Front-End Developers Hiring Guide

The user interface or UI is the first thing your clients see when they visit your website. Considering that people are visual creatures, a well-made UI can involve a bigger target audience. In order to build a high-quality user interface, it’s necessary to hire front-end developers. So, there is a guide that will assist you during the hiring process.

Seniority of Front-End Developers

Developers are usually divided into three categories according to their knowledge and experience. As a result, there are junior, middle and senior engineers. Which one should you hire?

Junior Front-End Developer. They have just started working and usually have knowledge of one programming language or framework. Having less than a year of working experience they are able to solve only a limited number of tasks. Front-end developers of this level often require mentoring from more qualified colleagues.

Middle to Senior Front-End Developers. The more experience developers gain, the more complicated tasks they can conquer. These engineers already have enough experience to examine project objectives or budget limitations to choose the best technologies. Such builders have already worked 3-5+ years and can predict the consequences of their decisions.

So, what developer to hire? The answer always lays in the requirements and objectives of your project. If you have a quite small project (e.g. a landing page), a junior developer may be everything that you need. However, the more complicated tools you want to implement, the more skilled developers are required.

Front-End Developer Responsibilities

If you are not a technical guru, there are some front-end engineer’s responsibilities that are important to consider beforehand.

• Develop a layout of an app utilizing HTML and CSS
• Create a client-side: user interactions, animations, etc.
• Write clean code
• Optimize apps in order to achieve a good performance
• Cooperate with other members of the team

Front-End Developer Skills

Front-end engineers typically use such tools as HTML and CSS. However, it’s impossible to ignore JavaScript language. This technology is good for creating dynamic user interactions.

Furthermore, there are a lot of other basis technologies and skills for a front-end developer.

• Responsive design
• Preprocessors for CSS like SCSS and Sass
• Module frameworks like Angular, React, Vue and others
• AJAX
• Backbone.js or jQuery
• Bootstrap
• Module bundlers like Webpack
• Git

Front-End Developer Hiring Options

There are three popular ways to find web development service vendors: freelancer, in-house developer, and remote engineer. Each of them has some benefits and drawbacks that are discussed below.

Freelancer

It’s obvious that this variant is the most affordable one. Hiring freelancers only when you need them, you are able to save money on sick leaves, vacations, etc. However, hiring freelance developers may cause a lot of problems. Many freelance engineers live in another time zone, so it’s difficult to control the development process. Moreover, you have no protection if the freelancer leaves your project.

Platforms to hire:

• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Freelancer

In-house developers

Working with a monthly salary and in well-equipped office, developers become a good team and, as a result, solve urgent tasks faster. On the other hand, hiring an in-house developer is time-consuming because you need time to find, interview, and onboard engineers. Moreover, there are some expenses like taxes, hardware, software, rent, etc.

Platforms to hire:

• Indeed
• Glassdoor
• LinkedIn

Outsourced developers

Nowadays there are many offshore software development companies from different countries, so prices can vary a lot. So, outsourcing engineers work on your project remotely, as a result, you don’t need to pay for office rent, taxes, etc. Moreover, it’s necessary to mention that these developers work as a team, so the communication process is much easier. However, locating in different countries you may face a time zone problem.

Platforms to hire:

• Clutch
• GoodFirms
• IT Firms

So, concluding this part, freelance developers are good for building some small projects. But if your project is quite big and complicated, it’s better to choose between in-house developers and outsourcing vendors.

Front-End Engineer Interview Questions

During the interview, it’s important to check the candidates’ hard and soft skills. Hard skills are about any necessary technical knowledge. For example, there can be such questions as:

• What is Angular?
• What are the key components of Angular? Explain them.
• What are Angular directives?
• What is routing?

Soft skills consist of social, communication and other skills required to work in a team. During the interview, you may check such abilities:

• Adaptability
• Conflict management
• Creativity
• Decision making

Things to Know Before Hiring Front-End Engineers

• Setting clear requirements allows you to avoid misunderstandings.
• Making a contract with developers protects you from any possible risks. It’s important to set time terms and money expenses in this document.
• Breaking down the project into sprints gives an opportunity to set deadlines for every sprint. As a result, you are able to track the development process.

Average Front-End Developer Hourly Rate

Freelance Front-End Developer Rates

In 2017, Codementor.io conducted a study. According to it, the highest front-end developer rates are in the USA and Australia. Eastern Europe is one of the cheapest regions. For example, in North America and Australia developers can earn from $101 to $120 per hour. However, living in Latin America, Western Europe, and Middle East developer hourly rates vary from $61 to $80.

In-House Front-End Developer Salary

Hiring a developer on a full-time basis, it’s more important to know their annual salary. The most expensive countries are the US, Israel, Australia, and Germany. The average salary range from $50,955 to $68,600. However, there are cheap countries like Ukraine, South Africa, and India where average annual salaries are from $6,206 to 22,000. Furthermore, front-end developers salary can depend even on the city where they live. So, if you want to find out more information, it’s better to visit Indeed.

Outsourced Front-End Developer Rates

As for global outsourcing rates, the tendency is the same: the most expensive regions are North America and Australia while the cheapest -- Asia and Eastern Europe. As a result, in North America and Australia average outsourced front-end developer cost is $140 or $105 per hour respectively. But in Eastern Europe, the average hourly rate is $55.

So, wrapping up, hiring front-end developer can be time-consuming and, of course, requires some technical knowledge. Hope that our guide has helped you.