Using WordPress is like learning Spanish. Everyone says it’s easy, but once you start, you suddenly realize there’s more to it than just a textbook and a dictionary.
With that being said, it doesn’t take away the benefits of WordPress, such as flexibility and zero coding skills.
Let’s dive deeper into whether you need coding skills to use WordPress. While it’s completely possible to create a decent website on your own using available templates (both free and paid), it might feel like something you’ve seen somewhere else. Thus, it’s an entirely different story if you want a custom-designed website.
If your website has a specific design, it must be hand-coded first. That’s when you need to hire a WordPress developer—someone experienced in HTML and sometimes JavaScript development—and who knows how to integrate it all into WordPress.
As a content management system (CMS), WordPress has quite a substantial variety of plugins and extensions for different things. An experienced WordPress developer knows how to choose the right plugin for a specific website function. However, it’s worth mentioning that a poorly chosen WordPress plugin can compromise your website’s security.
Once your WordPress website is all set, you can easily make small changes on your own—and that’s one of the main benefits! No need to ask the developer whenever you need to adjust your website copy or upload a new image.
So you’ve decided you need a WordPress developer. Since you’re most likely not a company (like us) that makes websites daily, you’ll probably be looking to hire someone on a per-project basis. That means you’ll seek a specialist through UpWork, Toptal, or Syndicode. Let’s get a better look at each of these options.
The most common issue you’ll come across when hiring on Upwork and Toptal is that most freelancers are not engaged with your business. The exception would be experienced freelancers that realize the importance of strategic alignment. But those are hard to come by; thus, hiring a remote employee can be beneficial.
Another thing to consider is that most freelancers do not tolerate any supervision. Naturally, they view themselves as independent contractors and value their independence. A great thing about Upwork is that it includes an in-built time tracker so you can have a rough idea about the progress made on your project.
Upwork and Toptal will act as intermediaries and mediate all interactions through the platform, including payments. That should assure you that you pay for the work delivered to your expectations. But if you need someone who can be supervised and works closely with your team, you should consider the next option.
Syndicode is an expert in building remote teams. Unlike Upwork and Toptal, Syndicode provides outsourced teams dedicated to your specific objections and supervised on our end. This is the best of two worlds: essentially, you get remote employees that you don’t need to recruit, hire, and motivate. But you’re welcome to participate in a screening process!
Interviewing candidates can be quite a draining process. That’s why it’s important to thoroughly evaluate them before moving to the interview stage. At Syndicode, we typically start by looking at the candidate’s testimonials and reviews. LinkedIn would be a great starting point. You can also get some idea of the candidate’s personality based on what they post on social media.
The next step is checking the portfolio—this is crucial because, at the end of the day, what matters is the results a person can deliver. This is far more valuable than even a thousand reviews. We typically prefer looking for examples involving a similar technology stack—for instance, if a project involves working with databases, we’d also check that.
After shortlisting a group of candidates, it’s time to schedule an interview. We suggest using structured interviews to avoid bias. It is natural to have a subconscious inclination towards individuals who resemble us, which can work well in personal relationships but is not an effective method for business decisions. To ensure a fair evaluation, it is important to prepare a set of predetermined questions in advance.
While interviewing candidates, you should be able to assess their hard, soft, and problem-solving skills. If you don’t get the answers you’re looking for, consider slightly paraphrasing questions. Once you finish interviewing candidates, take a break, and compare the answers provided by the candidates to make your final choice.
Having extensive experience in providing staff augmentation services, we know what’s involved! While we acknowledge your hiring skills, we have certain advantages that can benefit your organization. One such advantage is having an established pipeline of candidates: we can get you the first CVs of WordPress developers within just 48 hours.
With Syndicode, you can expect to hire top talent in a short time. We are committed to putting potential candidates through a rigorous assessment to ensure they match your standards. That includes a technical skills assessment, English proficiency, and the ability to work in a team.