Questions To Ask While Hiring Freelance Developers Remotely

Companies are progressively shifting towards hiring freelance
developers remotely for the benefits and proficiencies that they bring
to the table.

In the US alone, approximately a third of workers freelance, and the current freelance economy is a staggering
$1.2 trillion
, which rose 22% from 2019!

While the demand for freelancers is exponentially rising, the number of
freelancers is also increasing in response. Therefore, you must
implement a robust recruitment process to comprehensively assess and
pick the right developer for your job roles.

The Necessity For Multi-Disciplinary Evaluation Of Developers

Questions for Evaluating Freelance Software Developers
Remotely

You must scout for valuable qualities in developers and make the optimum
choice for your business needs.

1. Depth & Position Held At Previous Jobs

Questions To Ask

• Do you possess any prior job experience or have you taken up
  internships?
  
• What position did you hold at your previous job, and what was your
  overall contribution?

Consider asking each developer to fill a profile form that includes a
generic description of oneself, their technological proficiencies, as well
as their CV.

Review developers according to the years in the field, quality of
experience, as well as the complexity of products developed. The responses
provided by the developers can help you evaluate their written
communication skills.

Select only those developers who portray in-depth experience and have
performed on end-to-end projects for the next step, which you can set as
an introductory call.

If the candidate lacks preceding experience with remote work, be very
careful and evaluate them thoroughly. Consider giving them a chance if
they sound like the ideal choice for the job from various aspects.

2. Decent Communication Skills & Adequate Motivation

Questions To Ask

• Describe a scenario when you met with a conflict and how you resolved
  it.
• Tell me your greatest achievement and why you are a competent
  candidate for this role.
• Can you collaborate with remote team members?

When interviewing on a call, use all the notes created in the previous
round to assess the depth of the freelancer’s experience. Ask probing
questions about the products they have developed.

This way, you can evaluate their ability to respond to questions
comprehensively and articulately. This gesture can help you understand the
confidence possessed by the candidates in their abilities. These
parameters also assess their verbal communication quality.

These metrics can help you evaluate a candidate’s communication skills
–

• Scout for applicants who emphasize communication skills on their
  resume.
• 
  Your ideal candidate must not take too long to reply to emails. They
  should respond to your questions straightforwardly without excuses.
  They must seek meaningful questions to understand the instructions
  better.
  
• 
  Consider using other means to connect, such as Google Docs, Trello,
  Slack, Skype, or Asana. When you demand effective communication, it is
  also paramount to suggest the tools that support it.
  

It can also be a wise choice to leave something out intentionally from the
original instructions. This gesture can help you observe how they tend to
handle a scenario when they do not have adequate information to perform
the task.

3. Comprehensive Technical Abilities

Questions To Ask

• Describe a project that you have worked upon and how you contribute
  towards its completion?
• If you encounter a code failure, what are the first steps you
  undertake to counter the issue?
• Which coding language do you prefer, and how proficient are you with
  data structures in that language?

After one or more face-to-face interviews, consider comprehensively
evaluating the developer’s involvement and their achievement in creating
complex software products.

This expression creates the platform to delve deeper into
technology-specific discussions where the developer’s knowledge in
individual technologies can be adjudged.

A friendly tip that you must bear in mind, according to

Forbes

, is that you must assess what you can pay. Do not stoop so low on your
budget that you hire bad recruits. Maintain a reasonable balance between
the rates and technical skills offered by the freelancer.

4. Rigorous Problem Solving & Coding

Questions To Ask

• Did you ever find an opportunity in a problem? How did you react to
  it?
• Give an instance when you realized that a colleague had committed a
  serious error. How did you rectify it?
• What has been the biggest work-related problem you encountered so
  far?

Every business experiences problems, and you must trust your employees to
diagnose and solve them. Problems create opportunities for improvement,
both for an individual and the company.

A good developer must possess a blend of decent technical experience as
well as problem-solving abilities. To evaluate their technical
proficiency, you can ask them skill-specific problems. To review their
problem-solving ability, carry out a live coding test that involves
algorithmic questions.

If a developer claims to have worked on multiple projects, ask them to
present their work to you to help you self-evaluate their work. Consider
delegating them a dummy project to assess their ability to accomplish the
tasks within a restricted time frame.

5. Outstanding Reviews When Conducting A Background Check

Questions To Ask

• What relevant work experience makes you fit for this position?
• Can you walk me through your resume?
• What did you like/dislike the most about your previous job?

Client references are an excellent approach to obtain valuable insights
into how a developer performs in real-life situations.

Consider obtaining inputs on distinctive qualitative factors such as
reliability, communication, punctuality, and responsiveness. This step is
valuable because such inputs are otherwise tedious to assess via a 1-on-1
screening.

Background checks prevent you from recruiting any incompetent or unsavoury
individuals. Your company can cut insurance costs and avert troublesome
lawsuits by only recruiting people who pass a pre-employment screening.

6. Consistency In Performance

Questions To Ask

• What primary factors influence the success of an organization?
• How can employees and leaders continue to deliver consistent
  performance?
• What steps should the employer take to establish proper
  expectations?

While the evaluation process for hiring freelance developers remotely is
exceedingly comprehensive, the candidate must deliver consistent
performance at each engagement.

You must expect your developers to sustain flexible standards across all
engagements with your clients. Be regular with appraisals to ensure that
employee performance remains consistent and admirable.

You can perform this continuous evaluation by accounting for a host of
factors. For instance, the quality of code delivered, the ability to ramp
up, documentation practices followed, as well as softer aspects of
reliability, responsiveness, and more factors.

Relevant Questions to Ask for Hiring Freelance Developers
Remotely

Factors That Should Not Influence Your Decision Entirely

Final Words