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    "result": {"data":{"contentfulSkillmeterBlogPost":{"url":"hiring-a-developer","title":"Hiring a Developer: what to ask and watch out for","description":{"description":"<p>If\r\nyou take a closer look at the current job market you can notice that the IT\r\nsector is one of the most dominant sectors and this is not going to change in\r\nthe future. On the contrary, it will increase even more. Hiring a great “IT Developer”\r\ncan become quite of a challenge for a company, particularly if the company is\r\nnot very tech-savvy.</p>"},"body":{"body":"<p>\r\n\tIf you take a\r\ncloser look at the current job market you can notice that the IT sector is one\r\nof the most dominant sectors and this is not going to change in the future. On\r\nthe contrary, it will increase even more. Hiring a great “IT Developer” can\r\nbecome quite of a challenge for a company, particularly if the company is not\r\nvery tech-savvy. In that case approaching an IT Recruitment Specialist might be\r\nthe best solution in order to find the right talent. They will be able to tell\r\nyou what role your company needs to look for. The choice is not small: Front\r\nEnd Developers, Back End Developers, Interactive Developers, Mobile Developers\r\n(Android, ioS, Blackberry, Windows Phone), Flash Developers, SAP Developer, Web\r\nDevelopers, Oracle Developers, Share Point Developers, OSX-Apple Developers,\r\n.NET Developers, Linux/Unix Developers – it’s a real jungle out there. However,\r\nthere are several requirements and skills that a developer needs to have\r\n(regardless of the IT speciality) in order to perform well.</p><p>\r\n\tYou obviously\r\nneed to test a candidate’s in-depth technical skills and here you have two\r\noptions: 1) Use a skills assessment software such as <a href=\"https://skillmeter.com\">Skillmeter</a> which will help\r\nyou to save considerable time as well as money. 2) Involve your technical staff\r\nin the interview and let them test the candidate’s coding skills and at the\r\nsame time find out if the candidate makes a good cultural fit.</p><p>\r\n\tSome other non-technical\r\nskills you should watch out for are the following:</p><ul>\r\n\t\r\n<li><strong>Problem solving skills.</strong> Software\r\ndevelopment is all about compartmentalisation (taking the big problem and\r\ndividing it into small little pieces and solving each piece separately). Thus,\r\ncompleting the objective of solving the big problem. A great problem solver\r\ndoesn’t always have to solve all the problems by themselves as long as the\r\nperson knows who else can be approached in order to sort out the issue. It is\r\nimportant that the candidate perceives problems as a challenge rather than a\r\nheadache. \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li><strong>Being a quick, motivated learner and adapter of new technologies. </strong>As we all know technology is changing rapidly. Therefore, knowing\r\nhow to learn (teaching yourself or attending courses) and adapt quickly to new\r\nprograms is of paramount importance. Knowing how to keep up-to-date in this\r\nsector and being intrinsically curious is of high relevance. \r\n\t</li></ul><ul>\r\n\t\r\n<li><strong>Attention to detail.</strong> The candidate needs\r\nto be a perfectionist paying attention to every detail in order to get a\r\nsoftware 100 % right. There is no tolerance for mistakes in order to make it\r\nwork at the end. \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li><strong>People skills.</strong> Often people think that\r\ninterpersonal skills, also known as soft skills, are not relevant for several\r\nIT roles. Fact is, that sometimes a person who develops software is not limited\r\nto the technical execution of a task only. Interacting with other developers or\r\nclients might in many cases also be part of the job. Having good team-working,\r\nlistening, communication, presentation and influencing skills does matter.\r\nOften the best software is not created by one individual but by many others\r\ntoo. Being able to work in a team can therefore give an applicant the edge. \r\n\t</li></ul><p>\r\n\tIn a technical\r\ninterview you should ask lots of open-ended questions, some examples are as\r\nfollows:</p><ul>\r\n\t\r\n<li>What approach do you have when\r\nsolving problems? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>Are you on GitHub (open source\r\ncommunity)? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>What operating systems are you\r\nfamiliar with?\r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>What programming languages do\r\nyou know? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>What was the most recent\r\nprogramming language that you learnt? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>What is the project in which\r\nyou were involved that made you most proud of? What went particularly well and\r\nwhat not and why? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>What is the project you were\r\nleast proud of and why? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>What projects are you working\r\non in your free time? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>What resources (online or\r\noff-line) do you use to keep yourself up-to-date? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>What IT-related conferences do\r\nyou follow? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>Do you participate in technical\r\ndiscussion forums? What was your experience with it so far? \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>Which technologies would you\r\nuse for our company considering our budget and scope of work? (Look out for\r\nexamples in which the candidate talks about the pros and cons of various\r\noptions and why the suggested ones seem to be the most suitable for the company.\r\nHow knowledgeable and enthusiastic does the candidate sound?). \r\n\t</li>\t\r\n<li>Do you have a personal website\r\nor a blog? (The insights of the person’s blog might be much more revealing than\r\nthe CV in itself). \r\n\t</li></ul><p>\r\n\tThe information\r\nthe candidate will provide you with will reveal many things: what they know,\r\nwhat they value, what role they were playing in different companies, how they\r\nsolved problems, what their thought process is, how well they explain\r\nIT-related terms and how they communicate to other people.</p><p>\r\n\tTwo things you\r\nshould do without hesitation: 1) Ask candidates to provide some links with\r\nexamples of their work or show a portfolio of work samples. This will give you\r\nan additional insight into the candidate’s performance. 2) Contact previous\r\nclients or companies they were working for. They can share their personal\r\nexperience regarding the applicant’s proactivity, reliability, attention to\r\ndetail and results-orientation.&nbsp;</p>"},"authorName":"Karin Schroeck-Singh","authorBio":{"authorBio":"Karin Schroeck-Singh is a passionate Public Speaker, eBook Author, and a freelancing Online Content Producer. She has an MBA from the University of Leicester (UK) and gained 18 years of international work experience in Italy, the UK and India."},"publishedOn":"2015-03-04T14:58:39.850Z"}},"pageContext":{"id":"5c4eba52-a537-5555-a5e8-513e77349ab3"}},
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