When you plan of hiring remote developers and meet a candidate for the first time for an interview, what do you know about him? Do you have any idea if he will be good or worse for your team? Maybe the person has previous work experience, but that’s not enough. When it comes to adding an external hire to the team, you must have to look after many things. One important thing is the candidate should match the vibes and potency of the organization.
The decision should not be instant. As obviously you do not need someone to enter without harming your business standards.
In the rapid change in the technologies, with the fast-growing IT company, you always felt bush in impact from the competitors. The IT developer not only supports your development process to develop innovative products but also furnishes a rich experience to the client by featuring each element. They are more focused and clear with their job, which makes the business much safer and secure to deal with.
You can hire a developer who can work with you regardless of the location. Your main motive is to hire the desired and dedicated candidate for his skills and expertise. By allowing them to work from any place, you actually create multiple choices for yourself. Coping up with competitiveness and offering limitless products to your client, remote hiring is the one and only answer.
While hiring remote developers, you should be clear about what you are looking for inside the candidate, and hand over the questions list to the recruitment team.
Here in this blog, we have started with the best possible list to ask the remote developer; how well he is capable of handling project management, communication, personal skills, and quality.
So let’s start the process.
Interview Questions for Hiring Remote Developers
Let’s start with understanding the most common questions for the IT companies when they are in the starting stage to hire the candidates for them remotely or even if they want to move their best employees or the team to remote.
The question you need to ask could be changed depending on the state of the candidate. Try to find out if the employee has a genuine reason to join your company, not just with the personal interest of working from their couch. It would rather take your business motive down and eventually diminish your growth.
See if the individual really comes to your place for interviewing with the original reasons, but still, you should allow that professional first to work in-house then depending upon their skills and interest and how determined he was throughout the working and the teammates, you can switch him next to remotely.
Related Post: Why Is It Beneficial To Hire Remote Software Engineers?
Let’s straightforward the questions that can be asked to the desirable candidate.
1. Project Management Questions
The developer is someone who understands the intricacies of the project. The whole project depends on him. It is crucial for the company to hire the developer before knowing well about his expertise. His ample capabilities; project reports creation, timely progress reports for improvements of the project, assure the business leaders about the quality and brand impact.
Those who are excited and thrilled to work and want to furnish their leading capacities of managing the entire project, are the ones you can take the risks.
Q: What is the biggest project you’ve worked on as a software developer, and what was your involvement?
By asking such a question your concern is to understand what level of expertise the developer may have. How well he can fit inside the scope of the project. How prone he is in specific skill sets and many more things. With this single question, it is obvious for you to understand his expertise.
It is fine to ask the direct question to the candidate in one shot. And it will help you to make the decision of knowing the person’s skills and every bit of detail in the projects.
Q: What strategies do you use to manage a big project or task?
See, in planning and preparing the whole strategy of the project, you can actually understand the role and responsibility of the person. If he has had previous experience with role mergers in a crucial project, he might have that sound experience behind each intricacy of the project.
The process starts with adopting the workflow cycle in software development. He actually knows about the role of every software cycle and the iterative progression of the process, helping in making the next decisions for the project.
Q: What project management or productivity tools do you use? How do you use these?
Placing a proper tool to handle and sync the projects is very crucial and important for your business growth. The candidate must be efficient to handle and use the tools before in his previous projects. If you have come across a candidate who is fond of having such skills, you can ask him about their use.
Suppose you are hiring remote developers for the post of a software engineer or system admin, you should find the corresponding skillset in him. The dedicated programmer must have knowledge of powerful languages like Python, Java, Flutter, Swift, etc. likewise which are top in market demand. He must know how to integrate the languages with the help of frameworks like Laravel, Vue.js, Flask, Angular, etc.
If the person is sound in dealing with the languages, and how to accumulate them within the project, then you can proceed with him in your hiring.
Q: When was the Last Time That you Implemented ABC [language/tool name] language/tool?
By asking this question, you get the idea that the developer is in touch with the project’s development or not. If recently, he has completed some of the projects which are relatable to your current project you want your hired developer to undertake, then it will give real benefit to you.
Once the developer answers that question, you can ask about the role and how he implemented it inside the project. Similar knowledge of the tools and technologies aids your development and reduces the process of manufacturing and cost for obvious reasons.
A few of the best possible websites from which the developer may take the help are;
Hackernoon, YouTube, Developer Care, etc.
Q: Do you use any methodology while working on any development project?
That is the question that helps you to eliminate the real from the rest of the developers. Usually, IT organizations use Agile methodologies with the ACID properties and software development lifecycles.
If the developers know about every software cycle and project required methodologies, then hiring remote developers, will not halt your project development and outcomes.
Q: What do you do when you get stuck with a task?
You can ask this question directly to the appearing candidate. With such a straightforward question, you could put the other person in a really challenging state, about his mental state and how well he can dedicatedly handle the tasks.
If the person is interested in your question he might answer this by adding his experiences and how he got out of the state and resolved the situation. It’s fine if the person is stuck somewhere between you just need to understand his mental state.
Generally, the problem is caused by the coding structure or the statements, so to resolve the problem it is vital for the coder to refer to some coding websites like StackOverflow, Reddit, StackExchange, etc., and rescue the problem.
Q: How do you prioritize work/tasks?
The expert developer takes the work assigned to finish in their best way. He curates all the planning, prepared the workflow, and flowchart, and replicated the ideas to the prototype.
The perfect distribution and break the task into small pieces, build the product implementation as flawlessly as possible.
When the developer plans his daily chores as per the priorities, half of the problem is solved. Now his only motive is to get the prepared plan to be done.
Q: Can you explain how [process name] works?
By asking such a question, you can assign a specific task to the programmer. Then ask him about the planning and development process of the particular task, and you get to know about the knowledge of the task.
How vivid is the developer’s expertise, is he updated with the new updates, versions, technologies to work with, and where he is lacking, and expertise in; all of the pinpoints you as a business leader can understand and just with the working capabilities of the applicant.
Related Post: How to Effectively Manage Your Remote Development Team
2. Communication & Management
Perfect communication is very important in terms of managing proper coordination with the rest of the team. It comes under your etiquette and verbal skills. Every organization considers such candidates who have sound communication to reflect when the company deals with some clients.
Challenge and ponder some of the questions to examine the skills and how perfect the candidate is in reciprocating his speech to the members. Some of the perfect questions below are;
Q: Have you been working remotely till now? What did you like the most? What did you not like at all?
You can ask the developer if he has past experience working remotely or not. If the candidate is having rich experience working on previous projects in remote places, then it would be perfect for you. What are the fields in the software development process where they are good to accomplish tasks?
This amount of clarity helps to develop the project in a better way. If the software developer is having any issues and got stuck previously in the projects, then in the current project he knows the strategy to how to get over that issue and saves the time and cost of the project. This indulges you in the idea of how well the candidate is in communicating and dealing with the business clients.
Q: Are you comfortable working in a fast-paced, changing environment?
The developer is easy to accept and fit inside the environment, then it would be easy and flawless for the company to put great responsibilities on him.
If the developer is quick to adapt to the environment and able to cross any in-between difficulties and hurdles, then he is a good option to lead as the front face of the company.
Q: Why do you want to work from home?
As a business leader, you always want your employees to work at a place where you can reach them faster. Using the communication tools, like Slack, Zoom, Jira, and chat tools, communication becomes faster between you and the employees.
If the answer to the question is yes, then you can understand the mental state of the person, who you are interviewing. Because if the person has only an interest in his personal growth, then he is not the right candidate for your company. The person has to be sound in mutual growth with the company.
Q: What challenges do you think you’ll face working remotely, and how will you deal with them?
This is the crucial question that encounters how bravely the candidate deals with the problem. The developer who has previous remote work experience, then he had faced unique challenges for sure.
The remote developer better knows about the fact that how to separate himself from any outside difficulties and isolate the work and focus on performing the same as inside the organization.
Q: Have you worked with a distributed team? How did it go?
The distributed team refers to the team which is aligned at different places. The remote developer working virtually knows the manner to communicate with every individual and accompany for the benefit of the company.
In working from virtual places, the environment is different from the onsite work. The person should be able to handle the tasks that are pondered to him, not in the general time schedule. If he is able to handle it without having issues? Does he have a balanced mindset to handle every task and yet perform with perfection? If yes, then the developer would be your ideal hiring and so you can allot him work remotely.
Q: What would you do if a teammate seemed frustrated with you? How do you deal with in-team conflict?
The ideal state of the person if someone seems frustrated inside the company is to treat the patient. As working in the IT environment it is very difficult to behave happily and act like machines every time. The job is very cut to cut and the developer must know how to perform in such an environment.
There are times when the team is in conflict, the ideal candidate must know the tactic to get indulged inside the project and cooperate their ideas with the respective other members of the team.
- Advise your teammates with our past experience
- Motivate them with positive vibes to reduce the work pressure and influence them to work under pressure.
- Set some roadmap for the other team members.
Q: How do you maintain a work/life balance?
Working inside the organization without any distractions sounds like unseen. We often found that distractions are everywhere, whether working from the organization, or from remote places.
Maintaining a healthy life balance could be a daunting task for employees. If the remote developer is able to cope with the over-hectic work lifestyle then he is able to manage and perform flexibly.
The employee must be able to reduce his obnoxious time and say ‘no’ to the over then reach things. Schedule the time as per the priorities. Separate the work and life chores. Find the time to relax, prepare a list of things to do, and find some spare time for yourself. Make use of project/communication tools to utilize the time.
Related Post: Freelance Remote Developers Vs Agency – Which Is Better?
3. Licensing and Regulations
Licensing is the process to give other companies the privilege to make their own products.
Businesses get the benefits of licensing by giving permission to patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual properties.
Staffing the company in remote regions is easy nowadays, especially for small and short-term requirements. Before placing your employees in remote locations, you should undergo some staffing and regulations. Conversion is never an easier task, every business must undergo some process to get their employees to work from distant locations.
Q: Are you aware of open source licensing and when to use open source libraries and products as part of commercial software?
The developer is working with different software either commercial or open source, then he must know how much time and complexity to work with this software.
It is always good to use it from open source, however, there are also chances of security risk. The programmer can use the licensed code commercially. There are no restrictions from the companies.
One such open source software license is from MIT License, which can be used for ruby on rails, node.js, and jQuery. The developer has the freedom to do whatever with the code as long as he uses the copyright in the software. Apache License 2.0 is also meant to be used for open source commercially and modified anywhere in the documentation, as long as you do not break the infringement of the software. If you cross the limits of features (like documentation view, or monitor), you may block from the companies to use it further.
4. Quality
The ultimate motive is not how much work is accomplished or the task is finished, but it is the quality of work that matters. See if the applicant is able to answer the question.
Q: How do you feel about code reviews?
If the developer is fair enough with his expertise, then he must know how to find the bug inside the codes, he understands the code, and its dependency, he has good knowledge of the repositories where the code is dependent, how to integrate the code with third-party APIs and likewise.
If somewhere in the middle the programmer finds any difficulty then he refers to coding websites or forums like Stackoverflow, Github, etc.
He must be friendly with his coworkers. Share his knowledge and if the teammate is stuck somewhere then he quickly fixes his doubts. The dedicated developer does maintain the balance of both skills and friendliness. Both professional and interpersonal skills combinedly relay a positive note to the business to achieve its goals.
It is able to assure you about no coding difficulties then, you can put him for the flexible working that is to work remotely.
Q: What tools or workflows do you use to ensure quality control?
For the development the tools required are:
- Software development tools: quality assurance tool, test-driven development tool
- Framework testing tools: PyUnit for Python, RSpec for Ruby
- Manual testing: Selenium
- Quality control tools: Histogram charts, Pareto charts
- Advanced product quality process
Quality control tools are vital for controlling the quality of the development process. They improve the way to solve the product quality and analyze the effects on it in the future.
5. Personal Development
Once you interview the candidate with the following above questions, the last on the list is personal ethics and etiquette. How well the respective applicant is sound in his personality traits? Don’t be the judge, but treat the other person as a companion, and question him to know well about his personality and interests.
Q: What are you doing to grow your skills?
With this question, you may ask the developer what are his recent goals and what planning he has to upskill it. After a year where he wants his career to fly. The technologies are changing rapidly, it is impossible to work in the latest frameworks or the requirements of the product in any language unless he is not used to the same in the past.
The developer is well determined to carry each and every challenge as an opportunity. When he is of a positive mindset and upgrading his technical elements is the only way he will be a fruitful insight for the business and the team.
Q: What approach do you use to update yourself about technology and the market?
The developer is the one person responsible for the entire code. He has to be market attuned and polish his skills which are in demand in the marketplace. Schedule meetings and accumulate ideas together with the other teammates and the parts of the team. The right approach will only land your business to meet its objectives.
Ready for Hiring Remote Developers?
Beating the competitiveness of the market is the wise approach to transforming your working culture remotely. In the blog, we have covered every question that needs to be asked to the applicant to check his performance and how well he has that genre of vibes that could match your business. Before interviewing, find out the best platforms to hire remote developers and pick only the best profile of the niche candidates that you can consider for the further interview process.
Once you make the decision of hiring remote developers, the next thing is from where you do hire him. There are a plethora of companies present outside that offer outsourcing developers for the remote. You can find out the best one. In addition to that for assurance and belief, you can even check out our product’s list which has many previous accomplishments that match the client’s needs. You can always ask our support executive for a one-week trial demo and then assure your ‘yes’ confirmation.
