Recruiting people for web development is a stressful task for a business owner that isn’t very tech-savvy. It’s even worse if you don’t have a clue how web development works or what qualifications you need. It’s a good idea to do some research, but this article with hopefully give you a quick rundown on what qualifications you need to look out for when hiring a web developer.
Keep in mind that you might not even need a web developer. Many websites can be created by yourself using simple templates that are provided by web hosts, and there are also freelancers that you can contact in order to have a professional website made to order. If you’re unsure if you need a web developer or not, check out some resources online and read up what a web developer can actually do before you invest your business’s hard-earned cash into another employee.
Proficient in a web development language
If you are recruiting someone to develop web applications for a profitable online business, then they need to either be proficient in PHP or ASP.NET. These two are the main web development languages that are commonly practised and used by professionals around the world. Node.js is also another alternative, but this is more suited towards hobbyists and beginners. However, that’s not to say it’s not a viable choice should you find someone who is proficient in it.
If you want to do more research about web languages such as ASP.NET, then this article “IIS logs, error logs and more – 6 ways to find failed ASP.NET requests” should give you a good understanding of how these languages work and what type of knowledge is expected of someone who claims to be a professional programmer. It’s also worth noting that most experienced programmers who claim to have knowledge in just PHP or ASP.NET will easily be able to pick up the other language with a bit of training. Skilled programmers can transfer their knowledge across different platforms, but this usually comes with experience.
Good communication skills
Web developers often have to work together with your design team and also your marketing department if you want to create a website that resonates with the rest of your brand. This makes communication a very important qualification of any web developer. A web developer needs to easily be able to integrate into your business, so keep this in mind when recruiting a new team member. A web developer that is unable to communicate due to language barriers or because they aren’t much of a team person isn’t going to be much use.
Experience
Experienced web developers know how to sort out issues quickly because they’ve encountered all kinds of errors and technical problems in the past. If you’re willing to give a new graduate developer the chance to work for your company, then you have to be willing to face the possible consequences of a website that fails or breaks down, or the chance that a security breach happens due to a poorly programming web service. It’s unfortunate, but experience is needed if you’re a popular business that relies on customer loyalty and security, and new graduates aren’t suitable due to their lack of experience.