Do not hire a developer that does not specifically list what you are looking for somewhere on their profile.
This is also something you want to confirm they specialize in before speaking with them about your project. If they do not have your specific specialty listed and you ask them if they can do it, the answer will also be an astounding “YES!” Believe me, I have been burnt more than once doing this.
Experience/PortfolioSometimes getting previous work can actually be a challenge. Of course, they may have basic project overviews on there profiles but you want actually be able to use the product or see the code yourself. This is unfortunately for a good reason though.
Most clients do not want their project’s code or project in general to be shared publicly. Most of the time everyone is signing NDAs before working on projects, making it difficult for developers to share prior work and experience.
However, more often than not they will have personal projects they have done, github contributions, or client projects that are more public. Ask for these and you should have better luck getting more information intro prior work and if they truly have the skills you are looking for.
Never hire someone who will not show you anything! This to me is a big red flag.
While good reviews are important, take them with a grain of salt. You never know how long that reviewer worked with the developer or the relationship they had. They could be getting favors from people and or getting unjust negative reviews due to disputes where the client is at fault and angry. I only use reviews to get a general overview and it usually does not sway my decision. Although, typically the more reviews in general, the better.
So you have done all the vetting you can without wasting to much time talking with each over a zoom call, but now its time to start interviewing your top selections.
Now, while reading you probably noticed that every profile had “Proficient English” or above listed. This is because most people hiring on freelance marketplaces are in the US or UK and most of the talent is in the Middle East or Asia. They are all trying to land the gig and they know they need to speak English a majority of the time. This is why you need to speak with them over a zoom meeting to make sure that you are able to communicate effectively.
Communication will be your number 1 priority now that you have found the talent you need. This is what is going to be their deciding factor. How well they communicate with will directly correlate to how much time and money you are going to spend as well as how the final product is going to turn out. It is absolutely essential!
During your interviews if you find yourself not being able to understand them, simply move on to the next candidate.
This is where you can also double check their tech proficiency. Explain your project to them or share designs if you have them. Ask if they can give a brief overview of how they would go about developing the project and what all would go into at a high level.
If they can explain it to you in simple terms so you can actually understand what they are talking about then you have found your developer. A developer that can explain a very technical process to someone that knows nothing about tech, so that they can easily understand it, are usually good communicators. If they speak to technical to the point you cant follow along then you are going to have communication problems down the road.
While all these pointers will greatly increase your odds of landing a great developer, it is not full proof. You may find yourself with someone that checks all the boxes but unforeseen problems arise. This is where you need to learn to hire and fire quickly so you don’t waste money. You can learn more about this in “How to Manage and Pay Developers.”
For now, its time to hire your developer. There are a few ways to go about doing this and it will all depend on your personal preferences.
Staying on Upwork or going outside of Upwork for payment.
Staying on Upwork or any freelance marketplace has its benefits as its native to the developer, they know how to use it. These platforms typically favor the person hiring so if their are disputes you should be taken care of. You are also able to verify the amount of work they have done through different payment structures on the platforms, each one is different so exploring these prior is a good idea. In general there is nothing wrong with staying on these platforms as its your safest bet.
However, going off these platform may have benefits of their own once trust is established. Upwork does take their fair share of fees during these transactions. Explore alternatives such as Payoneer, Stripe, or Wise may suit your specific needs better. Regardless, expect to pay fees when paying your developer.
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