Hire Expert Remote Developers

Remote developers are more than just nameless faces who build web and applications for business. These are professionals who form the lifeline of software and digital product development in general.

Consequently, the remote developer who forms part of your software project will play a huge role in your business’ growth and overall success. For that reason, you must partner with expert remote developers who are a cut above the rest. The developers you choose will have a direct impact on your growth and success. That’s why organizations need to hire developers that offer a unique combination of technical, communication, and strategic skills.

Who Needs to Hire Top Remote Developers?

If you are considering undertaking a product development project, be it a mobile application or a website, then remote developers should be a priority when drawing up your list of potential profiles. While you may get by with an in-house developer working full-time, studies have shown that maximum productivity and less-strenuous software projects tend to come about when a business hires a top remote developer.

Therefore, this guide appeals to:

• Business founders (present and future) and CEOs of digital businesses (startups, etc)
• Project managers, product owners, CTOs, or recruiters searching for talented software developers for software projects
• Business owners looking to expand their digital footprint

Remote: The Future of Software Collaborations

Connecting with professionals remotely is more popular nowadays than ever. What was once thought to be a working relationship suitable for small-to-medium-sized businesses has become a staple in the development process for mega-companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook, among others. Within the remote-working niche, developers are among the most in-demand profiles sought after.

The most appealing assets of outsourcing remote workers lay in:

• Their flexible working hours, something which companies can capitalize on when scheduling estimated project timelines and completion dates.
• The added productivity which they promise by working from home, thus avoiding traffic, coffee breaks, etc
• Easy access (online messaging)
• Save costs on office space
• Freedom to run your business from home

When you outsource expert remote developers, you access professionals who build scalable websites and applications that bring your product vision to life. This includes the customizable features, themes, and designs that you want to see for your project. As long as they are within the limits of what web development currently allows for, then an expert remote developer can do it.

The Difficulties With Finding Remote Developers For Hire

Remote developers are a huge deal for contemporary businesses. Due to their demand, it’s common to find the remote development job market becoming more and more saturated with newcomers. For that reason, it is crucial that recruiters partner with remote developers who know their stuff.

Usually, in the quest for talent, employers tend to post their software project to a freelance platform or job board in the hopes that they will access a viable talent pool with the candidates they need.

However, there is a danger to that. Once you publish your project, a tidal wave of applications will come in. Most of them will promise you excellent work for rock-bottom rates. All of these offers will all sound too good to be true: because they’re not.

What’s more, validating credentials on these types of platforms is always challenging. Sadly, even if there are candidates who seem like great prospects on paper, at times, you hire them and they turn out to be a complete disaster.

When onboarding remote developers, one wrong hire can cost you a lot in the long run and can even spell disaster for the outcome of your project.

DevTeam.Space provides a solution to the potential dangers associated with hiring remote developers. By connecting you with professional software engineers whose credentials, experience, and knowledge have been previously evaluated to determine whether they are in fact experts, you are promised dependable talent who can give meaningful insight throughout your software product lifecycle.

What’s more, DTS-approved remote developers all follow an agile, structured process rooted in effective project management, organized timelines, and constant communication with all their partners. Therefore, you enjoy the benefits of working with a remote developer while enjoying all the security and perks that an in-house developer would bring your team.

How this Interviewing Guide Will Help

To kick things off, we’ll examine the main areas where expert remote developers differ from their junior counterparts as well as the differentiating factors which make up a stellar remote dev team. Then, we’ll break down the approach you ought to use to source the best developers.

As is expected, your main goal will be to source the best remote developers without spending too much money or time on the recruiting process.

Based on the overarching goal, this interview guide seeks to:

1. Weed out unskilled, unqualified, or unfit candidates at the earliest.
2. Find out how deep their knowledge runs on key areas that measure your project’s success.
3. Avoid boring good developers with an overbearing interview process. Instead, attract the right talent by presenting your project as something interesting to work on.

What Separates Expert Remote Developers From the Rest

Hiring a cheap $ 20-per-hour freelance remote programmer with a decent-looking portfolio might seem like the ideal thing to do. However, it may very well cost you a lot in the long run. Some junior remote developers charge ridiculously-low rates. In return, you get everything you don’t want in a remote employee:

• Limited skillset
• Take extremely long to complete a required task
• Miss deadlines and have difficulty communicating
• Try to cover up mistakes as opposed to fixing them directly
• Cost you lots of money to fix the mistakes that they make
• Have difficulty meeting the demands of your specific project
• Are unable to provide you with any assistance for planning and strategizing
• Incapable of making suggestions or offering useful advice

Expert remote developers won’t pose these kinds of problems to your business.

However, one must be careful with the words ‘expertise’ and seniority’, because these honorific titles are used by some developers who are not worthy of either one.

After all, there are several qualified developers with 9+ years of experience who objectively should be considered juniors.

On the other hand, there are developers with no qualifications and only a few years’ worths of experience who outclass the former by leaps and bounds.

It’s not about quantity, rather it’s about quality of education and experience.

Essential Developer Skills

Here are the real indicators of top-level remote developers.

1. Breadth and Depth of Technical Skills

Minimally, any software engineer is required to possess some sort of technical skillset as well as a reasonable understanding of the niche in which they are working. In the case of a remote developer, they need to have a solid understanding of web development as well as how it goes hand-in-hand with project management from a business point of view.

The essential technical skills are:

Basic Skills:

• The specific development skill you will need, this can be Javascript, Java, CSS, HTML, MySQL, PHP, for example
• Familiarity with testing and debugging procedures
• Knowledge of the service-specific features such as search bars, videos, and interactive maps
• APIs, SQL, cybersecurity, Python, and databases
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Integrating websites with social media platforms

More Advanced Skills:

• Knowledge of UX/UI design practices
• Ability to implement products that run well across multiple platforms
• Mobile app development design practices (Material Design)
• Building scalable websites
• User investigative research
• Best SEO practices
• Setting up customer behavior tracking and data analytics software

Any remote developer can master the basics. With them, the software engineer will be able to create a basic platform and add in simple features such as a payment gateway.

However, basic technical skills can only take you so far.

More complex projects demand either a top remote developer or a development team.

While the latter may sound like jumping the gun, hiring a small, capable dev team gets the work done in a fraction of the time.

Not only does this save you money by pumping up productivity, but it also implies that your product has a better chance of exceeding estimated completion timelines and, in turn, can be launched sooner. In business, every day lost is a potential sale gone down the drain. With a remote development team, it doesn’t have to be that way.

2. “Soft” & Communication Skills

Soft skills like attitude, general disposition, and communication are all equally as important as hard, technical skills. The two go hand in hand to ensure that the smooth and successful completion of all phases of the project for the development company.

The ideal remote developer is great at:

• Accepting criticism
• Providing constructive criticism
• Taking responsibility for their actions
• Work ethic
• Common sense and decision-making
• Critical thinking
• Adaptability
• Teamwork

Have a look at this article on developer soft skills for more details.

3. Solid Understanding of How Online Business Operates

Remote developers play a huge role in the success of your online business endeavors.

Therefore, it is logical that recruiters wish to partner with those who can marry technical skills with online business know-how. This new set of skills touches topics such as:

• Scalability
• Predictive analysis (to detect possible problems or weaknesses in technology)
• Key performance indicators for website
• SEO strategy
• Content strategy
• User design approach
• Brainstorming solutions for possible problems

Tips for non-technical people:

An expert remote developer will have these qualities:

1. A strong command of important technical skills. In doing so, they ought to be able to break down these skills into simple, easy-to-digest bubbles of information that non-tech professionals can understand.
2. They are easy to communicate with. With them, you won’t have to repeat yourself or explain things that really do not require additional clarification. They get it from the get-go.
3. They understand your project vision and your business. You won’t have to hold their hand along the way, nor will you have to spoon-feed them. They get the job done, ensuring that they adhere to your business’ long-term goals. They also aid you by providing you with useful suggestions and insights throughout your product development cycle.

What Makes an Expert Remote Dev Team?

If your goal is to develop a complex website, portal, application, or tech project, then your best bet is to partner with an expert remote dev team rather than an individual developer.

While you will realize that there are several companies that connect you with remote teams, not all that glitters is gold, and not all made equal.

Once again, be sure to do your research and ask the right questions to ensure that you’re getting the right match.

Ideally, a good team comprises members who are varied in skills and work jointly to produce the best result for your project.

All members ought to possess the necessary qualities that are expected of a developer. That said, there are some factors that should make the team as a whole stand out. Here are some of these characteristics that you should keep your eyes on:

1. They Work Perfectly as a Unit

Just like any star sports team, remote dev teams cannot provide excellent services if they don’t function as a coherent and cohesive unit.

All team members must have clearly defined roles that they stick to. This, coupled with strong leadership and discipline form the cornerstones of excellent quality service.

Usually, a well-distributed team has one or two junior developers who form the backbone of their operations. However, these developers are usually limited to select tasks, instead, leaving more complex work to be done to their senior counterparts.

All developers which form part of a team should complement each other. Where one member falls weak, another covers them. Together, a powerful remote dev team proves that there is strength in unity.

2. They Have Solid Internal and External Communication

Maintaining a solid internal community as a group implies that developers are always aware of what’s going on in the project. That includes ensuring that everyone is on time to meet their specific deadlines as well as providing regular updates via Slack, among others. Similarly, external communication deals with ensuring that a designated member of the team relates to you, the manager, any relevant updates or novelties within the project.

Expert remote dev teams go the extra mile to ensure that distance doesn’t break the line of communication. As each feature or task is complete, they make it their duty to provide you with a comprehensive update.

Important considerations when hiring remote developers

You should prioritize a few important aspects when you hire remote developers or a remote development team. Tailor your interviewing hiring processes to focus on these important aspects. These aspects are as follows:

A. The knowledge of software development processes

You want to hire remote software developers to get sustained value in your project. The knowledge of software development processes is important for this. Whether a remote team or in-house developers, you need app developers with this knowledge.

You could find it hard to assess this if you interview freelancers. After all, the knowledge of software development processes is one of the specialized technical skills.

Hire dedicated remote developers from trusted software development companies like DevTeam.Space. Our HR team and extensive technical interview processes ensure that we have skilled, experienced, and committed app developers.

B. The knowledge of making software development easier with the help of cloud computing

Many developers claim extensive technical expertise in cloud computing. The reality can vary though. Cloud computing is a vast field, and its impact on the software development industry is far-reaching.

Waves of innovation in this field make it imperative for software developers to keep their knowledge of cloud computing current. Evaluate the depth of skills in this field when you hire software developers.

Specify the requirements of cloud computing skills in your job posting. That will help you get relevant responses to your job ad.

Subsequently, assess the depth of cloud computing knowledge of developer candidates. Take advantage of talented developers offered by trusted software companies like DevTeam.Space.

C. Communicating with remote workers

Communication is a key focus area when you hire remote software developers. You need to ensure that the remote software developers work effectively with your in-house team. They should have sufficient communication channels with the other team members. You should foster an environment that values remote collaboration.

Working remotely shouldn’t make the team members feel that they don’t relate to the organization. The project manager should proactively communicate with them. PMs need to set up processes to gauge the progress of remote work.

You and the remote employees might speak the same language. However, it might still be a foreign language to remote programmers. Cultural sensitivities become important when hiring remote software developers. Keep these sensitivities in mind when communicating with remote software engineers.

D. Integrating the work of a remote development team

Do you work with Ukrainian developers while you are in the US? Remember that there’s a time zone difference. These developers might work remotely, however, they are on the same project with the other team members. You need to effectively integrate their work. Set up an appropriate project management system if you have remote specialists.

E. Valuing relevant experience over theoretical knowledge and soft skills

You might have taken sample programming tests while interviewing. You have evaluated their soft skills. However, you need to evaluate relevant work experience when you hire remote software developers.

Assess their understanding of various business processes. Check their familiarity with data structures. Your primary focus will be to evaluate whether the developers have sufficient hands-on experience.

This assessment can be hard if you plan to hire from freelance marketplaces. Take help from companies like DevTeam.Space that provide credible software development services. The key benefits of hiring from us include the assurance that you will get only qualified developers.

F. Evaluating the trustworthiness of a software development company

Global trends consistently indicate that organizations with integrity and innovation make the most positive impact. That’s true for software development companies too. Are you hiring remote developers from a software company? Look for companies like DevTeam.Space that you can trust. We consistently deliver value to our clients.

G. Valuing the ability to write simple and maintainable code over exotic coding skills

Several modern programming languages offer powerful capabilities. Many of them offer little-known features for unique purposes. However, you don’t necessarily use all of them.

You want code that’s simple and maintainable. Find remote developers that can write such code. That’s more important than using little-known features and writing complex code. You can find such developers if you hire a dedicated team from a reputed company like DevTeam.Space.

H. The knowledge of software quality management

You have assessed the coding skills, however, that’s not enough when hiring software developers. You want to offer a bug-free product to your clients. The knowledge of software quality management is important for this.

You need developers that know more than using tools for automated code reviews. Developers should have manual code review expertise. They should know sufficiently about testing. You might need to use pair programming sessions.

There might be a huge talent pool of developers available globally. However, having a huge pool doesn’t necessarily mean that developers know about software defect prevention.

Specify the requirements for code review and testing skills when posting job ads. Look out for tech companies like DevTeam.Space whom clients trust to deliver quality products. Hire remote software engineers from such reputed software companies.

Interview Questions and Answers to Identify Top-Level Remote Developers

Be sure to conduct the hiring process in stages. Each stage serves to eliminate unfit candidates so you can connect with professionals who meet the needs of your specific project.

1. Basic screening process – Pooling together the candidates who meet the minimum requirements.
2. In-depth technical knowledge and ability – Identifying those who show capability in finding responses to your concrete challenges.
3. Strategic knowledge – Zoning in on the best remote developer(s) who is/are right for your business.

Step 1: Basic Screening Stage

This first stage involves weeding out candidates who do not meet the minimum requirement.

These questions are all related to logistics like language requirements, minimum experience, rates, and location, among others.

Example Questions:

• On a scale of 1 – 10, how well do you speak English?
• How long have you been working as a developer?
• Where are you based?
• Do you want to work part-time or full-time?

With the basic logistic screening questions out of the way, you can then move on to technical questions. After that, you can start with the technical screening questions.
They can be simple or complex questions, but they must have a right or wrong answer.

Step 2: In-depth Technical Knowledge and Ability

This round of questioning tells you which candidates on your list are worth pursuing and which ones are better left behind.

In order to do so, you ought to ask open-ended questions related to complex technical problems.

These questions will not have a right or wrong answer. Instead, judging by the fluency, coherency, and clearness of thought exhibited by the candidate, you will judge their aptitude.

Example Questions:

• How do you go about developing scalable digital products?
• How much of an impact does UX/UI have on web development?
• Why is web architecture a crucial element of user experience?
• For which projects would you recommend the use of a content management system (CMS)?
• Are there any current trending web design themes that you wouldn’t recommend and why?
• Explain the relevance of prototyping in application development.
• What is the role of Material Design in software development?
• How do you go about building responsive websites?

Stage 3: Strategic Knowledge

At this point, you will have cut down your list of prospective candidates to a select few. In order to select the best from the bunch, you should filter them based on the quality of responses they provide to questions related to your business’ growth.

These types of questions involve topics such as:

• Recommended technology for growth
• Technical SEO
• Content strategy
• Backlink campaigns
• Scalability
• Reducing technology costs moving forward

Example Questions:

• How would you use cloud technology to make a digital product more scalable?
• What recommendations can you provide to a business owner when running an SEO campaign?
• In what way can technology be incorporated in the management of this digital product moving forward that allows me (the business) to save on expenses?

Submit a Project With Zero Risk

Expert remote developers are paving the way for businesses to create stellar projects all year round. Despite the fact that fraudulent developers lurk at each and every job description resembling software development, there is still a way to secure top talent who are eager to get started on your project.

The information shared in this interview structure will enable you to secure the talented remote developers needed to take your project to the next level.

To access these kinds of developers, you can submit a DevTeam.Space product specification form. Once your request has been registered, an account manager will be in touch with you to introduce you to field expert remote developers who match the needs of your project.