How to Hire Dedicated Drupal Developers? – [8 Steps to Follow]

Drupal is an open-source, free to use web content management system. Written in PHP, Drupal is one of the well-known web development solutions in the technology world. At Least 2.3% of the websites globally, use the platform as a backend framework for a personal blog, corporate, political and government websites. Drupal enjoys a vast developers’ community with more than 1.39 million members including newbies and experienced developers. One can get answers or feedback for any of their queries from experts within no time.

If you are having your business website based on a Drupal framework and it requires modifications or integration of new features, functionalities considering usage styling of the current generation. You would require to hire dedicated Drupal developers so that they can customize your website in no time within budget.

Here in this article, you will get to know all the major points need to be considered while hiring dedicated Drupal developers and places where you can look for web developers for hire.

So let’s start with:

Affirm: Exactly What You Want in Dedicated Drupal Developers

While looking for an expert Drupal developer, it is necessary to make sure that exactly what you want. The job title, role and description must be clear in the job post. Also, the project requirements should be as in-depth as much as possible. So that those who match the criteria only apply for the opening.

Choose Best Platforms to Post Your Drupal Developer Opening

In the current time, there are several platforms (portals and agencies) which offer the facility of web developers for hire in the world. Choose the best platforms which suit your requirements for Drupal developer opening. Here we created a list of platforms which provides the facility of posting job for a web developer to hire, let’s have a look:

Your Website

It has been noticed a lot of traffic filtered to the About Us section and then the Careers page when visitors hit the official website. So it is necessary to keep the Careers page accurate and updated with such job openings in order to receive an application for the current openings.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth or mouth publicity plays a vital role in the success of almost everything. Same applies when you look for hiring dedicated Drupal developers. Your contacts who have done web development work using the Drupal framework can suggest you the best candidate for your Drupal developers’ requirement.

Drupal.org

Drupal jobs or Drupal.org is a dedicated platform for hiring the best web developer in the segment. Here you can find a long list of beginners or expert Drupal developers for hire. However, this platform charges a certain amount to post jobs or search resumes.

Job Portals

You can post jobs for your requirement on renowned job portals like Indeed, Monster, Simply Hired and Linkedin. These platforms rank in the top 10 searches when you Google, “Drupal Developer Jobs”.

Freelancing Sites

Other than the dedicated job portals, there are several websites which offer to the freelance projects. You can post Drupal developer job openings on sites like Elance, Freelancer, ODesk and Craigslist.

Social Media

Currently, businesses are making use of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram for posting their job requirements. Companies use their official social media pages or post job openings on other pages dedicated to job openings in the technology sector. So these platforms can also be used as the best place for finding talent according to the project requirement.

Note: While looking for Drupal developers on Drupal.org, you will get the benefit of checking developers involvement, contributions, participation in forums/discussion, and more while going through their profiles.

Check out Drupal Developers on Social Media Platforms

A little snooping on social media accounts of developers is good to find the best companion. The best out of them is Linkedin. A well crafted Linkedin profile speaks a lot about the developer’s professional journey. Here are some key items worth watching while snooping through the developer’s profile.

Experience/Time Spend on Projects

It is important to check on the number of projects, duration of projects and depth of projects. There are two types of developers: Freelancers and associated with a company. Those who are Freelancers, for them it is good to check the duration of each project they worked upon. While for those who work with an organization their time period there reveals stability. In case any Freelance developer is working on a new project every week, there must be issues with stability.

Look at The Summary Section

The summary section tells a lot about the working ability of the developer. If the profile summary is precise and brief not only will he/she be good in communication but also their coding will also be pretty streamlined.

Connections of Drupal Developer in Community

The number of connections demonstrates collaborative traits of the candidates. The more connections with the Drupal community hints an active involvement of the candidate in the community and passion for Drupal. Since, a true passionate Drupal-ion will also always be connected with the community, keep on sharing updates at regular intervals, volunteering and more.

Recommendations

This section tells about the working experience of the client with the candidate. Basically, it’s client reviews demonstrating the abilities and professionalism of the developers. Considering which you can rely on the developer for completion of the project within scheduled time and budget.

Groups and Discussions

This section showcases how serious and active the Developer is in the community.

Shortlist Candidates for Drupal Development Job

After all those prior steps like what exactly you want, what are the job requirements and where you are going to post for a job opening? It’s time for shortlisting candidates accordingly.

Also Read: How to Hire the Best Web Developer in India?

Check for the ‘Words’

While reading the resumes keep in mind that they are interpreting your job requirements mentioned in the Statement of Work or online posting. To do so, you can check for the words that match technical requirements for your project like familiar working with Drupal versions, modules, speciality- front-end/back-end, the industry and so on.

Evaluate Working Experience

It is important to consider how many years of experience candidates have in the sector. Along with it, don’t forget to check on candidates’ familiarity working with Drupal previous versions like D4, D5 or D6. Working on different versions showcases a candidate’s ability to take challenges and resolving issues that occurred during development. Along with it, the experience is not at all that matters a lot, enthusiasm and not giving up attitude are also considered among major attributes since not everyone has years of working experience, few start fresh and evolve.

Give Them Situations

This tactics of providing developers with specific scenarios is good to evaluate their level of analysis, judgement, presence of mind, turnaround time and knowledge. Also, it will give an idea of how they would handle and respond according to the situation.

Check the Community Involvement

Don’t forget to check the community involvement of a Drupal developer, if he claims to be an expert. Since if he has little activity then claims are false and there could be something wrong. On the other hand, there are several developers who don’t remain active on forums and in communities all the time. Still, they are damn good in their work, such developers are exceptions and their enthusiasm and passion towards Drupal make them an expert.

Consider Developers Technical Expertise

It is the best way to check if the candidate is worth hiring for your Drupal project or not. To do so, you can ask to review some of their existing code or request for some ad hoc coding for yours. It will help in evaluating judgement, the accuracy of expertise, the speed and the quality of coding. It is better if the developer has experience of working on a Drupal 8 version since it is the most preferred version for Drupal development. Other than this, one can ask developers for their GitHub id to review the code and Drupal.org profile page so that their contributions can also be reviewed.

Analyze Drupal Developers Communication Style

Several times, it has been noticed that developers have expertise in their genre but remains not that fluent in terms of communication. It comes out as a negative that every employer doesn’t want to deal with. So before signing the developer/agency for the project, make sure to have proper communication and check if their communication style matches your company culture/goals or not. Since an effortless communication ensures on-time delivery of the project without any hassle.

Also Read: Everything You Should Know About PHP Web Development

Choose the Best-fit According to Your Finances

After you have talked with several freelance developers and two or more Drupal Development Agency. Figure out their quotations for the completion of the project and choose the best that fits your budget. Hiring an agency or freelance developer may cost you less as compared to an in-house Drupal developer. But the latter option is way worthy in the long term scenario. Other than this, your choice of selection based on your business and ROI models.

Make Sure Developers are Ideal Development Partner or Not

How would you decide that the selected freelancer or Drupal development firm is your ideal development partner or not? Since each work based on their own process and culture so choose accordingly. Also, there are complaints from the clients that once development firms commit to doing the project, they become hard to reach out. And don’t provide a proper update about the project status. In addition to this, clients did not receive what decided at the time of the agreement.

Following are a few key decision pointers which not only help you in finding an ideal development partner but also will keep you in the loop.

• A project manager with whom you can discuss project status and everything related.
• A portal where critical issues and bugs can be reported.
• A dedicated developer who can fix issues immediately.
• A dedicated development team to handle the project until its completion and release.

Go With Your Gut

Last but not the least, it is a non-technical recommendation apart from the above-mentioned facts which will surely help you in hiring dedicated Drupal developers for your project. Go with your gut instinct, if you are not being able to decide which one to select. Firstly, look for how many factors are responsible for hiring dedicated Drupal developers for your web development solution and make decisions based on your gut instinct.