Consider this: you’re a healthcare organization receiving a big data report. It contains a wealth of information that could help improve your operations and patient care. There’s just one problem. You don’t have the staff to analyze it. Understanding how to hire data scientists becomes crucial, as the data is stale, and your organization lacks critical insights to improve performance.
Before you can even solve this problem, you realize that the issue is more complex than simply hiring a data analyst. First, you must hire a software developer to create the custom code to help manage and organize the data.
This scenario illustrates the significance of knowing how to hire a software developer. This blog will highlight how to find the right fit for your team so you can empower your organization and get back on track.
Azulity’s provider credentialing services can help you achieve your objectives by managing the data and automating the processes so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Roles and Responsibilities of A Software Developer
The Developer’s Role in Software Development
Software development is a complex task that requires a great deal of planning and work. A developer is involved in every aspect of the process: design, implementation, testing, and maintenance.
Designing and Creating Software
The software developers working with your team will typically follow a systematic software development life cycle approach to deliver products to meet your needs. They’ll extensively plan, test, and analyze before starting the development project. During the planning stage, which is integral to software development, budgets are established, goals are set, and project objectives are defined. Since each project is unique, this stage is the critical step of defining and clarifying client expectations and ensuring a comprehensive understanding of project requirements.
The software development team collects and analyzes your in-house data or their own or third-party research to articulate the project’s purpose and verify end-user requirements. They then determine the timeline to achieve project completion. This information is documented in the software requirement specification (SRS) for your team’s approval and as a future reference as the project progresses. Following this agreement to proceed, the software team develops a working prototype based on the desired requirements and conducts thorough testing to identify and address any issues or bugs.
Adjust and Upgrade Current Applications
Businesses have a whole range of software needs. Sometimes, they require software built from the ground up. At other times, they may need a new update for a piece of existing software or have new features added. These projects often have a smaller scope than projects that require new software to be built. If you only need changes to your company’s current software, you may save money by hiring a minor team or even a single developer.
An example of this type of project would be enhancing the functionality of an existing mobile application. Let’s say your company already has a mobile app that provides certain services to customers. Still, you want to add new features, improve the user interface, and fix some bugs to enhance the overall user experience. A skilled software developer with expertise in mobile app development could handle the project, given that the app’s infrastructure and backend architecture are already in place.
Perform Quality Checks and Tests for Applications
The new or upgraded software should always be thoroughly tested. Software engineering teams are constantly evaluating the quality of their work, generally using two main types of testing. Functional testing ensures an application or website does what it should. A link to take customers to a specific landing page should bring them to the correct destination.
A development team will typically do this type of testing themselves. Nonfunctional testing ensures an application or website operates to a user’s standards. This type of testing considers aspects like the speed of a website under different circumstances. Testing with an automated tool like Apache JMeter can be more effective.
Make Records of Operations for Future Use
A software developer never knows when the notes for an old project will need to be revisited. For this reason, everything a development team does during a project needs to be documented. Creating and maintaining programming flowcharts and pseudocode can provide a structural framework for reference, like an architect designing and annotating a blueprint while planning and constructing a building.
From the beginning, a developer should also keep track of their team’s goals, jobs, and plans for a project. As the project advances, a record of development and testing should be maintained. A list of problems and sticking points can be helpful, as well, with their solutions. With quality documentation, a developer can easily explain everything their team has done to meet your client’s needs. If any problems arise with the software in the future, you can engage that developer or another developer to identify and fix issues quickly using this documentation.
Maintain Software for Optimal Performance
After a software project is finished, your organization must be confident that the software will continue to run correctly. You’ll need maintenance because, as time goes on, the software might need to be updated or adjusted. Sometimes, errors that need to be fixed are found after the software is put in place. You might need a developer to revisit the project for other reasons.
For example, new data could suggest that a website no longer offers users an optimal experience. The developer would then need to alter the code to meet the needs of its users. Software maintenance is vital to keeping programs operating efficiently. You’ll find that a good software developer knows that even though an initial project is complete, their relationship with you, the client, is ongoing.
How to Hire a Software Developer According to Your Needs
Leverage Azulity to Find the Right Software Developer for Your Project
Hiring a software developer doesn’t have to be complicated. A structured approach can help you find the best candidates to match your technical needs. You can even use some of the data from your existing systems to inform your hiring process. For instance, if you’re transitioning from a legacy system to a new software solution, you could analyze the performance metrics of your existing application to define what improvements you’re looking for in your new software.
This can help you find a developer that understands your industry and will help you achieve your goals for the new system. One of the best ways to get started is by using Azulity for hiring. Azulity specializes in healthcare master data management and provider credentialing services, bringing proven expertise in implementing healthcare data solutions and credentialing across the US. Our comprehensive platform ensures consistent patient, provider, location, and claims data synchronization across all systems and departments.
Key features include healthcare MDM, provider MDM, reference data management, credentialing, and provider enrollment. We serve healthcare technology leaders, from CIOs and CDOs to VPs of data platforms, and we provide credentialing to help them eliminate the costly problems of fragmented data systems. Book a call to learn more about our healthcare master data management services today!
Identify Requirements and Align to Company Needs
The first step is to identify the skills, knowledge, and experience required from your candidate. In this case, build a candidate profile that includes technical skills, soft skills, and technology know-how. For example, if you need a software developer for a web application project, you would need a frontend, backend, DevOps engineer, and a quality assurance specialist. At this stage, your focus should be defining what success would look like for this candidate.
One way to do this is to create a detailed job description that lists the necessary technical qualifications and outlines the goals and objectives they are expected to achieve. This might include specific project milestones, expected contributions to team dynamics, or the ability to innovate and suggest improvements to existing processes.
Hire a Software Developer Who is Better Than the Industry Average
Understanding the importance of above-average talent can set your company ahead of its competitors. The software industry is highly competitive, and to remain at the top, you need a software development team that helps you stand out from the industry average. A superior software developer will bring a unique blend of expertise, creativity, and problem-solving skills that elevate the quality of work and drive innovation. To hire a top-notch candidate, review their past achievements and the projects they have worked on to determine if they possess the core competencies needed for your software project.
Assess software developers who understand the industry’s nuances and are adaptable to changes. Hiring a software developer means you need additional knowledge on the team; therefore, you should focus on candidates who have worked on challenging projects and have a history of successful implementation. By evaluating the depth of their knowledge and testing their skills, you can discern if they are well-versed in the best practices in software development. For instance, if you’re hiring a web developer, they should have a thorough understanding of specific programming languages such as Javascript, HTML, CSS, and Python and be able to demonstrate their proficiency in these languages through practical tests or portfolio examples.
This level of expertise ensures that they can effectively contribute to your project and bring a level of skill that surpasses the industry standard. From a business growth perspective, hiring expert software developers that exceed industry standards can significantly impact your business. They are often quick learners, adaptable, and can lead the way in adopting new technologies and methodologies. Their advanced skill set can lead to more efficient problem-solving, innovative solutions, and a higher quality product.
Hire a Software Developer Who is Flexible to Change and Growth
The software industry is constantly evolving and changing. The technology world has recently experienced undeniable growth in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Many companies have found ways to incorporate AI features in their software products to remain relevant and meet business needs. Hiring a developer who can adapt to the industry’s growth and is flexible to change is highly important. Consider having a software development team that is in tune with the latest tech, highly adaptable, and ensures your company can effectively respond to new trends and technologies.
The flexibility of a developer goes beyond technical adaptability; it includes the capacity to scale their efforts in line with project requirements and business growth. This trait is fundamental in agile development environments where the scope and direction of projects can shift rapidly. Developers who are flexible and open to growth are adept at solving technological challenges and can help your organization stay aligned with changing market needs, ensuring that your software solutions remain relevant and competitive.
Hire a Developer Who Writes Clean Code
Numerous developers are in the market, but only a few write clean code. The need for clean code cannot be overemphasized, as it is the focal point of any software development project. Destructive code can leave your customers disappointed and displeased and turn to your competition. Clean code is written clearly, in an understandable, and maintainable manner. Hiring a developer who prioritizes clean code is crucial because it directly impacts the quality and longevity of the software.
Clean code facilitates more straightforward bug fixes, updates, and scalability, ultimately leading to a more reliable software product. Whether mobile or web app developers ensure they write clean code by understanding the correct tools, technologies, and programming languages for each software development project. In addition, they should know how to write self-documenting code that can enable smooth modifications in the future and seamless scalability. To ensure you hire a developer who writes clean code, focus on their coding practices. Here are a few items to tick off the checklist:
Code Samples
Review code samples or portfolios to assess their coding style. Look for code that is well-organized, adequately documented, and follows best practices.
Technical Interviews
During interviews, include practical coding exercises. Observe how candidates structure their code, use naming conventions, and approach problem-solving.
Peer Reviews
Consider their history of peer code reviews, if available. Developers who write clean code often receive positive feedback from their peers for clarity and maintainability.
Hiring a software engineer who writes clean code is a strategic move that can elevate your business. It reduces wasted resources from a failed software project and saves significant time. It can also help you increase your speed to market. If hiring an entire software development team, ensure each team member is on the same wavelength when writing clean code. This will enhance collaboration and communication and improve product success. As a software development company, we prioritize clean code practices that ensure each software product delivered is high quality, scalable, and easy to maintain.
Hire a Developer Who Has Domain Expertise
Domain knowledge in software development refers to a deep understanding of specific areas within software engineering. It enables developers to apply their technical skills and build software solutions that customers need. Hiring a developer with domain expertise will aid the success of your project because it is a significant asset that allows developers to tackle challenges quickly. This means they contribute by offering valuable insights that can be tailored to your specific industry. Therefore, when hiring a software engineer for your development team, consider the following factors:
Industry-Specific Experience
Look for candidates who have worked on projects or in roles within your industry. Their past experiences can give them a unique perspective on approaching development challenges specific to your domain.
Understanding of Industry Trends
Assess their understanding of current trends and challenges in your industry. This can be evaluated through discussions or interview questions that require them to apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios.
Software engineers with domain expertise can significantly contribute to the strategic direction of your software projects. They can foresee potential industry-specific challenges and offer more effective and efficient solutions.
Related Reading
- Scrum Master Roles and Responsibilities
- What to Look for When Hiring a Project Manager
- Solution Architect Roles and Responsibilities
- How to Hire a Project Manager
- Project Executive vs Project Manager
- Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring Developers
- What to Ask When Hiring a Data Scientist
Where to Find Software Developers for Hiring
1. Online Job Boards: Where to Start Your Developer Search
General job boards are a good place to kick off your search for developers. These sites attract many candidates, some of whom will have the skills you need to fill your role.
Popular options include
- Indeed: This job board is widely used for posting jobs across industries.
- LinkedIn Jobs: Besides offering access to professional profiles, this job board allows for direct messaging.
- Glassdoor: This site helps post jobs and research candidates. Developer-specific job boards can also help you find developer talent.
These sites cater specifically to technical roles and will attract a more targeted pool of applicants.
Here are some to check out
- Stack Overflow Jobs: This job board is tailored for developers.
- We Work Remotely: This site is ideal for finding remote tech talent.
- AngelList: This board focuses on startups and tech jobs.
2. Freelance Platforms: Hire for Short-Term Projects or Assessments
Freelance platforms can help you find skilled developers to hire for short-term projects or assessments. This lets you evaluate their skills and determine whether they would fit your team well. There are a variety of freelance platforms to choose from, including:
Top platforms
- Upwork: This site has a large pool of freelance developers for project-based hiring.
- Toptal: This platform screens top-tier freelance developers.
- Freelancer: This is a global freelance marketplace.
Niche platforms
- Codementor: This site focuses on developers for short-term tasks.
- Gigster: This platform connects businesses with teams of software developers.
3. Tech Communities and Forums: Find Developers Who Are Passionate About Their Work
Looking for developers in tech communities and forums can help you find candidates who are passionate about their work. Open source communities, for example, attract highly motivated individuals who enjoy sharing their work with others and constantly improving their skills.
Here are some to check out
- GitHub: You can identify active contributors to open-source projects.
- GitLab: This is another excellent place for open-source developers.
Tech forums
- Reddit: Look for subreddits like r/forhire or r/ProgrammingJobs.
- Dev.to: This is a community for developers to share and discuss their work.
4. University Recruitment: Connect With the Next Generation of Developer Talent
Recruiting recent graduates and students can help you find skilled developers with fresh knowledge of the latest technologies—partner with universities offering computer science or software engineering programs. You can also participate in career fairs or sponsor hackathons to engage with this fresh talent.
5. Professional Networks: Use Connections to Find Candidates
Professional networks like LinkedIn can help you find and evaluate developer candidates. You can search for developers based on skills, experience, and location. Leverage your connections for referrals and endorsements.
6. Coding Competitions and Hackathons: Find Creative Problem Solvers
Coding competitions and hackathons can help you identify talented developers and see how they approach problems. Platforms like HackerRank and Codeforces host coding competitions where you can find leaders and top performers. You can also attend or sponsor hackathons to find creative and skilled developers.
7. Recruitment Agencies: Get Help From the Experts
If you don’t have the time or resources to find developer candidates, consider working with a recruitment agency. Specialized agencies like Robert Half Technology or CyberCoders can help find experienced developers. Tech-specific staffing firms like Andela focus on sourcing skilled developers globally.
8. Social Media: Find Candidates Where They Spend Their Time
Social media can help you find developer candidates outside of traditional methods.
- Twitter: Use hashtags like #RemoteJob or #DeveloperJobs to find candidates.
- Facebook groups: Look for groups dedicated to tech jobs or specific programming languages.
9. Developer Meetups and Conferences: Connect With Developers in Person
Attending events like meetups, tech conferences, or workshops can help you connect with developers. Use platforms like Meetup to find local tech gatherings.
10. Employee Referrals: Tap Into Your Team’s Network
Your existing employees can help you find developer candidates through their networks. Encourage current employees to refer developers and offer referral bonuses to incentivize participation.
11. Global Talent Platforms: Expand Your Search Internationally
Global talent platforms can help you find skilled candidates worldwide if you’re open to hiring remote developers. Here are some to consider:
Remote hiring
- RemoteOK: This site focuses on remote job opportunities.
- Outsourcely: This platform is for hiring full-time remote workers.
Offshore Talent
- DistantJob: This site specializes in hiring remote developers globally.
- Crossover: This platform connects businesses with global professionals.
12. Personal Website and Careers Page: Attract Inbound Developer Leads
Creating a compelling careers page on your website can help attract inbound applications from skilled developers. Showcase your company culture, benefits, and growth opportunities to appeal to candidates.
At Azulity, we specialize in healthcare master data management and provider credentialing services. Our comprehensive platform ensures consistent patient, provider, location, and claims data synchronization across all systems and departments. Key features include healthcare MDM, provider MDM, reference data management, credentialing, and provider enrollment. We serve healthcare technology leaders – from CIOs and CDOs to VPs of data platforms and credentialing – helping them eliminate the costly problems of fragmented data systems. Book a call to learn more about our healthcare master data management services today!
10 Tips for Hiring Proficient Software Developers
1. Don’t Rely Entirely on Resumes and Qualifications
Too many hiring agencies waste time assessing candidates using academic qualifications and resumes. If this sounds like your organization, you are likely missing out on a large talent pool. As software development evolves, many software product developers are self-taught. Using academic credentials to evaluate candidates would exclude potential hires who may have been a good fit for your client.
Software developers must learn new ways to handle unique problems in a startup context, such as how to create an app for a small business. Less experience may be good as it eliminates the likelihood of being trapped in using traditional practices to solve modern problems requiring innovative solutions. A pre-employment evaluation, such as online coding tests, is an excellent way to check candidates’ coding skills, competencies, and academic credentials.
2. Give Them A Real-World Problem to Solve
A hypothetical problem may not help you assess candidates’ skill sets. Include a code review checklist for developers, ensuring they are thorough in their assessments and maintain high-quality standards in their work. Giving applicants a real-life problem to solve is an effective way to gauge their suitability for the role. Their approach to the issue you give will let you know how well the candidates handle problems competently and whether your clients want that.
Likewise, it will give candidates an idea of the challenges they would be required to work on at the position you’re hiring for. Hiring software developers is a two-way street for recruitment agencies. Developers must meet the essential job criteria, and your organization must help them get the kind of work they wish to work on. Only in that situation would both parties thrive. The developers and organization must have mutual expectations of each other from the start.
Clarifying them upfront lays the groundwork for solid, long-term success. If you consider app development outsourcing, ensuring clear communication and setting expectations with external teams is crucial for achieving the desired results.
3. Be Clear About Mandatory Skills from the Outset
This might sound like the most obvious recommendation for onboarding the finest developers for your client, but being clear about specific abilities at all stages of the recruitment will help you more than you think. Make a list of “must-haves,” the minimum qualifications for applicants, and test them on those skills.
You could use digital products or online tools to test their technical aptitude and coding skills. But you should also keep up your expectations with the cost of hiring a software developer that you’ll be able to handle. While you must understand that nobody is perfect, the must-haves should be mentioned at every hiring stage, especially at the beginning of the process, to eliminate candidates who wouldn’t be a good fit.
4. Consider if the Candidate Would Fit Your Client’s Startup Culture
As suggested in some of the best startup books, focusing on who you’re hiring is as important as what you are selling. Be familiar with your client’s organizational culture and shortlist applicants who are suitable culturally. Other than focusing on their technical competencies, testing their non-technical competencies would ensure that the developer gels up well with the rest of the app development team and won’t hinder the company’s growth or success in any manner. Effective communication with the dedicated development team improves cohesion and long-term growth.
5. Hire Someone Quick & Sharp-Witted
Hiring talent with diverse points of view, opinions, ideas, and unique solutions to problems are the type of applicants you should be looking for. This is especially crucial during early-stage hiring at a startup, as high talent attracts more top talent. This approach helps bring in individuals whose ideas for startups align with your mission and growth trajectory.
6. Stay Open-Minded to Different Programming Languages & Tools
Programming languages are continuously expanding and evolving, and if you are still asking interview questions that are very specialized in the unique technology that your client’s startup employs, you will fail to conduct successful interviews. Consider concentrating on programming algorithms and application techniques, including IoT app development, and how the applicants you have shortlisted approach problems when hiring a full-stack developer.
Remember, it’s far simpler to educate a sharp-minded problem solver to grasp the hold of new programming languages than to teach someone how to be a problem solver. Also, it’s worth considering outsourcing to a nearshore software development company for startups that want to scale their tech team quickly or need specific expertise. This approach often comes at a more cost-effective rate than hiring in-house.
7. Ask How Well They Keep Up with Best Practices
This is an efficient and helpful question for determining how severe the software developer is about pursuing a career in the field. Someone who loves development and programming can answer this question confidently and provide several examples of their favorite resources, blogs, and forums.
8. Put Emphasis on the Importance of Meeting Deadlines
consider having a bug that affects the performance and your client’s product’s overall acceptance by their audience. They’ll rush to their developer to report the same issue and promise to fix it but then forget. This failure to fix the bug could result in severe backlash from your client’s customers.
This is why you must hire developers who are always on their toes to meet deadlines. You won’t know if a developer will meet the given deadlines until you work with them, but you can get a sense of it by asking questions about deadlines. What would they do if they were to fall behind? How would they inform their boss? It’s natural to lag sometimes, but how a software developer handles it makes all the difference.
9. See If They’re Coachable
Having a developer on your client’s team who doesn’t have thick skin and cannot accept feedback or constructive criticism can put your agency in a fix. Your client’s employees should all be aligned and working towards achieving the common goal of producing the most excellent product possible. It often calls for telling their developers they didn’t do well and coaching them toward a more favorable result. A good developer welcomes- even requests- tutoring and, in all likelihood, becomes a valuable long-term addition to your client’s firm.
10. Communication Skills Matter
Communication skills are essential, and competent developers must be good at communicating. It could significantly impact your client’s company if they can’t communicate well. They should be able to express the project requirements lucidly.
Related Reading
- Questions to Ask When Hiring a Programmer
- Hiring Dedicated Developers vs In-House Developers: What Is Better?
- Scrum Master vs Project Manager
- Data Architect Vs Data Engineer
- How to Hire Programmers for a Startup
- Quality Analyst Interview Questions
- Data Architect Roles and Responsibilities
- Data Analyst Skills Needed
- Skills Required for Project Manager
- Quality Analyst Skills
- Data Architect Skills
Book a Call to Learn More About Our Provider Credentialing Services
Data scientists can help organizations solve complex problems and make better decisions through data. They achieve this by collecting and analyzing data to uncover trends and insights that might not be immediately apparent. Data scientists build models to predict future outcomes and automate processes to help organizations operate more efficiently. They have many tools, from traditional statistical methods to advanced machine-learning techniques. The exact approach to analyzing data will depend on the organization’s goals and the specific data set in question.
What to Look for When Hiring a Data Scientist
Data science is a broad field, and the exact qualifications you should look for when hiring a data scientist will vary depending on your organization’s goals and the specific projects at hand. In general, candidates should have a strong background in statistics and mathematics and programming skills (particularly in Python and R). Data scientists should also be familiar with machine learning algorithms and have experience working with data visualization tools. Since data science projects often involve working with large data sets, knowledge of SQL and other database management systems is also essential. Finally, candidates with strong communication skills should be looked for to ensure they can effectively relay their findings to stakeholders.
How to Assess Data Scientist Candidates
Practical assessments are the best way to evaluate a data scientist’s qualifications. Consider giving candidates a data set related to your organization and asking them to outline their approach to analyzing the data, perform any relevant analyses, and communicate their findings. This will help you gauge their technical skills and how they might approach future projects at your organization. It can also provide insight into the candidate’s problem-solving abilities and communication skills.
Where to Find Data Scientist Candidates
There are several places to find qualified data scientist candidates. Start by leveraging your professional network to see if anyone has recommendations. You can also post openings on job boards such as Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn to attract candidates. Data science professionals often frequent online communities, such as those on Reddit or Stack Overflow, so consider posting your openings in these forums to attract niche talent. Finally, industry conferences and events are great places to meet data science professionals and discuss potential job openings.