Hiring application developers

Application developers play a hands-on role in all phases of the software development lifecycle, from inception to testing and beyond. How candidates answer this question can offer great insight into the breadth and nature of their experience, while also telling you if they have a proven track record of successfully and meticulously completing projects.

Application developers use various programming languages to create software. Having a good grasp of these languages is crucial to their success, so it’s imperative to assess your candidate’s knowledge of and experience using different languages. If they haven’t used your company’s go-to language before, a willingness to learn is also important.

As your team develops software solutions, they need to take proactive steps to minimize any potential security risks that could expose your organization’s sensitive data — or the data of those using the finished application. An experienced application developer will be aware of the steps and quality control required to tighten security from the start.

In addition to troubleshooting software in the development phase, application developers must constantly monitor for any bugs or glitches in the system. Your candidate should be accustomed to looking for the root cause of a problem and taking the necessary steps to solve it and prevent similar issues in the future.

Application developers often face tight deadlines on work that’s critical for customers and their organization. When high-pressure situations like this crop up, you want to know that your new hire has the time management and collaboration skills necessary to navigate the situation and ensure the project is completed without a hitch.

Your new hire needs to be a skilled coder, but everybody makes mistakes or oversights from time to time. In these instances, you want to know that your candidate will accept feedback with grace and use it to grow. Top application developers don’t just take feedback in their stride — they use it to make future applications even stronger.

This question will not only tell you how candidates perceive themselves, but will also provide insights into their views on teamwork. While your new hire may work independently some of the time, they’ll also need to collaborate across the department to get projects done. As such, the best application developers tend to be approachable, resourceful, and comfortable working as part of a team.

This question can tell you a lot about a candidate’s ability to distill knowledge. While application developers need a lot of hard skills to do their job effectively, they must also be skilled at communicating with people with varying degrees of technical know-how. After all, they may have to discuss project details with stakeholders from nontechnical backgrounds, in addition to supporting junior team members.

Learning where a candidate’s passion lies can be a good indicator of the role they’ll play on their team, as well as the path they might take at your company. If they love leading projects, for example, they may aspire to a leadership role. If they’re passionate about the creative elements of the work or the fast-paced nature of the industry, they may seek to bring fresh ideas to the table.