How do I find a freelance iOS developer? Explore tips for attracting the best talent and maintaining high employee retention rates. Also, check which professional level is right for your task and what are the hallmarks of a great developer.
The first tip for building a highly effective development team, regardless of the platform you intend to work with, is to study the needs of your project.
Plan your budget, set deadlines, and carefully define team roles, starting by analyzing your overall idea.
After that, move on to defining the goals of your business and project. Then move on to the list of functions and development priorities.
During the planning phase of the project, it will become clear whether it is profitable to develop an iOS application instead of Android.
Once you're confident in your platform choice, move on to exploring the differences between the different professional levels of iOS developers and what key competencies they should achieve anyway. There are several things you can consider when evaluating candidate profiles:
# 1. Areas of experience and practical knowledge
Hire an iOS developer with all the expertise you need to hit the jackpot. Experience can include working on projects of a similar size, in your market, or on the same type of product that you need to create.
There are three professional levels of iOS developer:
- Junior,
- Middle,
- Senior.
Among other things, the main difference between the estimates is the number of years the employee has been practicing their profession.
The youngest has less than 2 years of professional experience, and the older has more than 5 years.
You should also take into account the number of projects, their complexity, and the development of iOS developer skills.
Sometimes remote iOS developers need special experience to work on your project. Expertise is the practical knowledge gained by an employee while working on a particular type of project (such as eBanking or eHealth) or performing complex technical tasks such as integrating an AI algorithm.
#2. Portfolio
A candidate's portfolio is an opportunity to test the real level of their skills, knowledge, and experience. During your interview, ask your potential iOS developer for detailed information on their responsibilities and duties on the last three projects, learn more about their preferred work style and personal technical accomplishments.
Remember, you can also check applications developed by a candidate on your iPhone or search for reviews of their work online.
#3. Communication and other soft skills
Find iOS developers with similar cultural backgrounds, values, professionalism, and confidence in your success. This approach will help avoid misunderstandings on the part of the management and speed up the development process.
The soft skill set includes the candidate's ability to plan their work, work in a team, be respectful and open with colleagues, take the initiative and overcome difficulties. Statistics from 2019 show that hired iPhone app developers mostly opt for strong, soft skills over the typical hard ones.
Bottom line
Are you looking for iOS programmers to work with? The good news is that today you can choose the right talent without limiting yourself to your local talent pool. Outsourcing service provider Ideamotive is now available to everyone.
By working with us, you get the following pros and cons.
Pros:
- You can find the whole team very quickly since outsourcing companies constantly keep a lot of specialists ready to participate in a new project.
- No legal support is required for every remote iOS developer - you only sign a contract with a development provider.
- You do not directly manage the project, which allows you to save on many operational issues.
- One iOS engineer can be easily replaced by another. If you don't like them, the team can be expanded (or hired) at any time.
- High corporate professional standards, which you can verify by reading customer reviews.
- Custom development takes less time than in-house development.
- In the end, you get the top-notch finished product.
Cons:
- Such collaboration is less flexible and requires a clear and comprehensive project documentation and development schedule.
The outsourcing company takes over the entire project that you entrusted to it. Design, technology stack, ongoing support, complete project management, and quality tracking are the most common issues that can be delegated to an outsourcing company.
The iOS developers hired from the vendor team up with all the other specialists needed to solve your project.
There is also sad news. As software is now used in all areas of business, and the demand for new solutions among regular users is growing, your competitors can hire the best developers if you are not fast and flexible enough.
While there are fewer iOS users than Android users, they are more willing to pay, which makes native iOS development so important.
To avoid budgetary risks, we advise you to analyze what type of iOS developer you need (level, area of expertise, experience in implementing a specific project, etc.). Start by evaluating the project development task, and then switch to factors that can help you prioritize one candidate over another.
Next, you need to decide which form of collaboration with hired app developers is your preference.
While an in-house team is smart when there is a constant need for technical tasks, freelancers and dedicated development teams remain the best option for single or short-term projects.
Your budget, timeline, project complexity, and scope will also influence the final decision.
Finally, feel free to check out the basic set of potential iOS developer skills, including programming and hard skills, portfolios, and guidelines.
