How to hire a Drupal developer
If you have made up your mind to build or improve your website on Drupal, then you probably need to find some highly qualified Drupal experts to make your idea come true. Depending on your project’s complexity, you may need to hire just one specialist to make simple fixes, some concrete specialists to augment your existing IT staff on demand, a Drupal development team made of different Drupal experts or even a dedicated team for long-term cooperation. In any case, it’s useful to know how to hire a great Drupal developer as well as how to choose a great web support company to get the best outcome. In this article we will give you some pieces of advice.
Steps to hire great Drupal developers
Decide on what type of Drupal developer you need
Outline your web project requirements as precisely as possible. Decide on a technical specification. Based on this, figure out what kind of specialist(s) can satisfy your needs, and what skills they will need to have, to know who exactly to look for.
There is a general differentiation between front-end developers (who work with the markup, themes and features visible to end users) and back-end developers (responsible for database management, requests control and coding). Concerning the classification of Drupal developers, they can be divided into module developers (if you need a custom or customized module), theme developers (if you need a custom theme) and site builders (if you need setting up and configuring of a Drupal functionality).
Often one specialist can be familiar with more than one branch of Drupal development and possess different skill sets at once. Notice also that while hiring a close-knit team from the web development company rather than separate freelancers, you’ll get all kinds of Drupal talents under the same roof, all of whom are able to closely communicate with each other and share ideas on your project. This makes development process more productive.
Check places where you can find Drupal developers for hire
One of the oldest but functional methods is word of mouth. You can ask people you know whether they can recommend some good Drupal talent to you. However, this won’t lead you far. So when it comes to spreading information, appeal to “the power of Facebook” and other social media.
A more professional approach is to look up specialized job websites like GoodFirms or Clutch. Look through their existing information about freelancers and Drupal development companies offering their services. You can search by different categories like country, web service, web platform type, etc. and see the ratings of each candidate.
As drupal.org is an authoritative web resource all about the CMS, you can use their Drupal Jobs service to find a talent. Their database allows you to check profiles of Drupal developers to see their skills, experience, contributions, participation in conferences and forums, and more.
Check LinkedIn footprints of Drupal developers
Social media activity speaks a lot about people. When it comes to the business community, LinkedIn is the most popular employment-oriented social network and can provide you with useful insights about your potential employees.
Look at the amount, duration and complexity of former projects. The longer the developer works on one project or for one web agency, and the shorter their intervals between engagements are, the more stable and responsible they are.
The “summary” section can give you insights on communicative skills. The more concise and targeted it is, the better. It means a person can get straight to the point of the issue and write well-streamlined clean code.
A list of connections speak to the capacity to collaborate. As you are searching to hire a Drupal developer, pay attention to connections with the Drupal Community. Passionate drupalers often share module updates and practical experiences with the community, being actively interested and involved in Drupal world.
Many positive recommendations from previous clients shows credibility. They are testimonials that show strengths and weaknesses, and someone’s professional and personal sides, as revealed during a collaboration.
Consider pricing options
The optimal option is a Drupal developer that offers a sound balance between professionalism and price. So compare the price lists of your favorites. Web agencies, like ours, that offer Drupal developers for hire, usually are open to show their pricing on their official website. You may also contact a developer and ask for assessment of your particular project to get more precise figures.
Make a selection of your potential candidates
After you have made up a list of candidates, it’s time to narrow this list down. Review the resumes and LinkedIn profiles and check if they match your main technical requirements. For example, you may need someone with experience with certain Drupal versions and modules, frontend or backend development, etc. Compare different characteristics and listen to your gut instinct to decide who is the right partner for your project.
We wish you successful projects and offer our support services for your consideration. We also recommend you look at what to expect when working with a web development company. Contact us if you need to hire a Drupal developer who can use all benefits of Drupal CMS for your Drupal project. Remember that we are always ready to give you a helping hand.