How to Hire the Best Front End Developer for Your Project

The world has been developing very dynamically and unpredictably during the recent decade, and 2020 has shown this, like probably no year before! And while it is hardly possible to make any solid forecasts for the next decenia, it is clear that business models should be flexible and dynamic in order to correspond to the current challenges. While it is yet unclear what 2021 will bring, it is fair to say that the need for agile and adapting projects on the web remains.

We have been monitoring the recent trends in the field of web developers’ recruitment. In this article, we collected tips on how to hire frontend developers in Ukraine and in the world in general.

To begin with, we will explain what front-end developers are and what skills they have at different seniority levels. Then we will describe the benefits of hiring a front-end developer for your company. Lastly, we will guide you through the recruitment of a programmer offshore, tips, and tricks for the interview process, front end developer salary expectations.

When a Company Should Hire a Front-End Developer

Figuring out the right time to engage a front-end developer is essential to a company’s digital success. This becomes necessary when an organization needs to:

• Scale a website or web application
• Revamp its UX design
• Ensure it is mobile-friendly and cross-browser compatible
• Integrate third-party APIs and libraries, and
• Keep it updated with the latest advances in IT

A front-end developer help optimizes performance, creates intuitive interfaces, integrates external resources seamlessly, and uses modern techniques to ensure a rich user experience. Their contributions elevate the company’s digital presence and deliver exceptional user experiences. A company’s digital presence is enhanced when it has qualified and dedicated front-end developers on its team, allowing the organization to deliver exceptional customer service online.

Who is a front-end developer?

A front-end developer is responsible for designing all the elements you can see visually on a webpage or interface. In general, the front end uses three basic technologies such as HTML for structure, CSS for style, and JavaScript for logic. While there are lots of skills and technologies front-end programmers should have, you can find a list of the basic ones:

• Proficiency in coding languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery
• Understanding of server-side CSS
• Command of reprocessors for CSS like SCSS and Sass
• Knowledge of browser developer tools
• Testing/debugging in an IDE
• Experience with graphic design applications (e.g., Adobe Illustrator)
• Knowledge of SEO principles
• Module frameworks like Angular, React, Vue, and others
• AJAX
• Module bundlers that help to simplify developer’s workflow like Webpack, Gulp, Grunt, and Browserify
• Version control systems such as Git

Front-end developers: benefits for your company

A programmer with good front-end skills is capable of creating beautiful-looking websites that are agile and snappy. So if you check programmers’ portfolios and fancy design of their products, as well as the speed of their websites, you can make a conclusion about their front-end competencies.

The front end is probably the most important component of web development. Why? Because it is the first thing your customers notice visiting a website for the first time. Your clients look at a user interface (UI) and if the UI is flawless and appealing, it attracts users for visual pleasure. UI creates an image of a product: a good-looking UI promises a reliable product and guarantees the best user experience (UX). Needless to say that it also features the individuality of a brand and gears the website to be positively accepted by a certain target audience.

In addition to creating meaningful UI/UX, a front-end developer will help your company to:

• Construct modern-day responsive websites or web apps for the mobility segment;
• Create features or interactive tools for any online store;
• Develop secured, bugless, and consistent products for high-traffic web zone;
• Upgrade the traditional look of your brand.

How to Determine What Qualifications of a Front-End Developer to Hire?

The set of skills of front-end developers has often depended on their seniority. In accordance with competencies and experience, front-end programmers in Ukraine are divided into junior, middle, senior, and lead. We have prepared an overview of the skills that developers usually have at different seniority stages.

Junior Front-End Developer

At the beginning of their career, developers have a basic knowledge of IT, software, and hardware. They know one programming language or framework and have basic code-writing skills. With this range of technologies and skill level, juniors can fulfill easy tasks. They can repair minor, less significant errors or bugs in the software. In a perfect world, junior front-end developers are capable of building a stable app that will carry out most of the functions it’s intended to.

Yet in reality, juniors are less independent at work and often need help from their senior colleagues. Therefore, juniors work slower to fill their knowledge gap and might be unable to make an app corresponding to all of the set requirements. So think twice before you engage a front end web developer for hire of this level.

Experience: up to 1 year

Middle Front-End Developer

Middles are fully productive members on their own and a part of a development team. As developers gain seniority, they obtain command of building apps and tailoring them to corresponding business logic.

More experienced developers can better evaluate the requirements of your project and provide the technical skills to meet your expectations. They are able to choose the most suitable technologies to build the product after analyzing your business aims and budget.

Experience: 3-5 years

Senior Front-End Developer

Senior programmers undertake tasks that no one else would do and manage to solve them. Seniors have a high level of knowledge of IT, from software to hardware context, computer programming, programming languages, codes, frameworks, IDE, and API.

Thanks to years of hands-on experience,  they know exactly what they should and shouldn’t do, what code to change, and what should remain unchanged. A senior developer can also propose to you several alternative ways to solve a problem and explain the benefits of choosing each one in simple language. Afterward, seniors can foresee the consequences of implementing each scheme.

Experience: 5+ years

Where to Find the Right Front-End Developers?

There are several ways of hiring front-end developers for example as freelancers, in-house employees, or offshore-based development teams. The choice here mainly depends on the needs of your company, development goals, and employment type (full-time, part-time, project basis).

Admittedly, it is up to you which way to choose. However, in reality, it can turn out that software engineers at your location, like in the US, are unavailable or too costly. In that case, you should turn your gaze to countries with a large pool of web developers, such as Ukraine. You can collaborate with an outstaffing or an IT staff augmentation company which will save you time and facilitate your communication with the developers.

In Ukraine, you can recruit experienced and affordable front-end developers for different tasks with the help of outstaffing partners such as Newxel.

Here at Newxel, we can help you to create an R&D office offshore and to hire front end developer team in addition to your in-house workforce. We will carefully listen to your needs and goals and search for the best local specialists for your projects.

Steps to Hire a Front-End Programmer

Set clear requirements

It is extremely necessary to set clear requirements for a product when planning to hire a front end engineer. This is to prevent any misunderstanding between the customer and the сontractor and to avoid unnecessary time and money losses.

Making project specifications is definitely not an easy task so outsourcing companies often offer their help in carrying it out.

Mind the cultural difference

It is essential to bear in mind that if you start to cooperate with the programmers offshore, you might have a different mentality and culture-specific way of working.

Therefore you should consult your IT outstaffing partner and include this topic in your interview process when setting out to hire a front end developer.

Recruitment process

Before you start out with the recruitment process you should consider that your main goal is to find front end developers who are not only technically qualified to solve the required tasks. It is geared towards finding people you will be comfortable working with as a team and who will find collaborating with you conveniently and agreeable in their turn. It means that your staff should be both highly skilled and motivated to do needed tasks.

If during the hiring process, only professional qualities and technical skills are taken into account, it could lead to ineffective hires and frustration.

That is why our recruitment team carries out HR screening at the very beginning of the hiring process, even before a candidate is presented to you. This helps us to get a full picture, not only a CV. We provide an HR summary that includes a brief overview of the experience, top skills, personal qualities, English skills, availability, salary expectations, etc.

Typical interview structure and questions

Our interview process is defined by two main features like speed and quality. There is always a market for talented front end developers for hire, so we need to be swift with the decisions and steps of the process. In general, we follow the three stages of an interview:

1. Technical interview which allows evaluating the technical skills and experience of the candidate during a video call. This involves an introduction and presentation of your company and provides the first impression of the candidate.

There are lots of typical questions to test the hard skills of your candidates, and here we listed some of them:

• What is webpack?
• What is the difference between JavaScript and jQuery?
• What is a User-Centered Design?
• What is a CSS rule?
• Explain meta tags in HTML
• What is functional programming?

2. Coding task. This stage allows you to see how candidates complete practical tasks (developer’s code, etc.). It is probably the most challenging step of the interviewing process for candidates. It might be useful if the tasks are related to the real tasks of the project. In this way, you will get a more plausible picture, and the interviewee will have a chance to experience what he expects during his job.
3. Final interview is very often a managerial interview. This part is conducted by decision-makers and focuses more on the soft skills of the candidates to see if they fit within the team. It gives the candidate a better understanding of their prospective managers and offers an opportunity to see if the candidates are comfortable with that person and communication system.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Front-End Engineer?

If you’re seeking to hire a front end web developer team of dedicated professionals and do not want to overpay, don’t hesitate to contact us. We know how to find a skilled front-end coder in Ukraine to satisfy your needs and scale your development team in just a few weeks.

• Middle Front-end developer salary in Ukraine – $2500-$3000
• Senior Front-end developer salary – $3500-$4500
• Lead Front-end developer salary – $4500-$5500

What Will Your Gain if You Hire a Front End Developer with Newxel?

If you hire front end programmers, in collaboration with Newxel, an experienced outstaffing company with plenty of resources, you will enjoy the following:

• Access to a global pool of talented developers: Newxel offers you access to a vast talent pool, enabling you to hire any front-end developer you want, regardless of location. We broaden your recruitment horizons to encompass global locations, including Portugal, Romania, Ukraine, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Poland, and Israel. In essence, you will have access to 26.8 million active developers with diverse skills worldwide.
• Cost efficiency: Newxel’s fast and efficient hiring model helps companies save a significant amount of money. By adopting this approach, businesses can save up to $10,000 per employee annually on rent expenses alone.
• Diversity: With Newxel’s IT staff augmentation system, companies are able to work with developers from various cultures, religions, races, and nationalities, which comes with added advantages. Research has shown diverse teams tend to outperform onsite work teams by more than 30%. Additionally, working with a diverse team encourages innovation, improves language skills, and allows you to build a strong global reputation for your organization.
• Scalability: Since it’s easier to recruit new talents that can fill specific gaps in your project, your project’s development team can easily grow whenever needed. This ensures that the project remains adaptable and responsive to changing requirements. Overall, having a flexible and dynamic team can be a key factor in the success of a project.
• Flexible recruitment options:  You can choose from three hiring categories: Full time, part-time, or project-based work. Our solutions are tailored to your unique preferences, whatever they may be!
• Fast and efficient: Efficiently identify high quality candidates within a short timeframe with our assistance. By combining technology and our extensive network, we identify top talent and present it to our clients quickly and effectively. Our commitment to quality means that our clients are presented with only the best candidates, saving them time and resources in their search.
• Expert portfolio evaluation: Explore the portfolio of each skilled full-stack front end developer for hire to assess their capabilities. Portfolios provide insightful information about a developer’s skills, experience, and style. You can see the types of websites or applications they’ve built, their past projects, and the technologies they’ve used. This allows you to determine whether their coding, design, and project management capabilities match your requirements.
• Ongoing technical support: Newxel is committed to the efficient resolution of any issues that may arise and smooth operations throughout your project lifecycle. You can count on our team of experts to help you with any technical challenges, maintenance, and updates, so you can stay focused on your core business activities. You can feel confident knowing that you are always in good hands with our ongoing support for front-end development.

 Conclusion

Once you hire front end developers and they deliver good results and fit well into your team, you should think of retaining them. Needless to say that high staff turnover does not contribute to the efficiency of your business. High turnover can lead to loss of valuable knowledge and experience and loss of belief in the team`s competence and ability to perform.

If you want to prevent turnover, you should understand that the corporate culture, engagement, and workplace environment are the keys to the retention of talented and dedicated IT specialists.

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