“Can you do this project/task by this date?”
Honestly speaking, if you merely want to get a job done (nothing but a makeshift one), this one question is enough to get you a developer. This is an industry-wide practice and isn’t completely unknown. What’s also unknown is that this doesn’t really cut it anymore.
You need subject experts if you’re in for even a fraction of some serious business. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for someone to run freelance errands or if you’re in the business of managing a Drupal development agency. Finding the perfect developer for your Drupal related tasks should be a match made in heaven.
Fact of the matter is, it can be a challenge to find the a developer that best suits your needs. Although the Drupal community has countless professionals, some sort of selection criteria for your hiring practices is essential. I have listed down a step-by-step sequence of activities that, if followed in order, can help you successfully get a Drupal developer.
Know What The Job Entails
There is a broad spectrum of Drupal Developers. You need to know the kind of job you need done and the kind of person that experts in that particular field. The roles of Drupal developers includes: Drupal site builder, frontend developer, devops engineer, backend developer and designer.
The first most important aspect is to define the role of your Drupal developer. You should be able to document the details of what is expected including all the requirements of the job and experience of the developer. Once you’ve successfully narrowed down the kind of expertise you’re looking for, you should be able to carefully appraise the candidate.
The rest of the steps pertain to the assessing of the candidate’s skills.
Drupal Knowledge, Obviously!
Needless to say, your prospective developer needs the necessary skills to carry the particular Drupal job. For instance, a frontend developer who focuses on the user experience of the site needs the necessary skills to customize the presentation of the website including the customization of themes or creating new ones.
Typically, an efficient Drupal developer has the knowledge of using and implementing modules and plugins of the content management system. Simultaneously, the developer is expected to have honed his/her knowledge of the tools including PHP, HTML, JS/JQuery and CSS as per the requirements. In essence, it all depends on the kind of developer you intend to hire and what subject matter expertise is required for the job.
The best way of gauging the skills of a developer is to ask them to review an existing code. This way you can judge their expertise, speed and quality among other things. Most important of all, a developer should be curious for coming up with unique solutions. With a review and feedback from the developer, you can judge their innovative skills.
At the same time, make sure to check how the candidate manages time and handles the assigned tasks. This aspect is important because a developer often needs to prioritize tasks as per the requirements of the job.
Note: Expertise and know-how of Drupal 8 (if relevant) is an added advantage and shows the learning ability and curiosity of the developer.
Drupal Experience and Level of Engagement
Experience of a developer is what defines his/her knowledge on the subject matter. Theoretical knowledge of the content management system is equally important but practical knowledge benefits the developer in problem solving and generating ideas in Drupal web development services.
Relevant experience in languages such as PHP can definitely fill in a lot of gaps. At the same time, a developer’s contribution and participation in the Drupal community are also some of the most relevant Drupal experiences. High levels of engagement on Drupal.org issue queues and forums along with work on different projects demonstrates the developer’s commitment and Drupal expertise.
Conclusion
As for finding Drupal developers, Drupal.org is one of the best and reliable resources out there. The portal lets you look for both beginners and experts in the subject of Drupal. It is always better to determine the needs of your Drupal related job before looking for talent.
Hamza Zia
Hamza is a Drupal Community Manager at Cloudways - A Managed Drupal Hosting Platform. He loves to write about Drupal and related topics. During his free time, he can be seen obsessing over Football, Cars, Android and Gaming.
