A brilliant idea remains meaningless until it is implemented into a useful solution. And if you are reading this article, you are probably at the transition point:
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You have a great idea;
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You have decided on Drupal as the main development tool;
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You need a Drupal hiring guide to proceed with a profitable and useful software solution.
Hiring a professional engineering team is a common challenge. Many clients and partners come to us with questions like, “How can I hire a great Drupal team?” or “How to find a perfect match?” We have answered these and similar questions so many times that we decided to create a whole article devoted to this particularly important topic (and ready to back words with some of our success stories). This definitive guide on how to hire a great Drupal development team will serve you best when dealing with this complex task.
Tips for Hiring a Drupal Developer: Define Your Goals First
The very first step to a notable result is thorough planning. So, make sure you understand exactly who you need to find and why you need these specialists. Answer these three essential questions to clarify the specifics:
How many specialists do you need?
Are you looking for a whole team or a single Drupal developer? Usually, a Drupal development team consists of several developers, a competent QA engineer, a motivated project manager, and an experienced Drupal architect. In the case of Scrum process, the project manager position is replaced with a Scrum master and product owner. The inevitable success of your idea completely depends on these guys. Each of them plays an important role, and you cannot dispense with even one of them.
Of course, if you already have a qualified team and are only looking for a developer to augment it, your task is considerably easier.
Are you looking for specialists to work remotely or on-site?
This question is important because of two reasons:
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The vacancy description must contain this information;
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It will impact the interviewing procedure.
The good old stereotypes about a 9 to 5 office week do not make sense anymore. However, if your entire team works in the office, it may be better for a newcomer to work on-site, too. Analyze your requirements and decide which option is better.
Are you looking for Drupal specialists to join you for a single project only?
This question is crucial. In case you have one project, it may be quite a fitting option to find a specialist on popular freelance platforms like Upwork or Freelancer. But if you are interested in long-term cooperation, it is better to hire dedicated specialists or find a reliable outsourcing team.
Chapter I. Start the Recruitment Process
Here comes the most interesting part. And it consists of four key components:
Job Posting
A good job posting can get you interested candidates. So we highly recommend being attentive to what information you provide in your description and how you form it.
When hiring a Drupal developer, remember that you are not buying a candidate, you are selling an offer. So make your offer look attractive and win potential candidates’ attention.
There are several significant things you need to mention in your vacancy description:
Tech stack
Here, you need to define all the technologies your project is based on.
Requirements
Are you looking for a senior developer with team leading experience, or a junior specialist who is familiar with unit testing? In this section, talk about the key requirements for your perfect candidate.
Responsibilities
Describe what the person will actually be responsible for on this project. Optionally, describe a standard workday to clarify the candidate’s vision of what the process looks like.
Offer
You have told readers who you are looking for. Now, it is time to say what you are ready to offer. Include salary bonuses, work schedule, information about business trips, and other similar extras.
A few words about the project
An interesting project is one of the top things that attracts candidates' attention. If you have an NDA, you cannot talk too much about it, but at the same time, you need to provide at least some basic information to interest the candidate.
Contact information
In your job posting, you should provide your contact information, including skype account, email, phone, and even office address. Make it easy for the best talent to reach out to you.
Passive Search
Where should you post your vacancy to hire the best Drupal team?
On your website
Your company’s website can serve you well when trying the passive search option. No doubt you are constantly searching for talented people to join your team, and a Careers section will attract active candidates and help you find a perfect match.
On job portals
To find the most popular job portals in your region, just google “Drupal developer resume” and browse the top search results. Pick 3-5 job portals and post your vacancy there. Take note that some job portals require a fee for a job posting.
On the official Drupal website
Drupal.org unites a great pool of talented people. Share your offer and wait for prime candidates to contact you.
On social networks
Here, the most useful tool is LinkedIn. This is a global professional network where you can find thousands of excellent candidates. Facebook may be useful, too. And these days, even Instagram can serve your needs well. You just need to define the target audience and let the tool do all the work for you.
Active Search
As our experience shows, it is not easy to find a perfect candidate using passive search only. You have to devote some time, effort, and attention to active searching.
On job portals, try to find resumes that meet your requirements. Contact Drupal experts on social media (like LinkedIn) and specific IT channels (like StackOverflow). Networking is your great chance to find a powerful team and increase the community’s awareness of your company.
Narrowing Down the List
Now that you have some CVs to consider, take a look at our tips for hiring a Drupal developer:
CV
Let’s say you have a hundred interesting CVs. It is time to read them all and make sure that they meet your requirements. First of all, pay attention to the experience and skills.
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Developers with freelance experience are less likely to accept office job offers;
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If the developer has changed jobs frequently (twice a year or more), ask them to tell you about the reasons why they weren’t satisfied with their jobs so many times;
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The tech stack may differ slightly from the one you provided in the job description; however, you should make sure that the candidate has experience with PHP/Drupal;
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If the CV lacks some important information, ask for a portfolio and recommendations.
Communication
In many cases, a chat with the company’s CTO or PM can replace the HR interview. Here, we recommend being highly attentive to how the candidates communicate. Do they keep it official? Do they answer on time? Are they honest with you? Before hiring a Drupal developer, create your own communication strategy and define the factors that would get you to invite a candidate to an interview.
Chapter II. Interviewing Stage
While hiring Drupal developers, you will be responsible for conducting dozens of interviews. Some of them will be rather interesting and pleasant, but unfortunately, some of them will be stressful and difficult. Generally, there are 3 types of interviews:
HR Interview
It is a general conversation that includes a soft skills check, foreign language check, some testing, etc. It depends on a company’s culture and specifics. This type of interview is essential to choose not just an engineer but a positive team player.
Technical Interview
To evaluate a candidate’s technical experience, you need to either have proficiency in Drupal development or hire a Drupal expert to help you with interviewing. This method may include a theoretical part, code review, live coding, test task, etc. It is up to you how to plan it, but make sure you have competent support by your side.
Job Offer
If a candidate has demonstrated an impressive CV, shown examples of their work and pieces of code, communicates well and has passed the interviewing stage successfully, it is time to proceed with a job offer. Here, you will discuss the financial conditions and introduce the candidate to your company’s culture.
Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? But keep in mind that the process may take up to several weeks or even months.
Chapter III. Onboarding and Trial Period
Onboarding is vital. The first 2-3 weeks of working in a new company may be stressful and challenging for your new co-worker. Thus, onboarding makes a difference. The best companies worldwide use onboarding practices to help an employee to get used to the new team and feel comfortable there. Research on this topic will help to build your own onboarding rules and improve your company.
A trial period is important, as during this time you can make sure that you have made the right choice. At the same time, the new Drupal developer can understand if he or she wants to continue your cooperation.
Tips on How to Simplify the Hiring Process
It is not a piece of cake to hire a Drupal dev or a whole development team. And here is what we would like to suggest to simplify this challenging task for you:
Hire a Tech Recruiter
This person will represent your company in the world of job vacancies. By effectively delegating your tasks, you save your time and have the possibility to devote more attention to business development.
But to be honest, a skilled IT recruiter is hard to find, too.
Find a Dedicated Team
There are hundreds of companies that offer high-quality development services worldwide. An outsourcing partner can provide you with the needed professionals in a matter of days, with no hassle or worries. In this case, you will save your time and expenses on recruitment, interviewing, and onboarding.
Final Thoughts
How to hire a Drupal developer? Now you know everything you need to answer this question. And it is time to start acting:
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Launch a recruitment campaign;
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Search both passively and actively;
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Get ready for time-consuming interviews;
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Develop an onboarding program.
Or you can replace all these steps with one single decision. By selecting a Drupal vendor, you save your time, money and effort. Contact us and get close to the software product you strive to launch.