Hiring a web developer is a tricky job: it takes time and effort to find the right fit for your task or company. In this guide, we’ll cover differences between the front end and back end, as a refresher, and tackle the most interesting and engaging part — writing that perfect job description that will attract the best “ninjas” and “wizards” of the front end.
Who Is a Front End Developer and What They Do
There are two sides to web development: front end and back end. Front end comprises the making of the “client-side” of the website, with which the user interacts, while the back end concerns everything else that happens behind the scenes (servers, databases, etc.). The common knowledge stack of a good front end developer includes the combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as the core libraries (BootStrap, jQuery) and frameworks (React, Vue.js, and Angular). Some back-end knowledge (or other programming languages, like Python, PHP, Ruby) wouldn’t hurt but are not really necessary, if you’re specifically looking for the front end and nothing else. But the advanced front-end developer will definitely have a combination of both front- and back-end skills, including server-side technologies like Node.js.
Other fundamental parts of the skillset are CSS preprocessors, RESTful services and API, understanding the responsive and mobile design, cross-browser development, content management systems (if you’re building an e-commerce marketplace), being familiar with testing and debugging, as well as Git and version control systems.
The next step in determining what specific knowledge you want to look for is having a clear picture of why you need a developer and what they need to accomplish. For example, if all you need is a landing page, then that’s easy, you’ll find a good developer that probably won’t charge more than 20 dollars per hour. However, if you intend to develop a web application, then the core frameworks like Angular or React would be among the must-have skills. When skills such as these are required, prepare to spend more than 20 dollars (some charge $60 or $100 per hour). So, before embarking on writing a job description, prepare as much documentation and specifications of your project as possible, including the length of the project and the estimated amount of time the developer needs to commit themselves to the project.
Writing a Perfect Front-End Developer Job Description
As scientists are not experts in the whole world of science, web developers are not experts in all parts of web development. That is to say, the responsibilities of front-end really fall into three distinct categories, namely front-end implementation, application development, and front-end operations. Front-end implementation mainly concerns responsive web design, animation, and front-end performance. App development requires extensive knowledge of JavaScript frameworks, JS compilers and transpilers, process automation, and testing. And finally, front-end operations include build tools, deployment, and speed. The thing is don’t expect your front-end developer to be responsible for all parts of the front-end architecture, like web design, because web design is (obviously) a prerogative of a web designer, rather than a front-end developer. However, there are some developers who can design a website, but our advice is that everyone needs to do the jobs they best at doing, meaning, the coding is for coders, the design is for designers.
A good job description must include a detailed job brief, where you mention what your company does and how great you are to work with, as well as whom you’re searching for and what the job is about. The next thing is the responsibilities, where you outline the core duties which you wish your developer to accomplish. Then there are the requirements that you seek in a developer; and finally, you can mention the steps of the interview process that the candidate needs to pass in order to work for you.
If you’re looking for a specific formula, then, please be advised that there’s none, however, there are some tips and secrets to boost up the attractiveness of your job description. And here they are. The best job post is the combination of marketing, the reality of the position, skills, competencies, and a side note of the company’s culture. The greatest talent must be lured in with something that is absolutely beyond pure technical stuff because, after all, no one is a robot, everyone’s human.
Here are some tips to boost up a marketing side a little:
- Get the job title right. The best posts with great titles attract the most attention. A person aspiring to be a JavaScript Ninja probably won’t get hooked on something plain like “Need a Front-End Dev ASAP.” Also, case in point, the laid-back title signifies the more open cultural approach and creative opportunities. However, there’s another point of view: whenever the candidate sees the “creative” type of a job description, they can be turned off or confused. We do think, however, that some of the best talents can be, nevertheless, drawn to the more creative titles. So give it a try and see how that works for your company. The creativity will really help you stand out, just don’t go overboard and write something esoteric and completely out of touch with reality. The latter won’t work with some pragmatic programmers.
- A job brief or a job overview is where you can play with a candidate’s most candid emotions. You can add something related to your company, how cool it is, or better say, how the prospective candidate can help the society, because everyone, deep down, truly wants to contribute something to the community. And if that someone doesn’t want to give their best selves for the society and community, maybe you don’t need that candidate? Use a very aspiring language like “this role will contribute to the open source community”, or “leading team you’re going to help the community grow.” We think if a person is truly passionate about their job, they will certainly get hooked by some of those wordings.
- Another thing is to actually get the job description right. Don’t look for purple unicorns juggling around different roles and succeeding at each, that probably won’t happen in real life. So if you’re looking for a specialized skill set, you’d better say so, don’t put the skills that are not relevant to the job and the profession. Don’t expect a front-end developer to be an expert in public speaking or know Ruby when there’s no need for Ruby on your landing page.
- Make the description as detailed as possible. The length of the description must fall within 700-2,000 words, and if it does, that’s your sweet spot! Include day-to-day responsibilities, possibly breaking down tasks by percentage, outline how the role functions within the organization, if there are any superiors or supervisors the developer responds to. Provide the desired relevant years of experience, but keep in mind that some of the best people in tech might not have the formal education per se or tons of years of experience. Supply a salary range, do not write things like “salary is negotiable,” because, honestly, it is not, you obviously have a company budget and sometimes it’s just not possible to meet candidates’ expectations, so you’d better outline the salary range which is acceptable for your organization.
- Provide details about your organization and why it’s unique or stands out from other similar tech companies. I am totally into creative messages, but they won’t necessarily work for everybody, so if you’re not willing to experiment, then avoid superlatives, extreme modifiers, and words like “off the charts,” “best of the best,” “perfectionists,” etc. Instead, focus on culture: highlight the benefits, perks that come working for you, like a flexible schedule, soccer teams, happy hour Friday, anything goes. Also, bust the gender-bias and get rid of detrimental biased language. Neutral wording results in more applicants replying to your message, so think of that for a little.
Sample Job Description to Attract Top Talent in Front-End Development
Now, it’s time to put it all together and see how the sample template might look like:
Title: Front-End JavaScript Developer (React, Vue, Angular)
Salary expectations: $5,000 after taxes
Required experience: 3 years
Conditions: Full time, remote work
Soshace is an online hiring platform for web developers that offers multiple remote work opportunities lasting on average from 6 to 9 months (and sometimes more). We are looking for a long-term partnership, and when your first project ends, we’ll get you another job, and so on. We expect you to work eight hours a day from Monday to Friday in your time zone. Working with Soshace means advancing in your career, working from anywhere in the world, taking up the most challenging and fascinating projects, being part of a multicultural and diverse team, as well as receiving and being rewarded accordingly. Working remotely means you have opportunities on developing your own projects during your free time, there’s no need to commute back and forth, you have more time and energy to commit yourself to any open source initiatives or build something of your own.
Whom are we looking for?
You have at least 1-year experience in commercial projects with one of the frameworks: React, React Native, Vue.js or Angular 2+;
You have more than 3-year commercial experience with JavaScript;
You have a portfolio of relevant projects;
You know HTML, CSS, cross-browser and adaptive layout;
You have good writing and speaking skills in English (intermediate and above).
Expect the following steps of the interview process:
Primary interview (a detailed discussion in English of your resume and portfolio);
Online test (in English);
Interview with a technical specialist.
Your core responsibilities would largely depend on the projects you choose, but you will always have the choice and protection guaranteed to you by Soshace.
Soshace is a company that’s dedicated to building a unique remote work culture, which we believe is the future of work. You can read more about the company and the testimonials from the devs we’ve already been working with at Clutch and Glassdoor.
Read More:
Perhaps, you’ll be interested in reading more articles on the following topics:
Web Development Contract
Conducting a Better Technical Interview
Coding Interview Tools
Hire a Freelance Developer
Hire a Mobile App Developer
Best Apps for Hiring and Recruitment Management
Angular Interview Questions
JavaScript Interview Questions Part 1, 2, 3
Vue.js Interview Questions
