How to Hire Software Developers Remotely During the Lockdown

Searching for tech talents in pre-pandemic times was quite a challenge. It seems that hiring an experienced developer during the lockdown is even a tougher undertaking.

Working remotely has long been the norm. Moreover, this trend is unlikely to become obsolete; instead, it will continue to gain momentum. Indeed, 77% of workers would prefer to work from home after COVID-19 subsides, while 75% are equally or even more productive while working remotely.

With their profession being highly in-demand, sourcing for software engineers is like a chase. The central struggle in this search is finding the right employees without interviewing them face-to-face and testing during office hours. In other words, how do you find a remote developer who fits your company perfectly?

Hiring experienced developers is not as tricky as it sounds if you are aware of sourcing strategies. Moreover, hiring such workers remotely opens up new opportunities for companies providing software product development services, corporate IT teams, and employees themselves.

What About the Advantages of Remote Work?

Benefits for Employees

1. Work-life balance

It is easier to organize your regime and avoid long commutes, which is more time- and energy-efficient. Even more, remote workers are free to arrange their workplace as they want: go to a coffee shop or stay at home.

2. Time management

Off-site work allows an employee to organize their timing according to their productivity spikes, which leads to outstanding results.

3. Higher productivity

Without the distraction of watercooler chats, an employee is able to concentrate fully on a task at hand while working from home.

Benefits for Employers

1. Money-saving

There is no need to spend money on office utilities with a remote team.

2. Extended talent pool

Searching for remote developers means searching for profound specialists across the world. The chance to find your ideal worker increases manifold.

How Do Companies Find Developers Remotely?

To come across the best candidates remotely, it is recommended to use multiple methods. For example, some employers prefer to scan LinkedIn or attend online tech conferences, while others do it all at once.

Sourcing Stage

Under lockdown conditions, the opportunities to source employees stay the same as before, yet they shifted online, preserving their pre-pandemic effectiveness.

Here’re the most used ways of finding software developer candidates:

● Referral programs

Referral programs have been at the top for years. So, where do you look for the best developers? Among your existing employees’ referrals. Such sourcing practice is common, allowing the referrer to benefit from bonuses and the company itself to build a powerful team of like-minded people.

● Job portals

Upwork, Toptal, Remote, and Freelancer are some of the widely-used platforms for finding remote software engineers across the world. All you need is to post your project or job profile and generate the right candidates for your company according to their specified skills and experience.

● Social media

Facebook and LinkedIn are excellent sourcing options too. The main disadvantage of this searching method is potentially a large amount of irrelevant responses. Therefore, it is advisable to use this searching strategy with an automated screening test to weed out unsuitable candidates at once.

● Tech communities

Whether it is Reddit, StackOverflow, or another tech community, it is an effective way to look for new talent. Moreover, there are more narrowly focused communities like PySlackers suitable for those looking for a Python developer. With such niche communities, your search will be more targeted.

● Events

Why not participate in tech events in an online format? At least it is a chance to make new contacts for the future and find new talent at the same time. Unfortunately, it is quite a time-consuming way of scouting. But if you’re not pressed for time, you might also attend the event with the hope of finding a candidate there.

You are free to go through the Eventbrite website to find the upcoming event that potential candidates are likely to attend, or keep up with updates on PyCon, Java Day, or Framework days not to skip your future employee. Moreover, virtual hackathons and online coding contests still take place.

● Bootcamps

Ironhack, Le Wagon, Codeworks, and other online bootcamps with intense coding programs of varying duration are a treasure trove of developers. There may be those who will fit your company’s needs after the training is complete.

Interviewing Stage

After the first online interview where you are more likely to assess a candidate’s soft skills, it’s time to start assessing the technical ones as well. Platforms such as CoderPad, Codility CodeLive, or HackerRank allow you to test the potential candidate with code challenges and estimate his or her professional knowledge.

After checking their personal and professional skills and previous experience, sometimes it is recommended to find out the candidate’s collaboration skills and fit with your team members during the software development process. In this regard, pair programming comes in handy. Let your candidate take the driver’s seat while you, as the interviewer, be the navigator. GitHub is one of the platforms offering the pair programming feature to be used during an interview.

Final Words

Sometimes searching for an expert developer can be exhausting, sometimes you can find a valuable employee in the blink of an eye. It doesn’t matter if it’s fate or luck as long as you end up with a team of people who are always willing to evolve and move towards a common goal.