If you’re considering hiring a mobile app developer to grow your IT team, firstly consider how regularly you interact with their work.
While you were working out this morning, your mobile device was talking to your smart-watch. Then, on the way to work, you caught up with some YouTube.
These apps required a number of skilled and experienced professionals to create. Hiring a mobile app developer with the skills to make these aforementioned apps is key to the success of your project.
Given that the cost of hiring a bad developer can reach up to $485,371.38, you need to be extremely precise in defining what you’re looking for.
Well keep reading, because in this article you’ll learn how to hire a mobile app developer, as well as:
- How to identify what to look for in a mobile developer
- The best mobile dev interview questions
- The most common mistakes HR managers make when hiring mobile devs
If these sound like problems you encounter regularly, keep reading!
1. Identify the requirements to hire a mobile app developer
The first step to hiring the best mobile app developer is to identify what your goals and requirements are.
To do this, your current team of developers is probably the best people to approach. Ask your current tech team questions like:
- What language will we be using? Will your app be written in Swift? Java? Objective-C? These are just three of the options. This is by no means an HR decision but it’s one you need get a clear answer for.
- New or existing technology? This question is a good way to gauge the scope of a project. The word ‘technology’ here refers to what your mobile app will do. Does it need to integrate with GPS and other mobile technology? Is it simply a mobile version of your current desktop or web-based software?
- Due date. Knowing the due date helps you gauge the urgency of the project. With this information, you can estimate the time you have to hire someone. An earlier due date may mean you have to hire developers who are more skilled and experienced to get the project done on time.
If you’re serious about hiring a mobile app developer, this next one is a bit of a no-brainer.
Establish whether you want to hire an iOS or Android mobile app developer.
2. Hiring iOS and Android Mobile App Devs
Without going into the age-old ‘iOS vs Android’ debate, it’s worth noting that there’s quite a big difference between an iOS developer and Android developer. If you’re looking to hire a mobile app developer, you should get some current industry data to base your decisions on. According to Evans Data Corporation, “the number of mobile developers who target Android first is 5.9M vs 2.8M that target iOS as a first platform. Most developers target multiple mobile platforms, so secondary platform targets differ and often include competing platforms”.
And what about mobile developer salaries? Based on PayScale data, the salary levels of iOS and Android developers are similar and reach roughly $81k.
3. Write the mobile app developer job description
Now that you know what you’re looking for and what the market looks like, it’s time to start looking!
Using what you now know about your goal, start to create the job description just as you would any other.
Take the skills and requirements you have and list them in a way that makes your description attractive to the best kind of talent. Draw attention to project specific skills. Here’s an example from No Fluff Jobs:
Source: No Fluff Jobs
Be clear with what you expect from a candidate. It goes without saying that your ideal candidate will be attracted to your position if you’re also showing off the company itself. Be sure to highlight any of the other benefits of working for your company like bonuses, incentives, and company culture perks. When you think you’re done writing your job description, have your other developers read it to be sure that it both makes sense and is attractive!
4. Market the job where mobile app developers hang out
Once your job description is written, it’s time to post it and get it in front of the most suitable eyeballs.
The old saying “build it and they will come” simply is not true today. Creating the most attractive job opening means nothing if no one will see it.
Once your job ad is published on the website, you can start your recruitment campaign.
- Share your link amongst your friends and family
- Ask your current dev team to share it amongst their friends
- Find relevant Facebook groups and share your job offer in there
- Look at similar apps in the app store and approach the developers that made them
- Find the LinkedIn profiles of mobile app developers who work for your competitors
- Use job boards like Angel.co and workinstartups.com
- If full-time remote work is OK, post your offer on weworkremotely.com, workingnomads.com, and upwork.com
If done correctly, you’ll start to see some applications in time. Sourcing developers isn’t easy, but if you work hard, you’re bound to see some great candidates. Bear in mind these will be mostly passive, so you’ll have to find them yourself as they’re not actively looking.
Either way, be prepared to spend more or less time marketing your open position depending on the number of applicants and how many positions you want to fill.
5. Build your mobile app developer shortlist
Once you have a handful of applicants, it’s time to start building a list of the best candidates.
It goes without saying that as a recruiter, you shouldn’t bring any bias into the process. It’s about hiring the best fit for the job, objectively.
The thing to take note about:
- Professionalism – Is the applicant’s CV professional? Is it worded correctly? Is it exceptionally long and dull, or short and relevant?
- Experience – Does the applicant have experience in a similar field? Looking at the applicant’s experience, are they a specialist in this field, or more of a ‘jack of all trades’?
- Portfolio – Is the contents of the applicant’s portfolio relevant to the position advertised?
Another thing to take into consideration: Will this role be a new career for the applicant, or just a stepping stone while looking for something else? Remember that it’s incredibly difficult to tell whether an applicant is talented or not just by their CV. For a true judge of skill, talent, and character, you’ll need to move them along to the next step – testing their programming skills.
6. Screen coding skills
It’s one thing for a candidate to say they can do X, but how do they do X?
It’s a good idea to use a technical test to filter those that can from those that say they can.
Using the DevSkiller Mobile App Developer tests, you can really see how they put their skills to the test.
For example, looking for a Middle Android Developer to work with machine learning? Here’s your set of ready-to-use questions. Similarly, if you’re looking for an iOS and need to assess their knowledge of Objective C and Swift, here’s an iOS coding test you can use.
What’s more, you’ve also got access to a secure testing environment where your applicants can use your current technology on a screening test. The result is a more thorough insight into their skills and ability than a traditional pen and paper test.
Here’s a DevSkiller webinar presenting valuable tips and tricks to build the perfect DevSkiller test:
7. Look for benchmarks
As a recruiter, you’re probably not too experienced in the world of coding and app development. That doesn’t disqualify you from setting up your recruitment process in a way granting you the best results. One of the best ways to do this is to ask your internal developers with the skills similar to the ones specified in the job description. This way, you have a valuable benchmark which is specific to your company. If you don’t have a developer with similar skills in your organization, you can always use our AI Benchmarking Engine.
By applying a machine learning algorithm, the AI Benchmarking Engine looks at various factors like score, difficulty levels, and time consumption to determine if your candidate will be successful with an 85% accuracy. That’s what you see in your DevSkiller dashboard when the candidate is likely to succeed: 
And here’s the view of the AI Benchmarking Engine predicting that the candidate is unlikely to succeed:
8. The soft skills interview
The non-technical interview allows you to get to know your candidate better, i.e. by means of behavioral questions. During the interview, your HR team gets the chance to evaluate your candidate’s experiences and behavior patterns in order to evaluate their potential for your company.
Behavioral interview questions typically have the following structure:
- Tell me about a time when you…
- Describe a situation when you…
The non-technical interview also gives you a chance to evaluate company fit and the ability to work as a part of the team. Although this part of the recruitment process tends to be overlooked by the developers, it’s a valuable source of information about the candidate.
9. The technical interview
Technical interviews are carried out by a member or members of your developer team. Their aim is to evaluate technical skills. As a tech recruiter, it’s your job to ensure only viable candidates are invited to the technical interview so you don’t put unnecessary strain on your dev team.
Developers are fed up with whiteboard testing and coding puzzles. Make sure your technical interview focuses on the practical skills and allow your candidates to use resources they normally turn to while they work.
A great tip is to invite candidates to live coding interviews (aka CodePair) which don’t require the candidate to travel to your location. Here’s what they look like in action:
READ MORE: Online coding interview and how to CodePair remotely
10. Making your selection
Once you have a thorough, in-depth understanding of every candidate that interests you (there may only be the one candidate that has made it this far!), it’s time to create your job offer.
Hire a mobile app developer – Summing up
You should also now feel confident enough to go forth, create your job listing, and find the best mobile app developer out there.
The hardest part of this process is firstly finding quality talent and then making sure that they can fulfill the role properly. To navigate these obstacles, remember:
- Consult your current developers and team leaders for technical guidance
- Get creative in looking for candidates – they won’t always find you
- Use online coding tests for iOS and online coding tests for Android to check your candidate’s coding skills
Once you hire your developer, it’s time to build and launch your app. HyperionDev has some great tips on how to launch an app on the Android store.
What are some problems you’ve faced in the past with hiring a mobile app developer? Can you add any tips? Let us know in the comments!
