If you're in the market to hire a software developer, you have likely discovered - or will discover - some of the challenges associated with acquiring tech talent. The demand for freelance software developers is at an all-time high, making it especially difficult to find and hire the best people right now. This doesn't change the fact that who you hire is one of the most important business decisions you'll make for your company. A bad hire can waste time, set you back financially and negatively impact your team's morale. Needless to say, getting the right people onto your team is a necessary challenge, and it all boils down to the effectiveness of your hiring strategy. We've learned through experience that acquiring great talent comes from having a great process in place. To help you with this, we're sharing our hiring guide so you can have a better understanding of how our process works behind the scenes. "Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was - and still is - the most important thing we do."- Marc Benioff, Founder, Chairman and co-CEO of SalesforceHere's what we'll cover: How to Define Your RoleHow to Attract the Right Software Developers to Apply Evaluating Candidates: What Qualities to Look for in Software DevelopersRed Flags: What to Avoid When Hiring Where to Find the Best Software Developers How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Programmer?How to Improve Your Hiring SuccessHow to Define Your Role An excellent hiring strategy starts with understanding the basics of the role you need to fill. Take time to visualize your ideal candidate, determine a budget and a timeline, and set the stage with expectations. This will create clear intentions for you and your team before you bring anyone new on board. It will also eliminate uncertainty for candidates and give them the opportunity to demonstrate their qualifications during the interview process.Here are some steps you can take to define your role: Define the basics. What kind of software developer do you need? Front-end Developer Back-end Developer Full-stack Developer Mobile developerMap out the key requirements of your project:Which technologies are required? What is your budget? What is your timeframe? What level of seniority do you need?What other non-technical skills are required for the project? (English communication skills, management experience, etc.)Consider other expectations for the role: Cultural aspects, timezone and language fluencyTools you will be using for the project Your team structure and how will they fit into it What level of engagement you need from this person With a solid understanding of the role, requirements, and other expectations, you'll have a better shot at identifying qualified candidates during the interview stages. The next challenge? Getting suitable candidates to apply.How to Attract the Right Software Developers to Apply An in-demand software developer will receive hundreds of messages per month about new jobs. If you want top talent to notice and apply for your role, you'll need to make it stand out. A good job description will cover the key aspects of the role while also showcasing the project, growth opportunity, and company. In our guide to writing job descriptions, we describe how you can create one that checks all the boxes and communicates clear expectations with potential hires. If you're looking to quickly connect with qualified and pre-vetted software developers, our job description template can help you get the ball rolling.A thorough and accurate job description will help you filter out some unsuitable candidates. That said, it's incredibly difficult to rely on a job posting as the primary conduit of getting great developers onto your team if you're not working with a staffing service. You may have candidates that look great on paper, but it's impossible to know until you have sufficiently assessed their personality, skills, and experience.Evaluating Candidates: What Qualities to Look for in Software Developers To find out if someone is a great software programmer, you often have to look beyond their coding skills. That's because what makes them 'great' is the addition of specific soft skills. Our team has worked with many freelance developers over the years, and we've noticed the qualities that the best of them have in common are: CommunicationLeadershipTeamworkAttitudeSelf-learning abilityTask management ReliabilityWhen preparing to interview remote software developers, it's helpful to know how to assess these soft skills. We do this during the initial screening interview and also evaluate their English communication and experience and logistical suitability (time zone, availability, rate), seniority, leadership skills, and general cognitive ability. Top Non-Technical Must-Have Skills: Communication Skills and Management ExperienceArguably two of the most critical non-technical qualifications we assess during the initial screening process are whether candidates communicate effectively and have sufficient management experience. Good communication is essential for every job, but it's vital for technical roles. If a developer cannot communicate effectively, they likely won't be able to explain problems or suggest better solutions in a way that the whole team can understand. If a candidate can't demonstrate an ability to communicate during an interview, they will also likely have issues communicating on the job. It's also a good idea to gauge how much experience they have managing themselves and working within a similar team setting to yours. Is this candidate someone who will need to be carefully managed? Or do they demonstrate the ability to be self-sufficient and responsible? The following questions are some examples of how to assess a developer's experience in both communications and management areas: Have they worked for big corporations or startups? Are they more comfortable working on small or large teams?Are they more used to working on projects with a clear scope or changing requirements? What is their experience with agile methodologies? What are their communication preferences? How will they report their progress and build trust with their team? Technical Must-Have Skills and Experience We also conduct a technical interview that consists of general technical questions and a live coding exercise. During this interview, we assess how well the candidate can code, how clean their code is, and their general technical knowledge. We also evaluate: If they follow best practicesHow they prepare their development environmentTheir project folder structure organizationWhether they are looking beyond the basic testIf they complete the test in time How they name their variables as part of clean and readable code for maintenance purposesLearning the details of a candidate's experience can also help determine whether they are as qualified as their application claims. How senior is this person? By asking candidates to share information about their technical experiences and personal preferences with specific technologies, you will gain a better understanding of how much they know. The following points can also help you get a sense of a candidate's technical skills:Ask for examples of previous work. Can they showcase previous products they've built and send over code samples or screenshots of different enhancements? Ask for references. Talking to entrepreneurs or CTOs they have worked for will give you an indication of their experience and intangible qualities, like problem-solving capabilities and creative perspective. Conduct programming challenges. Although most challenges involved with real work do not resemble the programming challenges found on sites like CodeEval, if a developer can succeed at some of the more difficult algorithmic-based problems in a short period of time, you know you are dealing with an intelligent person who knows their computer science.It's worth noting that giving an algorithmic-based problem is not our personal preference for evaluating a developer's technical abilities. The trouble with this type of test is that developers rarely actually write advanced algorithms on a typical project. Instead, we ask developers to complete a task similar to the work they'll do in the project or role for which they are interviewing. We try to customize each test to cover as many of the key skills needed for the role as possible in about an hour. Additionally, we have an experienced technical interviewer sit in with them to give feedback, ask questions and listen to their thought process.This approach allows us to assess if a candidate can understand problems clearly, how well they respond to feedback and whether they can do the work needed for the role. If you don't have a good technical understanding of the project and role, enlist some help from someone who can carry out this part of the vetting process. People who have coding experience can often differentiate potential in software developers more efficiently, especially as things get more technical. Red Flags: What to Avoid When Hiring Throughout our time interviewing and assessing candidates, our team has noticed certain signals that sometimes suggest a developer lacks important skills. Though these are not deal-breakers, they can help determine if a candidate is a good fit for your company. Here are some factors we take note of during the initial screening and technical assessment: If and how they use Google and what type of things they search for: We approve the use of Google, because let's face it, most developers use it day-to-day. That being said, analyzing how they use it will tell you a lot about their seniority level. Referring to documentation: this is indeed a good practice, but following every single step during the interview or trying to replicate tutorials might be somewhat concerning. On the other hand, if the candidate runs some fact-checks just to be sure about the next move, then that's a differen