With nearly 9 percent of professional developers using Go in 2019, the growth of this modern programming language is truly impressive. Released just in 2009, it already managed to surpass some more mature technologies in terms of popularity. Built by Google’s engineers, it quickly became a hit across the whole industry and now other major companies, like Uber and Apple, also hire Golang developers.
Are you planning to innovate your products with the power of Golang as well? If so, you will find our Go developer hiring guide a true must-read!
Why do Golang developers love the language and what does it mean for you?
In the world dominated by well-known and reliable technologies, new programming languages have a tough time gaining popularity. While every solution will find its early adopters, only a small share will become recognizable by the broader public.
What made Golang stand out from the crowd? Why do Go developers love their language?
- It’s easy to learn.
- It’s clean and easy to read.
- It’s lightweight.
- It’s fast.
- It has the support of Google, multiple other major companies, and a great community around it.
- It’s open-source.
But how does it exactly translate to the needs of tech companies? Why should you hire Golang developers?
- Projects built with Go reach hard-to-beat performance results — this means they load fast, providing a smooth experience for your customers.
- You can reach milestones and deliver the end-product faster.
- Golang is great for building your back-end, developing microservices-style software, and data engineering.
- The language works amazingly both when it comes to Golang web development as well as Golang app development.
- Golang supports cross-platform development for Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it easier to deliver your great products to more users.
- The language is a great choice for companies with a tighter budget.
- It works great for companies that plan to scale fast.
The hard skills to look for when you want to hire Go developers
When you already decide to hire Go developers, it’s time to look for candidates with specific tech skillset. This will vary a bit depending on your unique needs — for example, Golang mobile development will require a bit different experience and knowledge than Golang web development or Golang data engineering.
Below, you will find the most common skills requested by companies planning to hire Go developers.
- Expert knowledge of Go and other relevant languages
Understanding Golang itself is an obvious thing but knowing other languages is also beneficial — both for the developer and your company. The choice of this additional language will depend on your exact project needs. Usually, the most useful languages for Golang developers to know are Python, Java, and/or C++.
- Experience with relevant frameworks, libraries, and tools
Once again, specific requirements will depend on the type of product you are developing. If you wish to invest in Golang web development, you will need a dev experienced with frameworks like Revel or Gorilla. If Golang app development is your thing, knowledge of Gomobile will surely be useful. More general Go-related tools that you should consider include dependency management tools (e.g. Godep) or debuggers (e.g. Delve).
- Understanding of other relevant technologies
When it comes to Golang developers, this category will most likely include knowledge of databases-related tech, e.g. understanding of SQL/NoSQL and experience with operations on cloud (Azure, AWS).
- Writing clean code and knowledge of Git
We combined these two as they both support the future-proofness of your project. Clean code kept within Git allows new developers to easily jump into the development process and exchange tasks smoothly. It’s crucial especially for companies who plan to scale fast and already think of hiring additional Go developers in the future.
Hire Golang developers with the right set of soft skills
Soft skills matter alike for both smaller and bigger teams. The right dev can inspire people and power inspiration across the company.
What soft skills you should be specifically looking for when you want to hire Go developers?
- Being a team worker
Being able to easily cooperate with others is a must in the modern IT world. As projects scale, it’s impossible to keep their maintenance assigned to only one person and healthy team collaboration becomes crucial.
- Great time management
As Golang developers often have to switch between maintaining their already developed products and building new ones, mastering time management should be the core interest of a professional dev.
- Hunt for knowledge
It’s been more than a decade since Golang was released to the public but there is still a lot to discover when it comes to its development. By following the recent trends and being active in the community, Golang developers can improve their skills and innovate your product even further.
Top Go developer job interview questions
Both hard skills and soft skills are best assessed by running a proper job interview. To make the process easier for you, we recommend some of our favorite Go developer job interview questions below.
As a technical interview should be run by a person who understands the language, if you do not have such knowledge yourself, we recommend asking an expert to join you for the interview rounds. This could be another Golang developer, an IT project manager, or a software consultant.
- What are the differences between struct and interface?
- How do Goroutines work?
- What’s panic in Go? How to handle it?
- What’s the difference between "type a string" and "type a = string”?
- How would you approach breaking up a monolith into Go microservices?
- How would you implement LRU Cache in Go?
- What is the difference between exported and unexported identifiers?
- How to append a slice in Golang?
- What are your go-to Golang web development frameworks? Why these?
- How to find a key in a map in Golang?
How to hire Go developers who truly fit your needs?
Even after doing the technical interview, you still might end up with a few different candidates for the Go developer role. How to choose the right one? We recommend looking into the three main areas of company fit: the product, industry, and company culture fit.
- Product fit
As there are so many projects Golang can be used for, it’s crucial to hire Go developers who already have experience with the type of product you are developing. The closer fit you will find, the better for you — devs with such previous experience might already know how to develop some of the unique features you want to have included in your product.
- Industry fit
Similar benefits can be gained from hiring Golang developers who have worked with companies in the same sector as your business. Additionally, such a fit will also mean the devs already have experience with your target customer group.
- Company culture fit
Just like soft skills, this area of company fit improves the overall cooperation within the whole company — which leads to better, more innovative products. What can be taken into consideration when assessing the company culture fit? Diversity of your team, style of management at your company, approach to remote work, and more. Find out what your candidate wants from the business they work at and ask yourself if you can provide them with such an environment.
Who else will you need?
Great Golang developers can be responsible only for part of your project. Depending on your needs, you will require to fill a set of additional roles. Maybe you need a UX designer and IT Project Manager? Or possibly additional Java developer and data scientists are who you are looking for?
No matter what your exact requirements are, with Ideamotive you will get connected to the right professionals. We run an industry-leading network of top IT talents from across the industries and roles. And if you are simply planning to hire Golang developers — we can help you with that too. We will find the best people with the right experience and skills, so you can be sure they will deliver the exact results you need.
