The increasing push towards remote work, combined with the ongoing transition from back-end to front-end development has led to a rapidly growing need for full-stack developers.
This need has also led to a massive shift in the developer marketplace. Both in terms of the work context (HOW work gets done by developers) and in terms of work content (WHAT work gets done by developers).
Those who have had to manage remote full-stack developers for the last few years are now forced to adjust rapidly.
If you are a business owner currently struggling to handle ongoing changes in the management of full-stack programmers or are just looking to hire full-stack developers, you’re in the right place, and below will find a comprehensive guide to hiring great remote full-stack developers for your project.
Here are some stats that will help you dig into full-stack development trends:
- According to reports by The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of Full-stack development jobs will grow from 135,000 to 853,000 by the year 2024.
- The demand for full-stack developers increased to 41% among roles advertised since 2018, together with a 4.3% increase in salary.
- About 55% of respondents identify themselves as full-stack developers, according to the report by Stackoverflow in 2020.
Companies prefer hiring full-stack developers for their all-around experience, cost-efficiency, and their ability to use the whole stack of technologies.
Based on my experience in managing developers across the world for over the last 10 years for various projects, I will lay out some of the best tips for finding and hiring amazing remote full-stack developers. But before your start, learn what are the 5 key traits that distinguish full-stack programmers from other developers.
The 5 key traits that top 1% full-stack developers share
The key traits that distinguish the best remote full-stack developers from all the others are the ones relating to soft skills rather than hardcore coding abilities.
It is often the case that even the most talented developers prefer to excel in their hard skills rather than pay attention to the soft areas of their skill matrix.
Below are the traits that make an amazing full-stack developer stand out:
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Great communication skills
The purpose of communication in the development process is to make the achievement of a common goal more efficient. The better the communication between you and a full-stack developer, the greater chances your expectations are met accordingly.
Good communicators tend to have a great deal of empathy, which you can easily spot by how quickly a full-stack developer understands what you are getting at.
How To Spot This Skill:
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Full-stack developers who are good communicators also tend to be good writers. Screen it via their developer tutorials (if they have some online) or via their profile pages.
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Pay attention to how quickly the full-stack developer you are planning to work with responds to messages. If they delay their responses frequently, this may not be the only thing that ends up getting delayed.
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How we do one thing very often corresponds to how we do everything else, as Aristotle once said. This is very much the case when it comes to communication.
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Full-stack developers who are good communicators also tend to be good writers. Screen it via their developer tutorials (if they have some online) or via their profile pages.
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Pay attention to how quickly the full-stack developer you are planning to work with responds to messages. If they delay their responses frequently, this may not be the only thing that ends up getting delayed.
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How we do one thing very often corresponds to how we do everything else, as Aristotle once said. This is very much the case when it comes to communication.
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High-quality work
First of all, let’s define quality as a term within the context of Full-Stack development.
In Full-Stack development, quality is primarily a function of how well the code that gets written meets and solves the stated problem. The quality of the code itself is a mixture of both clean and modular code.
How To Spot This Skill:
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Developers often have their code online in some form. Usually, it can be found via GitHub and BitBucket or question-and-answer websites such as StackOverflow.
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If you are not well-versed with code yourself, then you can look for feedback from other developers who have interacted with the code of the full-stack developer that you’re planning to hire (e.g. look at their comments on GitHub/StackOverflow and/or the number of stars, forks, and other positive ‘thumbs up’ signals that their code has received).
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Developers often have their code online in some form. Usually, it can be found via GitHub and BitBucket or question-and-answer websites such as StackOverflow.
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If you are not well-versed with code yourself, then you can look for feedback from other developers who have interacted with the code of the full-stack developer that you’re planning to hire (e.g. look at their comments on GitHub/StackOverflow and/or the number of stars, forks, and other positive ‘thumbs up’ signals that their code has received).
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Flexibility
In a fast-moving environment, adaptability is a key. The skill to simultaneously adapt to the changing decisions of stakeholders and rapidly developing technologies is called flexibility. This is partially why the ‘agile’ philosophy has become so popular over the last few years.
The ability to assess new situations and data and then respond appropriately is presented as a key skill to have in current times.
How To Spot This Skill:
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Flexibility is a by-product of open-mindedness. So the best way to spot this skill is to look for the professional’s openness to new information in general.
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This can be gleaned from the general interests of a remote full-stack developer you are interviewing. If they are always learning and trying to increase their skill level, this is a very good sign of their open-mindedness, and consequently, flexibility.
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Flexibility is a by-product of open-mindedness. So the best way to spot this skill is to look for the professional’s openness to new information in general.
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This can be gleaned from the general interests of a remote full-stack developer you are interviewing. If they are always learning and trying to increase their skill level, this is a very good sign of their open-mindedness, and consequently, flexibility.
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Self-starting skills
Being a self-starter is about taking personal responsibility for the work you do. It also means staying motivated and initiative throughout the development process. Self-starters are never afraid to speak up, express their opinion, and bear full responsibility for their actions.
How To Spot This Skill:
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The best way to spot this skill in a remote full-stack developer you are planning to hire is to check whether they have ever started their own thing before.
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It could be a project, a blog, or even a startup. These are great indicators that you are dealing with the person that is not going to sit around and wait for things to get resolved themselves.
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The best way to spot this skill in a remote full-stack developer you are planning to hire is to check whether they have ever started their own thing before.
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It could be a project, a blog, or even a startup. These are great indicators that you are dealing with the person that is not going to sit around and wait for things to get resolved themselves.
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Fast and efficient work
Being able to work quickly, while still maintaining a high level of quality in one’s work is a delicate balance and the best full-stack developers tend to have this trait.
Being a fast but efficient developer means simply being highly motivated as well as having a high degree of interest in what you do.
How To Spot This Skill:
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Check whether the candidate has a deep interest in a language or framework because interest leads to output.
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Make sure the remote full-stack developer you are looking to hire has proven, ideally prolific results in the tech stack you need for your product development.
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Along with this, you could simply offer a test in the languages or frameworks that interest you and this way assess speed and quality of developers’ work. This is what most people who are hiring remote full-stack developers do.
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Check whether the candidate has a deep interest in a language or framework because interest leads to output.
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Make sure the remote full-stack developer you are looking to hire has proven, ideally prolific results in the tech stack you need for your product development.
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Along with this, you could simply offer a test in the languages or frameworks that interest you and this way assess speed and quality of developers’ work. This is what most people who are hiring remote full-stack developers do.
Great remote hiring funnels and why you should leverage them
Because of the great number of remote hiring funnels that already exist out there, I’m more of an advocate of going that route instead of building one yourself.
Before we list some of the characteristics of great hiring funnels, let’s name some of the best ones below:
These sites provide the structure that allows you to manage the process and therefore save you a lot of potential headache on that end too. Your best bet would be to go with one of these services.
The key characteristics that make these sites so useful:
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They have already built the funnel. You just have to leverage it.
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They create the heuristics (similar to those outlined above) for managing the developers, saving you a lot of time and energy in that process.
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They act as a middleman between you and the developers in the ways that matter, e.g. running developers’ payroll and managing paperwork. They also make sure that the development process is optimized and meets customers’ requirements.
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They have already built the funnel. You just have to leverage it.
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They create the heuristics (similar to those outlined above) for managing the developers, saving you a lot of time and energy in that process.
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They act as a middleman between you and the developers in the ways that matter, e.g. running developers’ payroll and managing paperwork. They also make sure that the development process is optimized and meets customers’ requirements.
Conclusion
Hiring remotely is here to stay. In the software development industry, this is even more relevant.
When it comes to achieving great results with remote software developers, high quality of the developers’ key skills is critical.
About the author: Tapha is the Founder of PlanFlow.dev, a simple tool that brings your entire UI/UX design planning process into one place.
