Magento is a complex eCommerce platform. If you’re not well-versed with coding, it’s almost impossible to understand and operate its CMS efficiently. But let’s face it, there’s no other eCommerce platform that offers you the level of customizability and scalability that Magento does.

This is why it is necessary to hire a Magento 2 developer.

A Magento developer will make your life easier. If you hire the right person for the job, he/she can help you gain as much as you can out of Magento’s robust system.

But, hiring a certified Magento professional is not exactly an easy feat.

There are a lot of things one needs to consider before hiring someone who’s going to handle your business’s most important component: your website.

Worry not though, we’ve got you! Follow this guide and you’ll know exactly how you need to proceed with your hiring procedure.

Table of Content:

1. Know your requirements
2. Hire a Magento 2 Developer: Skills you should look out for.
3. Magento 2 certifications
4. Hire a Magento 2 developer: Where to find them.
5. Don’t forget to evaluate the aptitude!

Know Your Requirements

First things first, you need to have a very clear idea of what your requirements are. Here are a few things you need to consider before starting your hiring process:

1. Project-based or full-time?

You should know whether you want to hire someone full time or on a contractual basis to get just one aspect of the job done.

Hire a dedicated magento developer if:

1. You want to build your website from scratch and there’s a lot that needs to be done.
2. You want to completely revamp your website or make considerable changes.
3. Your business is big and there’s always something that needs to be optimized or changed.
4. You mostly need the back-end functionalities to be taken care of.
   
   

   Hire someone on a project basis if:
   

   1. You need to tweak some extension or feature.
   2. You need to change the layout or the design of your website.
   3. You only need some customizations to be made.
   4. You mostly need front-end development tasks to be taken care of.

2. Front-end or back-end developer?

A front end developer will mostly concentrate on the look and feel of your website. He will take care of the design, work on customizing themes and enhancing the user experience.

A back-end developer will take care of the functionalities and customizations of your website. He will be responsible for writing codes regarding the plugins, extensions, integration of payment gateways, other business integrations, etc.

A full-stack developer will have a sound knowledge of both backend and frontend techniques.

We’ll get more into detail later about what exactly is required of a frontend and backend developer in the context of Magento development.

3. How much are you willing to pay?

It’s important to set out a budget and know how much money you want to invest in website development.

Since a good website is the foundation on which your entire business stands, it’s recommended to focus on recruiting the best talent and being generous with the money.

If you still want to spend less money, then you’ll have to make do with inexperienced freshers or moderately experienced professionals.

There’s nothing wrong with hiring someone with less experience, they just might not be able to provide the level of quality a Magento website needs.

It’s all about weighing out the pros and cons and knowing what you’re willing to sacrifice on.

More importantly, you need to know the level of expertise needed to handle the task at hand. If the work you’re offering can be done by someone not so experienced then there’s no harm in hiring such a candidate.

If however, the task at hand is complex and needs a seasoned developer’s expertise to handle it, then it’s advisable not to cut corners and sacrifice a little on the money.

Hire Magento 2 Developer: Skills You Should Look Out For

Before determining the skills you should look for in candidates, let’s briefly look at the job functions they’ll be performing.

Major Magento development tasks include:

1.  Installing and setting up Magento. 
2.  Taking care of site speed and responsiveness.
3. Customizing themes for personalized website design.
4. Customizing plugins and extensions to enhance features and functionalities.
5. Integrating payment gateways, account management, other business systems like CMS.
6. Optimizing website performance.
7. Making sure the website supports different languages and multi-currency payment gateways.
8. Performing audits for SEO.
9. A/B testing to enhance user experience. 

Backend Developer:

A backend developer will be more responsible for server-side functionalities. His/her typical tasks should include:

1. Installing and arranging new extensions to meet your website needs.
2. Working on developing, customizing and installing modules.
3. Optimizing site speed and performance
4. Upgrading the core files when new Magento security PATCH is available. 
5. Creating code for importing products on the website.
6. Integrating payment gateways and other business systems.

Technical skills required:  

  

1. PHP (especially PHP 5.6-7 for Magento 2)
2. Python
3. Java 
4. MySQL 
5. HTML/CSS
6. MVC architecture
7. XML
8. Zend Cache and cache techniques in general.

Frontend Developer: 

 A frontend developer will be responsible for the client-side interface. His tasks will include:

1. Taking care of your website design. 
2. Working on Magento 2 themes and modifying them according to your needs. 
3. Work on making your website responsive across all devices.
4. Make sure the user experience is optimized by deploying best practices.
5. Coordinate with the backend developer to make sure things run smoothly. 
6. Have a basic knowledge of SEO and know how to make your website search engine friendly. 

Interesting read: Everything you need to know about Magento SEO. 

Technical skills required:

1. HTML
2. CSS
3. JavaScript 
4. Bootstrap
5. Responsive web design (RWD)

Apart from these technical skills, both frontend and backend developers need to know:

1. How Magento 2 themes, modules, extensions work. 
2. Widget development especially for Magento 2. 
3. How eCommerce integrations work.
4. XML for module configuration. 

Other skills & Requirements

Apart from development-related technical skills, there are other things that you should look out for in an ideal candidate:

1. Industry knowledge 

Look for candidates that have some experience in working with Magento 2 and are familiar with best practices. You can evaluate a candidate’s prowess in Magento 2 by:

•  Asking him about the major differences in the working of Magento and Magento 2.
• Looking at his portfolio and seeing how many years of experience he has with Magento 2.
• Asking him about the modification and customization processes of Magento 2 modules, themes, extensions, etc. 
• Presenting him with a problem or a task and seeing how he handles it. 

2. Creativity and Innovation:

The ability to bypass rules and come up with something fresh and innovative is a skill that is sought in every candidate, no matter the job profile. 

A Magento developer should have the hunger to explore new ways of doing things. He should always be on the look-out for best practices that give better results.

At the end of the day, a developer needs to build an eCommerce store that makes people want to come back for more. 

A creative professional, especially a front end developer, should know to build a website that is a class apart from other eCommerce stores. 

3. Professional Portfolio

When evaluating a candidate’s professional portfolio look for.

• The difficulty level of the projects they have worked with.
• What certifications they have.
• How much in-depth knowledge they have.
• How many skills or Magento concepts they have specialized in. 

4. References & Reviews

It’s not easy to know a candidate’s ability to perform just by having 2-3 interactions with them. 

Ask the candidate for an LOR, recommendation or reference of a previous employer to assess their abilities and professionalism. 

For example, you can go through a candidate’s profile on LinkedIn and see if any of their skills have been endorsed or if anyone has written a recommendation for them. 

You can also contact the references provided by them and see what their previous employers have to say. 

5. Responsibility and pressure handling

Businesses can’t function efficiently if tasks aren’t completed on time.

Sometimes, in order to complete work on time, employees don’t concentrate on quality. An ideal candidate should be able to complete tasks under tight deadlines and figure how to not compromise on quality. 

The only way to evaluate such a skill is by giving a development task to the candidates during interview rounds and asking them to complete it within a stipulated period of time. 

Magento 2 Certifications

Magento offers various exams to certify developers. There are different exams for different levels of expertise. You can look for these certifications when screening your candidates depending on the level of competence you’re looking for. 

I. Magento 2 certified professional front end developer: 

A candidate holding this certification will have a good understanding of Magento 2’s theming components and fundamentals. This exam is for a professional with 1.5 years or more experience with Magento front end development. 

II.Magento 2 certified associate developer: 

This exam is for developers that are just starting out with Magento. It aims to assess their knowledge of Magento 2 in the areas of UI modifications, database changes, admin modifications, customizations, catalog and checkout structure, and functionality changes. 

III. Magento 2 certified professional developer:

A professional developer who has taken this exam will have a 1.5-year hands-on experience of customizing Magento 2 stores.

It’s an exam for assessing skills and knowledge needed to customize Magento 2 in the areas of UI modifications, database changes, admin modifications, checkout process customizations, order management integrations, and customizations, catalog structure, and functionality changes.

IV. Magento 2 certified professional developer plus: 

This certification is for a senior Magento developer who not only has a 2-year experience in modifying and customizing Magento 2 stores, but also has lead teams and projects of Magento developers. He/she will know how to modify the core architecture of a Magento website and also forecast the effect of customizations. 

V. Magento 2 Certified Professional JAVAScript Developer:

This certification aims at evaluating a developer’s ability to develop new Javascript modules and customize existing ones. A candidate holding this certification will have around a year of experience in modifying Javascript for Magento. 

Hire A Magento 2 Developer: Where to Find Them

1. Magento certified directory:

Magento has a directory of certified developers. You can directly search their database and find Magento certified developers. You can search on the basis of country, region and certification. 

Moreover, you can also use the directory to check if a candidate you’re interviewing actually has a certification or not. 

2. Magento Partners

Magento has its own community of partners. You can look into their technology partners and select them on the basis of your requirements. 

 Magento’s technology partners provide services like website creation, extension building, business optimization and more. 

They offer their services in 3 tiers: 

• Magento technology partner 
• Select technology partner 
• Premier technology partner

You can choose the one you want based on the depth of your requirements. 

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the best place to find professionals in any field. You can directly search for them using hashtags like ‘Magento developer’,  ‘Magento 2 developer’, ‘Magento jobs’, ‘magento developer jobs’, etc. 

You can either go through profiles and reach out to people directly. Or, you can post a job and anyone looking will find your company on their own. 

Tip: For a faster process, join Magento dedicated groups on LinkedIn and post your job description their. You’ll be able to reach out to job lookers directly. 

4. Zaptech Solutions

Zaptech is a leading Magento development company. You can  hire individuals or teams of developers from here, and they will work for you exclusively. 

They specifically work on Magento 2 which is a huge plus since all users will have to migrate to Magento 2 eventually. They  provide long term relationships and are based in the USA and India. 

Apart from Zaptech you can look into these top Magento developing companies like:

1. Web App Mate
2. OX softwares
3. Pixafy
4. Magento Geeks
5. ADVOX studio

5. Twitter

You can use hashtags like ‘Magento jobs’ or ‘Magento developers’ and you’ll be surprised to see the amount of repliers you’ll receive!

 6. Magentax

Magentax is a Magento development agency that with over 250+ professionals in their pool of developers. They have delivered over 50,000 projects and their hourly rate starts at $25.

Professionals from Magentax are hired on a project-based contract so it won’t be suitable to you if you’re looking for someone full-time. Their professionals provide end-to-end Magento services, from designing to extension or module development, etc.

7. Freelance websites

You can look into freelancing websites like Toptal which is a preferred destination to look for top-quality professional developers. Toptal follows a rigorous screening process and only 3% of the applicants accepted on the platform.

This is why you can rest assured that any developer you hire from here will be a competent professional.                    

You can also look into other websites like Upwork, Freelancer.com, eLance, oDesk which have a database of many certified Magento developers.

Lastly…Don’t Forget to Evaluate the Aptitude!

Recruiters give full importance to skills and work experience while hiring candidates, but often forget the importance of aptitude.

If you want to hire a Magento 2 developer that is perfect for the job, you should look for someone who not only has the capability to perform but has the drive and passion to do so.

But how exactly can you tell if someone passionate about their work?

Here are a few tips:

1. Ask them about the projects they’ve worked on and see how detail-oriented their explanation is. If somebody gives you a vague and brief answer, chances are they haven’t really put a lot of work into those projects.

2. Ask them what drives them to go to work every day. This can help you assess their purpose for working, and if you get some good answers, you know you’ve found the right candidate!

3.  Ask them what it is they want to learn next and why. If they tell you without hesitation they want to acquire a skill or get better in something they already know, then that candidate has a clear sense of direction and knows where his career is heading.