Why is it hard to find a great developer on Upwork and other freelance platforms?
Tags: Recruiting, Senior Developer, Freelance Platform, Recruitment

Finding good developers is a challenge. Nowadays, professionals are rare. Not all developers get to this stage and the ones that do are in demand. They don’t have much trouble finding work, they have been working for stable customers for years …

So, Are you asking yourself now, how you can find a great developer to join your team or to build the product? Let’s find out about it.

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

What exactly should you know about senior developers?

Don’t expect to hire a great developer on the cheap. Top developers can do much more than just good developers do! They are fond of code, so that’s why they learn, at home, at work, and everywhere.

An experienced developer shows an intuitive understanding of algorithms, technologies, and software architecture based on extensive experience and good development sense.

Such developers are able to understand at a single glance what tools in their arsenal best fit the problem at hand. They are self-managed and are able to work both alone and in teams.

Why is it hard to find them?

Great developers are rare, so don’t expect to find them easily. Finding awesome developers is difficult because they are usually not actively looking, are happily employed, and are treated very well.

It is obvious as to why you won’t find great developers on platforms like Freelancer, Upwork, or People Per Hour. The projects are mostly small, the clients are less reputable, the budgets are limited and they will be spending much of their time pitching for work. That is just not what a great developer needs to do.

Moreover, the ones who are on the market are already being courted by Facebook, Google, and other huge corporations in Silicon Valley with competitive compensation packages.

How can you find experienced developers for your needs?

Platforms like Upwork or Freelancer.com rely on customer feedback and online tests to verify freelancers’ experience levels. So, it could be not true, which means employers must do careful vetting of each candidate themselves.

On the other hand, the premium platforms, check their freelancers by interviewing them directly and using rigorous screening processes.

An English proficiency test, submission of previous work, references from customers, etc.

The truth is those awesome developers aren’t hard to find, just difficult to get the attention of. Usually, a team of tech professionals are needed here and now, but it might be difficult due to the shortage of your local talent market. This is the reason a lot of companies resort to high-priced technical recruiters/agencies for support.

Agencies have a stable process of recruiting developers, they check all technical and communications skills.

Remember — great developers are hard to come by. If you want to hire one, be sure to start by looking in the right places.

Here in JetThoughts, we spend a lot of time finding and interviewing developers to find the best Ruby on Rails contributors for you. The training process (which we created) has been built for 15 years to deliver a stable code and the best communication practice for a remote team.