Hire A Front End Developer

The web developer category is growing 8% faster than average rates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That includes a front-end developer position in your company or freelancing for you.

While the BLS website says that an associate’s degree is necessary, most employers are almost always looking for their front-end developers to have at least a bachelor’s degree.

What goes into that degree? We can tell you now that it’s part graphic design, part computer science. That doesn’t always line up with what’s needed in the field, however.

More and more employers are asking their graphic designers to be front-end developers and their developers to be graphic designers. On top of that, they have to learn marketing and project management, or app development.

So, what should you expect when you want to hire a front-end developer?

Keep reading to find out seven things to make sure of before hiring front-end developers!

1. Check Their Communication Skills

First and foremost, make sure they’re good communicators. A good front-end developer won’t only know how to write code, layout designs, and know the jargon. They will also know how to communicate human to human.

They should be capable of using non-technical communication skills to relay ideas and strategies in an interview. Being a good communicator is a huge asset and essential for teamwork. It’s also a sign of high “EQ”, or emotional intelligence.

Don’t only propose questions with yes and no answers. Try to get the front-end developer to elaborate more. At the very least, make sure they communicate promptly and effectively.

2. Find Out What They Don’t Like About Their Portfolio

A strong portfolio doesn’t mean a massive one. Make sure it’s diverse enough to show proficiency, but focused enough you can see a trend. It isn’t necessarily bad if there are patterns to the way their projects look or function.

Creativity doesn’t factor into many projects’ budgets, and the developer probably hasn’t gotten to flex his creativity as much as he’d have hoped. Ask the developer what they would have liked to do differently in a specific portfolio piece.

Clients are usually specific about what requirements they want to meet, and just as often don’t give designers or developers as much reign of freedom they hoped they would have as freelancers.

It isn’t that the developer doesn’t want to try new things. While every customer says they want to be fresh and new, what they really mean is they want to look like a current trend or be on-budget. That could reflect heavily in a freelancer’s portfolio.

3. Make Sure They’re Specialists in Their Languages

Not all programming languages are required in front-end development. Making sure they are keeping up on the forefront of languages is fine, but specializing in a few is an important thing to remember.

C# or Python is a cool language and very useful for making a lot of programs or apps, but it isn’t what you need for a website. They should be proficient in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript at least. Knowing how to implement AJAX into their JavaScript is a must in today’s world.

What a front-end developer, back-end developer, or full-stack web developer needs to know are very different things. It’s best to go with a team of specialists than expect one person to have all the skills.

It’s not bad if they understand the needs of the back-end developer as long as they stay out of the kitchen and let the back-end do their work.

There are even a few testing services you could use to split the tie between candidates or to make sure they really know their stuff. The programmer writes code to get rated on plagiarism, errors, and efficiency.

4. Hire a Designer That Has an Eye for Aesthetics

A front-end developer needs to not just be a code-monkey but needs to have a grasp on basic design features at a minimum. Try to see what their opinions are on topics like whitespace, typography, and layout before hiring.

This will give you an idea of what kind of graphics for websites they think are appropriate, if they’re adaptable, and more.

That being said, a “web designer” and a “front end developer” are not interchangeable and equal expressions. Web designers are focused on your client’s reception using aesthetic appeal and business acumen. Front end developers take their cue from the designer.

5. Be Reasonable and Realistic in Your Expectations

While your front-end developer should have coding and visual design skills, you can’t expect them to be a Swiss-army knife. Remember that you want to hire a specialist first and foremost.

If you have a front-end developer that is a coder, visual designer, marketer, and project manager the chance they are professional in all those things is going to be quite low.

It’s similar to the relationship between a print designer and a printer. A print designer is familiar with the machinery of the printer, and the printer is familiar with certain design goals. They work together to produce a printed product; they don’t try to do each other’s work.

The front-end developer specializes in making the designer’s mockup and brand-enhancing playbook a technical reality.

6. Offer Them Competitive Compensation

Make it worthwhile to your front-end designer and they’ll do their best work.

If you want a front-end developer from the USA, keep in mind a junior developer makes about $55k per year, where a senior developer likely makes upward of $100k per year.

A freelancer will make between $60 to $80 per hour, which means they could make more than 30% more than the average developer working with a company.

7. Consider How Well They’ll Integrate With Your Team

Make sure they play nice with others, and that they also work well with others. They may be a good communicator for getting their tasks done, but if you feel they are going to be a disruptive element in your team then that’s going to negate all the talent in the world.

Having a history of using version control policies (especially when working with a team) and sticking to them is a good practical indicator of their ability to work well with your team.

Hiring a Front-End Developer For-The-Win

Hiring a front-end developer is a big step, and they’re going to need help. You should expect that they can deliver their skill-set well, but don’t expect them to be a full-stack developer too.

Are you ready to hire a freelancer or a permanent team member? FreeUp is an innovative new marketplace for hiring a graphic designer, front-end or full-stack developer, content writer, or freelancer of any kind.

We pre-vet our freelancers, so you can rest assured they have the skills they say they do.

Check out FreeUp today and change the way you hire!