Hiring a Laravel developer: what to look for

Hiring a good developer can be challenging. If you don't have the Laravel skills yourself, how to be sure about the candidate? In this article, I will help you improve the odds.

Make sure the developer learned Laravel through real-world projects

Real-life experience is mandatory if you don't have time to coach young developers.

From my experience, people freshly out of school won't be able to be proficient on most projects (of course, there are passionate developers who are the exception to this rule).

Here's what makes a good candidate:

• Make sure the developer has at least one successful experience. In companies or open source projects, it doesn't matter;
• Developers with tech culture and knowledge about the latest trends tend to be curious and, therefore, more willing to give everything they have to solve your problems;
• Even an inactive GitHub account is a good sign. A basic comprehension of open source reinforces the previous point.

Don't hire senior developers to work on basic tasks

A senior developer is expensive, and for good reasons. Years of experience made them a master at what they do. You don't want them to work on simple interface changes or bug fixes for instance. They'll get bored and leave as soon as they can.

Senior developers want to work on complex issues that will make your project easier to maintain, more stable, and more profitable in the long run.

That's exactly what I do after 15 years of experience. Clients book me so I can help their team head in the right direction (you can book me for your project as well).

Get a good communicator

Communication is critical for any relationship. In a working environment, you need a clear view of the progression to be able to plan what's next.

And you also need to know when things are stuck. Sometimes, problems are tough to solve, and deciding to get someone else involved as soon as possible to help you move forward is crucial.

Conclusion

Hiring a developer is a process and not something to take lightly. It takes time, effort, and research. Follow these tips, and you will be able to take better decisions for your project.

Also, after reading this, if you think a senior developer is a good fit, you can book me.