Globalization has unified the software development industry and so, ‘full-stack developer’ is becoming a buzzword and an in-demand job title. It has, therefore, become a challenging and, at times, daunting task to hire full-stack developers.

A full-stack developer can offer expertise in both the front-end development and back-end development of a project and the database. If a developer possesses all the necessary qualities, what else should a hiring manager look for?

Before explaining why your company needs and how to go about hiring one, let's define full-stack development.

By the end of this article, you’ll be able to identify the qualities you should look for when hiring a full-stack developer as well as the red flags to look out for.

Let’s begin.

What Does It Mean To Be A Full-stack Developer?

The term "full-stack developer" refers to software specialists capable of creating both the front-end and back-end of a website or a software application (Android, iOS, etc.). Your minimum viable product can be brought to market automatically with the help of professionals familiar with most programming languages or software development frameworks.   

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Business organizations typically hire full-stack developers for the crucial MVP stage when launching a product, website, or API application. Minimum viable products (MVPs) are created before launching online products.

With the MVP stage, you have the opportunity to fine-tune your product to meet user expectations and provide a superior digital customer experience. Full-stack developers have extensive experience in agile development, allowing them to get the most out of their skills. 

The best full-stack developers serve as your project's technical leader and make all the decisions when it's time, ensuring tremendous success for your mobile app development. Mobile and web apps are complicated and run on different languages, frameworks, and development processes. Your hiring process must strictly focus on your helpful skill set.

Advantages & Challenges Of Full-Stack Development

Full-stack development sounds like a viable choice when businesses need to get a one-stop solution for their product development. With full-stack, they need not look for individual developers or teams to handle the client-side or the front-end and the server-side or the backend of their app. They can all the expertise in one place.  

However, there can be several challenges as well on your way to full-stack development. 

In the next section, we will be throwing light on the major advantages as well as the challenges faced by organizations in full-stack development. 

Full Stack Developer Advantages

When it comes to hiring full-stack developers, businesses can enjoy a wide range of advantages or benefits. Below, we have listed down the main advantages that you can also be assured to get with full-stack developers. 

1. Hire Full-Stack Developers To Improve Scalability

In addition to working at different levels of software or information architecture, full-stack engineers provide several business benefits. As a result, clients can scale their development teams significantly more efficiently. In addition, some believe that programmers who can handle multiple facets of the technical environment are more adaptable. 

Developers with full-stack skills are familiar with working in a variety of environments. Therefore, the ever-changing technology landscape should suit any company that hires full-stack developers.

When you’re selling products on an app, scalability is an issue especially if new products are introduced monthly in the example given above. Having a full-stack developer will help you scale your app quickly without any hassle.

2. All-Round Knowledge Of Front-End, Back-End, And Database

An experienced full-stack developer is proficient in client-side, server-side, and database technologies, primarily front-end and back-end. In other words, they can develop, test, and convert MVPs into minimum marketable products and then into final products, such as mobile applications.

Even a simple video editor software comes with multiple complications and requires expert coding to be successful. Instead of having multiple people work on the front-end and back-end of the software, hiring a full-stack developer who can help get things done within a reasonable time is more feasible.

3. Hire Full-Stack Developers To Reduce Communication Delays

You will save money by hiring a full-stack developer since you won't have to hire as many developers. Therefore, your company can reduce communication costs by working with fewer people. This results in fewer misunderstandings and delays in communicating. 

Furthermore, full-stack developers are typically in charge of the entire process when implementing a feature. Logic is, therefore, more consistent and communication is less likely to be misinterpreted.

4. Hire Full-Stack Developers To Save Money

Hiring a full-stack developer is the most cost-effective solution if a business has a limited budget but is seeking a reliable and secure solution. Full-stack programmers can perform a wide range of tasks. 

Travel industry apps can be quite competitive. Additionally, visuals and functionality are 2 of the most important aspects which means front-end and back-end development should be done as closely as possible. Hence having a full-stack developer streamlines the development process.

5. Faster Time To Market

The emergence of full-featured products can also be a benefit of full-featured development. Businesses operating in competitive markets can benefit from this since it allows them to get their products to market before their competitors.

Full Stack Developer Challenges

Hiring a full-stack developer is not an easy task. And the challenges don't end once you have hired them. There can be some challenges that you might face when you start managing remote developers. Let’s take a look at some challenges that this process might have.

I. It’s Difficult To Evaluate Full-Stack Developers

The full-stack system is often viewed narrowly by recruiters, who consider only front-end and back-end developers. Many full-stack developers are also knowledgeable about other components of application development in addition to their front-end and back-end skills. 

The result is that individual assessments are required for the same role based on the candidates' skills and the organization's requirements.

The technology stack of each project or organization requires a high level of customization when considering a full-stack developer. Full-stack Python developers may need Django + MySQL, Flask + PostgreSQL, or Django + MongoDB, depending on the database and framework they're working with.

II. Unrealistic Expectations Of Recruiters

Recruiters may hire full-stack developers with the wrong skills for these tasks. Alternatively, you may overestimate the importance of specific technologies, screening out qualified full-stack engineers who aren't as strong in non-primary technologies.

If you're promoting a free tool alongside starting a blog, you'll need a full-stack developer to take care of all the technical aspects essential for both website features. You should also know your audience, the tone and style of writing, and your overall purpose before you start gaining quality visitors.

III. Slows Down The Process

Since full-stack developers cannot work as fast as specialized full-time developers focused on a single task, hiring a full-stack developer affects the development speed.

A simple example of this would be to consider a food influencer. An average vlogger might cover more topics within a video; however, you’ll get quality content only when a food vlogger makes the same video. Similarly, with developers, specialization helps with quality and development speed.

When Should You Hire A Full-Stack Developer?

Let’s take a look at some instances where hiring a full-stack developer becomes crucial.

• If you want to grow your business, an experienced and knowledgeable full-stack developer can help you improve the overall scalability. 

• If you need someone who can fill a technical leadership position and are looking to hire a CTO or a technical co-founder, hiring a full-stack developer would be beneficial since they can quickly fill the technical leadership position.

• If you need experts for your MVP development, you need a full-stack developer to handle this app/product development process. You should always create an MVP before the complete application is created to test if the application will work the way you expected. 

  

• If you’re looking to save money and you’re on a budget, a full-stack developer is the best option for you. It is generally more expensive to hire one developer with expertise in both front-end and back-end than to hire one developer with expertise in both. Choose a developer who offers full-stack services and never compromises on quality. You can send online invoices to the remote workers to keep track of all the digital payments made To streamline this process, you can create customized invoices using. Free Invoice Generator tools. They are versatile and can be tailored to meet your specific requirements, ensuring that your invoicing process is efficient.

How To Hire Full-Stack Developers?

Engineers with complete stack skills are proficient with front-end and back-end programming fundamentals. Therefore, you must check the foundations of both backend and frontend development. Several languages are covered, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 

Considering their server-side knowledge is vital if they specialize in front-end development. Many technologies enable this, such as PHP, APIs, REST, SOAP, Cache, AWS, and others.

A developer community can help you connect with pre-vetted senior software professionals as an alternative to hiring full-stack developers conventionally. A developer community connects developers around the world. A professional network is built to solve global problems.

Besides having years of experience and expertise, these pre-vetted developers also have exceptional managerial skills. The best developer communities can be an excellent resource for hiring a full-stack developer.You can also source candidates on job portals like Salarship

A. In-Demand Skills

Full-stack developers must work with HTML to determine the structure of web pages. They must have a solid understanding of CSS to display HTML components efficiently. A full-stack developer must have deep experience in front-end and back-end development to build an interactive, intuitive, and engaging front-end for apps.

Also Read: Skills To Look For When Hiring Remote Developers

An experienced and dedicated remote developer should understand the JavaScript development process and related concepts and functionalities such as React and Angular. In addition to its helpful features, such as functions, prototypes, higher-order event delegation, and closures, JavaScript offers many valuable features that make building interactive web pages more accessible.

Any application or product cannot function without its back end. To become a full-stack developer, you'll also need fluency in PHP, Python, Ruby, and Java. Their expertise can make or break a project.

An in-depth understanding of web architecture is essential for full-stack developers. In addition to organizing code, categorizing files, arranging data in databases, and executing computational tasks, they must be able to classify data in databases. As programmers, they spend most of their time developing sophisticated software programs from scratch.

Having a database is necessary for storing all of the data in a web application. The data can then be accessed whenever needed by developers. To handle database storage, it is essential to hire a full-stack developer who understands relational databases and database storage.

Creating, comprehending, and modifying database queries is a skill required of full-stack developers. When interviewing a full-stack developer, you must assess soft skills, such as time management, attention to detail, and analytical and technical skills.

B. GitHub Profile

Any full-stack web developer must learn Git, the world's most popular version control system. Whether you’re an in-house or a freelance full-stack developer, you need a proper understanding of DevOps. 

When hiring developers, you should look at GitHub profiles as they can help you shortlist many top full-stack developers specializing in mobile and web app development.

The trend for hiring managers and recruiters checking GitHub during job interviews is growing, and many junior and intermediate coding workers are unaware of how recent this is. Considering this is a new trend in developer evaluation, many people are curious about how companies evaluate GitHub accounts.

With the change in technological trends, some notions regarding employment changed. In recent years, repository sites have gained popularity. Open source has gained popularity, hosting barriers have dramatically reduced (both in terms of cost and complexity), and general public access to app markets has expanded, as has the open-source movement. 

All of these factors have contributed to the new ability of programmers to present their code portfolios to potential employers.

Sharing personal projects may help address several common prejudices and stigmas, even if experienced developers would find little benefit in sharing their work. When a programmer's day job is not challenging enough, it may be difficult to identify professional accomplishments worthy of listing on a resume.

C. Reduced Cost Of Development

In addition to front-end and back-end development, a full-stack developer can also handle some marketing-related work. Saving money on development especially, during recruitment and management eliminates the need for a large number of specialists. It allows for much more control and management, often lost when working with a large crew.

One full-stack developer can perform many tasks usually handled by two experts. While larger organizations are not affected, smaller and medium-sized businesses must employ cost-effective methods when expanding staff.

D. Competent Partnership

An essential benefit of hiring a full-stack coding specialist is collaborating effectively. A skilled developer may create a comprehensive project from scratch, which becomes a suitable solution for business owners looking to get the most out of a minimal concept. 

Full-stack startup developers are also frequently aware of current market conditions, enabling them to predict all possible scenarios and innovative design products.

E. Flexibility And Versatility

A full-stack programmer must be versatile when working with various programming languages and environments and knowledgeable and skilled in multiple coding languages. Developers capable of working on both the front and back end can be considered full-stack engineers. 

Frontend developers bring a project to market using technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, CSS, AngularJS, ReactJS, JQuery, SQL, and others, whereas backend developers deal with the app's architecture and logic.

You can open up new opportunities and broaden your horizons by working with full-stack software. Developers are working on a full-stack online application or a mobile full-stack application searching for creative ways to make the final product stand out. 

Experienced developers have worked on various projects, developed many websites and mobile applications, and are versatile. This means they can take over any role or replace anyone on the development team in an emergency. 

How To Build The Best MVP And Future Product Managers

Full-stack developers are the best choice when you strive to verify ideas by producing a minimum viable product. It would be ideal for a full-stack developer to be able to convert an idea into a fully-functional prototype. 

A Vue.js MVP can be launched faster by full-stack developers due to its reusable components and built-in templates. React, and Angular are slower than Vue.js when it comes to creating and delivering apps.

Full-stack developers utilize various technologies, strategies, and procedures to create dynamic data-driven websites and mobile apps that benefit end users and backend infrastructure.

Databases like MongoDB and MySQL, application frameworks like Express, Rails, and Laravel, platforms like Node.js, PHP, and Ruby, and client-side frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue are standard stack components. 

Depending on the project requirements, different stacks can be used, including MEAN, MERN, MAMP stack, LAMP stack, Ruby on Rails, and many others. They can handle servers, databases, and clients and are multi-talented individuals. Full-stack Developers must deal with all stack components to ensure efficient operation.

A full-stack developer can make an excellent product manager. In addition to knowing engineering capabilities, they are also familiar with business requirements. Making judgments that consider all variables requires them to be a beneficial resource.

Wrapping Up

Full-stack developers are always in demand, whether working for startups or enterprises. 

To recap, your focus should be hiring the best full-stack developer for your business. Looking at the GitHub profile will give you a quick overview of the candidates’ skills and give you an idea about which candidates already experienced working on the same project as yours. 

Following the guide above, hiring a full-stack developer will seem like you’ve had years of experience doing it. Take a careful review of this guide and build a checklist of what you want to look out for in your candidates. 

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