As of July 2015, Apple’s App Store can count 1.5 million apps to choose from.
And whilst discovery is a long way off from being solved, there is certainly a lot of demand for iOS developers in technology businesses.
According to the fine folks at Cupertino, there are now 380,000 registered developers on Apple’s paid developer program (combining both iOS + OS X).
So the $8 Billion question is this: How do you find the best of that crop?
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First things first. Before you start writing the job description you need to put yourself in the developer’s shoes. As with any other role you’d be looking to fill, starting off with phrases like “possibility to work with an amazing team” ranks pretty high up there with the kind of meaningless language you should be avoiding at all costs.
You want to give a clear picture of what it’ll be like to work for you day to day. Good places to start:
- Will this new hire be the only iOS Dev in the team? One of a few?
- Do you use in-house frameworks or external APIs?
- Do you white label apps for others or develop your own products?
- Do you develop in Objective-C or Swift?
Once you’ve answered some of these questions and more, there are two key things to focus on.
A tech challenge
Developers love these. Put your code where your mouth is. It’s a challenge they’ll relish, the ability to show you just how good they are. With some outside experts, I actually helped pull together Landing.jobs’ own iOS tech challenge that’s run on the HackerRank platform, which they now prescreen all candidates with.
However, don’t let the results sway your entire decision to go forward with a candidate or not. It’s a tool like any other, and not completely nailing it when they otherwise have a perfect match in other aspects doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be your next employee.
Interview questions
Technical issues should of course be discussed, but you’ll also need to put some extra effort in if you want to show you view developers as not just assets or resources, but people with their own values, perspectives and desires for their career. How about some of these questions for starters?
- Why iOS and not Android or other platforms?
- What kinds of tools do you use the most? Sketch, xScope, CocoaPods, etc. What are the merits and demerits of each?
- Where do you see “mobile” going over the next 3–5 years and how can we take advantage of this change?
- How will your career develop in this fast-changing cutting edge area?
- The popular image of a mobile developer is the lone wolf; how do you work in a team?
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Great!
You did all that and you landed the perfect candidate.
You’re thrilled!
Now what?
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If the developer you’ve hired is somewhat junior, make sure you assign the newbie to a more senior colleague. Even though iOS development is fairly easy, the learning curve from “knows their sh*t” to Neo’s bullet dodging is fairly steep.
Working with a mentor is the best way to help a junior evolve rather quickly, but it also benefits the senior developer to “give back” and even learn a thing or two from the different perspective it gives. Because developers do have a tendency to become lazy in the things they (think they) know. Suffice to say, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.
You also want to distinguish between making a junior hire accountable and responsible for critical project elements. They’ll have much value to contribute, but also much to learn.
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iOS Developer
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