Articles

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Hiring a Magento Developer

by Akashdeep Sharma The Brihaspati Infotech
Please raise your hand if you've ever found yourself troubled by the idea of hiring a Magento developer or had second thoughts about hiring someone even after a thorough interview.

It's daunting enough to provide a seamless purchase experience to your customers by managing the products, inventory, deals and fulfilling orders on time– never mind indulging in the technicalities of Magento to maintain, enhance or fix existing bugs in your Magento store codebase. Hence, it is a no brainer when clients prefer to hire dedicated developers to keep their stores intact.

Well, there's good news: Finding a Magento developer doesn't have to be that daunting. With the right approach at your disposal, you could easily track down the most suitable talent who can understand your vision, be budget friendly and can take your Magento store to new heights-- all without expensive rates, mismatching timings and Jargon filled discussions.

So without wasting a second, let’s learn the right approach of how you can attract the perfect talent. When we're done you'll know exactly how to:

  • Perform prolific searches for Magento developers.
  • Drafting your requirements.
  • Analyzing proposals.
  • Carrying out interviews & Striking a deal.
  • Fostering a long term relationship with your developer.

Ready? Let's dive in.

How to attract and hire the most suitable Magento developer

1. Performing prolific searches

Starting your search for a developer on the right note is really crucial. You can begin your search on Job portal websites like Upwork.com, Guru.com or Freelancer.com.  Alternatively, you can search for freelancer or agencies by searching them on Search engines and approaching them directly.

While the former is a very effective and widely used option where you will find tonnes of features to effectively manage your project, for eg:

  • Effective system to post a job and engage with numerous freelancers or agency contractors.
  • Escrow protection for your funds
  • An effective time tracker tool to keep track of your project.

Do note that Magento is one of the widely used E-commerce systems and you will eventually end up receiving plenty of applications which you may find difficult to sort.
On top of that, Job portals tend to keep some percentage of the project cost for themselves, termed as project fees which eventually will go out of your pocket.

Also, there are many fake profiles on job portals and many times the person you hire is not the one who actually works on the project.

This is where Searching and contacting a developer or agency directly can help.
You can search for developers using different keywords matching your requirements, analyse their ability by looking at the design and development approach used on their own website,

For searching a Magento developer, some great companies or freelancers could be tracked using keywords like -
  • Hire Magento developer
  • “Best Magento developer (your country name)”
  • “Magento website developer” etc.

While you may find some really good results on the first page of Google search results, also consider results on secondary or tertiary pages as well. You might find some hidden talent that has not yet made it to the first page of Google search.
This can be a great way to directly engage with your prospect developer and that too at a reasonable cost.

2. Drafting requirements

To attract quality applicants, it is prudent to draft your requirements in a way that it clarifies the scope of the project. Doing this will save a tonne of yours and the applicants time and will make the interview process a lot easier as well.

A general survey of freelancers at Upwork concluded that developers favour clients who post job requirements that entail the following:
 
  • Clear job requirements so they can clearly understand all aspects of the job.
  • A positive personality of the client through the Job post.
  • A brief introduction about the company or person who is posting the job.
  • Ballpark figure for the budget in mind of the client.
  • The tools and systems the client may expect to be used.

Posting a job post that covers these points is bound to attract quality talent as all the genuine and reliable developers actually consider job posts that portray the client as reliable and resolute about their project.

3. Analyzing proposals

Once you have received some quality proposals, it’s time to analyse which freelancer took the time to actually read the requirements and whether the skills they have mentioned are genuine.

A very common yet effective trick that many clients use is to place a secret word or phrase in the middle of the job post and request the applicant to refer this on top of their application. Trust me, this will filter out most of the spammers and generic applicants.

Once the generic applicants are filtered, start looking out for those applicants who have posted skills relevant to the Job.
 
If your project deals with Magento theme development, the skills mentioned by the developer should include - Magento Theme development, HTML5, Bootstrap, CSS3, PHP.

If you think the applicant has stuffed his application with a lot of skills that seem irrelevant to the job post, you know they are either not the person who will work on the task or they do not understand the task clearly.

Finally, look for questions. Howsoever through your Job post might be - a really curious and interested applicant will always come up with one or two questions that you will love answering to. If you notice anything on these lines, it’s time to engage those applicants.

4. Carrying out interviews and Striking a deal

After shortlisting the proposals, a great way to carry out interviews of shortlisted applicants is by setting up voice or video calls. You will get to know a lot about a certain applicant once you hear their voice or see them speak. If you feel really comfortable interacting with them and the applicant illustrates confidence then he/she might actually be the developer you were looking for.

Also consider the quality of work samples provided by the applicants, the reviews submitted by their previous clients and above all, their communication skills and how much effort they have put in to make you feel comfortable and happy during the interview phase.

When you are satisfied and have decided whom to hire, it's time to finalise the project cost.

Feel free to negotiate the rates with the developer. This might sound cheesy on some instances but if you are offering a long-term project or a project that can be valuable in the developer's portfolio - the developers can definitely give discounts on the final rates.

5. Fostering a long term relationship with your developer.

Once you have hired a developer, it is always advised to build a good rapport with the developer. Consider these tricks:

  • Discuss and plan rational timelines for the project, divide the project into milestones and stick to the timelines.
  • Pre-set a time for daily discussions where the developer can ask queries or walk you through the progress.
  • Intimidate about your availability and be aware of your developer’s working hours.
  • In case you suspect signs of Tardiness, setup meetings and frankly speak about it with the developer.
  • Always give some room to the developer for sharing his thoughts and approach to the tasks at hand. An external perspective to approach the things might turn into a luxury for you.

Last but not the least, always try to establish an emotional connection with your developer and consider this as one of the most crucial factors in finalising the right man for the job. If both of you are on the same page and have the same vision about the future of your eCommerce store then you might hire a developer whom you will cherish for several years :)

Did you find these instructions helpful or did we missed something? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment area below. We will be delighted to hear your opinions.

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About Akashdeep Sharma Freshman   The Brihaspati Infotech

9 connections, 0 recommendations, 29 honor points.
Joined APSense since, May 30th, 2017, From Mohali, India.

Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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