If you are a business owner who is looking to hire a contractor / software developer for the first time, then it can be tough to know what factors to consider. In this article I break down all of the things that you need to think about in order to make an informed decision.
The obvious stuff:
- budget
- where do you find them?
- how long will it take?
This is the obvious stuff. Budget – there’s no easy answer here. Probably more than you want. Where do you find them? LinkedIn, (In Australia) seek.com.au, recruiters etc. Look at all of these, and go with whatever works. How long will it take? Again, your call. Just know that your candidates aren’t sitting idle waiting for your call. The quicker you are the better.
The less obvious stuff:
Scope of work
This is one that start-ups in particular overlook. What do you want them to do? I get it – you have a short term problem that needs to be fixed yesterday. But then what? What does their “queue” of work look like? Is it good to go? Or do you need to do some work first?
Rule of thumb – you will want a solid 3 – 6 months backlog first.
That brings up the topic of estimation:
What you think is easy will be hard. What you think is hard, will be easy
Christian Payne
Have a think around Artificial Intelligence. Easy right? Facebook knows everything right? No. Practical, useful Artificial Intelligence (for business) is still a long way off. What about creating a brand new, beautiful website? Easy! Its seriously a 4 hour task…
How much time do you have?
The thing I have loved when working with a senior developer is that they just can’t wait to jump in and get stuff done. I know I can leave them alone and they will only interrupt me when they have something amazing to show me.
Unfortunately, a junior developer just doesn’t have that level of confidence. And that’s ok. Usually the senior is 2x the salary. But the junior will require much stricter boundaries and direction.
This is where a the product owner (you?) or a product manager can play a strong role. What do you want and when do you want it by?
If you don’t want to be hands on, if you don’t have the time to spend up to an hour a day, then you should probably set your sights higher than a junior.
(Technical) Skillset
There’s a reason I have left technical skillset to last. Technical ability is over rated. Sure, you want your candidate to have at least some experience. But far too often I have seen an over emphasis on technical ability and an under emphasis on what some people call “soft skills”.
Soft skills is just that – the soft stuff. How was the weekend? What did you get up to last night? Where should we go for lunch?
If I ask the above questions, how would you feel if you heard the following response:
- good
- not much
- I don’t know
Same questions, except the responses this time were:
- Had a quiet one. Hung out with my kids, took the dogs to the park, watched some tv. And you?
- New season of Rick & Morty started last night. It was awesome!
- I don’t mind. I’ve been getting xyz from abc. I like them!
A good developer can learn python / C# / React. But can they hold a (short) polite conversation? That’s a much much harder skill set to find.
When interviewing / talking to a candidate, do they:
- listen? I know I was guilty of not doing this for a LONG time!!!
- ask proactive questions? Are they engaged / present? Do you “get” you?
- what do they want? This is a bit trickier, but its important – does what they want align with what you want?
What do you think? Am I missing anything?