Ask HN: How do you find a talented mobile developer?

1 points by jeremydavid 3 years ago | 5 comments

I have not had the best of luck hiring on Upwork etc., so I was curious where developers look to find jobs.

Am I the problem, or has the "race to the bottom" nature of freelancing websites really pushed away the good ones?

To give a bit of background: a few years ago I hired a friend of mine to build a prototype for an app in React Native, and it's grown to about 20,000 daily active users.

During that process he discovered he hates buildings apps, so I've been unsuccessfully trying to replace him ever since. I'm toying with the idea of hiring someone full time initially to rebuild two native apps (instead of using react native) to replace it - so they don't have to deal with any bad legacy code and completely understand the codebase since they made it - and then transition the job to part time for the foreseeable future (maintaining it, adding new features, etc.)

Should I be searching for an agency? Is this the kind of work that people are even interested in?

Looking forward to your feedback!

wsgeorge 3 years ago |

Want to chat about this? If it's interesting, I might look into it ;)

I've got no answer to your question, but it amuses me to no end that what should be a simple problem of finding someone fit for a role is still largely unsolved.

On the last team I worked with, my manager complained a lot about how hard hiring is. On the other end of the spectrum, you hear a lot of complaints about how hard getting hired is.

jamesfinlayson 3 years ago | |

> On the last team I worked with, my manager complained a lot about how hard hiring is. On the other end of the spectrum, you hear a lot of complaints about how hard getting hired is.

Too true - I remember the last time I was job hunting I applied for multiple jobs and talked with a couple of recruiters and all of my efforts got me one single interview (which was successful). I told a friend to apply in another department at the same company and he never heard back, yet I frequently hear managers saying how hard it is to find good talent.

jeremydavid 3 years ago | |

So where do you look for jobs?

wsgeorge 3 years ago | | |

The usual suspects: LinkedIn, Indeed, Workable and a few other local job boards. I'm part of a professional contractor network too, which helps a lot.