Is he good for a developer or not? Does he have enough experience to do the job? How to integrate him into the process? If you had ever hired a developer then you know how hard it is to answer such questions. A developer, like any engineer, has to be evaluated for a specific job by checking his experience. Let me show several tips and tricks on how to do it and how to avoid typical mistakes.

Experience Check

There are many ways to verify a developer’s experience, but the most basic and still one of the most convenient is a standard technical interview. An interviewer should verify that the developer indeed knows all the required technologies and can use them in real projects. There are tons of cheat sheets with standard technical questions on the Internet, so it is worth trying to write some unusual questions and rotate them from time to time.

When the standard interview is passed it is time to check which additional roles the developer can play. Many senior developers can write code, but have trouble with quality assurance, team management, understanding of business processes, and have poor speaker or presentation skills. So, such developers can not play the role of tester, team lead, business analyst, or do a public presentation. The developer could argue that his responsibility is writing a code. The answer is simple: writing a code could be a primary responsibility while in order to maintain processes he also has to play some other roles. Each of these secondary roles could be optional, but if the developer can not do anything except write a code, it is worth checking other candidates.

Part of The Team

Developers work in teams, so the next crucial qualification check is about soft skills in general and communication in particular. The developer should be able to communicate with team members both formally and informally, maintain a good relationship with them, and be ready to help them when needed.

Another important set of skills often needed in the developer’s work is about the leadership. If a developer can organize people, motivate them, and be ready to take responsibility for the team then he is a potential leader. Consequently, such a developer can be a project lead, team lead, tech lead, or even software architect. He may need extra help to do that but it is usually worth it, especially in the long-term perspective.

A developer usually either works directly with the customer or gets the customer's requirements from other team members. Consequently, he has to understand the business and be able to develop features that would suit customer’s business flows. Such skills may be optional for junior level developers, but starting from the middle level they are highly recommended or even required.

The Past, The Present, and The Future

Checking the developer’s previous jobs, current situation, and future plans is one of the aspects that can help you to make the final decision.

Past experience is good information to check if the developer can integrate into the company and grow professionally. Good developers work at the same place for at least three years and are usually promoted at least once. Lots of short-time jobs could be a warning sign as the person may not be able to work with the team. Do not confuse it with multiple projects as it is very typical to change projects every year in some companies.

The current job and project could be a perfect topic to check the developer’s vision for the development flow, business processes, and overall organization. The more observations and thoughts he can share, the better. It means that he understands how all this structure works and, consequentially, can work with many people in different departments.

Checking future plans could be the final check. Good developers think big, and they are not afraid to tell you that. It does not mean they will be bad employees, usually vice versa, but it just means that they always have a goal and they need a place to grow professionally.

These are all best practices on developer qualification check I would like to share. Use them wisely, and you’ll always find a good developer!