How to Hire Senior Golang Developers

Suppose you have a project in mind that involves depending on the team of Golang developers. How do you find them, and which criteria will help you choose the right people to hire? In this blog post, we’ve collected the best ideas, tips, and must-have lists that every company considers before hiring a senior Golang developer.

Basic Facts about Golang/GO

Why Developers Choose Golang

GO, or Golang, is a programming language released in 2009 by Google. What is special about Golang that makes it stand out among dozens of other well-known languages?

1. GO is relatively easy to learn and read — it takes minimum time to get started with it, especially for experienced developers.
2. This language is supported by Google and used by companies like Uber, Twitch, SoundCloud, etc. — we can be sure it’s reliable and here to stay.
3. It’s open-source — that’s why there is a large community where you can hire Golang developers when you need them.
4. Golang is fast and lightweight — even editing directly on the Web doesn’t meet many obstacles.
5. Its typization is strong and reliable — this makes GO safer than Java.
6. It has efficient program construction — which provides packages and code separation that are easy to manage.
7. It has built-in frameworks — they make testing and profiling easier, almost intuitive.
8. GO is versatile — coders use it to develop all kinds of modern software.

The convenience and user-friendliness of Golang boosted its popularity over the decade, and the 2018 survey by Stack Overflow showed that most developers put this language in their personal top-5.

As for today, the popularity of Golang is still increasing — lots of developers choose to learn it, and indeed there will be more senior and junior specialists in 2021.

Read also: 5 easy steps for building a food delivery app

How you benefit from using Golang

Nowadays, IT companies enjoy the advantages and benefits of GO. The main reasons for you to hire Golang developers are the following:

1. Excellent performance of all programs. They work quickly and smoothly, providing the best user experience.
2. Faster development at every stage. This also means that you can deliver an end-product earlier.
3. Multipurpose. Golang works excellent for all kinds of back-end development, data engineering, and creating microservices. The language is equally helpful for web and mobile developers.
4. Less expensive in use. If your budget is tight, the best choice is to hire developers who work with Golang.
5. It’s ideal for building a SPA, or a single-page application.
6. Widely-spread. Golang supports all popular platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. This way, it becomes easier for you to deliver your product to the maximum number of users.

There is an endless list of possible projects to perform with Golang, and your first step should be to hire professional developers with relevant experience. Let’s explore the best ways to do it.

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What You Should Know to Hire Golang Developers in November 2020

Difference between Junior and Senior Golang Developers

You should study these two terms deeper if you look for the best opportunity to hire senior Golang developers. As long as you understand all the differences, it will be easier to conduct a job interview and choose the right specialist. A junior is someone with less than two years of experience. Such a developer knows the basics of Golang and works with its main functions successfully. This person is also aware of how to navigate the typical “hot spots” and obstacles. Junior developers aren’t suitable for remote work because they need everyday guidance from mentors — those can be middle specialists, or there is an option to hire senior Golang developers. A senior is the person you can rely on when it comes to a lot of occasions. This is an expert in Golang who knows the language inside and out. Senior developers use their experience to find solutions to unexpected problems. They decide on the architecture, handle all processes, and lead the project from drafts to the release. Their responsibilities also include teaching juniors, curating the team, and providing time-management. If you hire senior Golang developers, they will be the head of your projects.

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Searching for Remote Golang Developers: Freelancing or Outsourcing?

Before you start interviewing candidates and deciding who to hire, let’s consider three basic employment models:

1. In-office employment;
2. Freelancing;
3. Outsourcing.

The first one remains the most popular as it allows to control developers and other team members and to give them personal assignments. However, this approach requires lots of expenses on monthly wages and rent, workplace equipment, and other things.

It’s not surprising that many companies choose between two models of remote employment — Freelance and Outsourcing. Which one is more suitable when you’re planning to hire senior Golang developers?

All in all, outsourcing is a much more reliable option to hire developers for your project. This way, you’ll get fully competent remote specialists who are easy to manage. The outsourced employment model is the most reasonable choice when hiring senior Golang developers and other high-skilled IT specialists with a major responsibility level. Your next step will be to find online platforms where you can hire the outsourced team. We recommend checking out two credible websites: Good Firms and Clutch. There you will find the list of the most reliable companies to hire senior Golang developers from. Read clients’ reviews, compare ratings and prices, and choose your dream team.

How Much does it Cost to Hire Golang Developers?

The answer to this question will differ in various countries.

• In the USA, an average GO developer earns $50–60 per hour.
• In Europe, you’ll find more affordable prices — e.g., $35–40/h in Germany or $30–35/h in the UK.

If you’re looking for the most cost-beneficial option, consider hiring Golang developers in Eastern Europe — it will cost you $20–25 for an hour of work. There is a strong community of gifted coders, proficient in GO and other languages; they’re familiar with cutting-edge technologies and recent IT trends.

Hard and Soft Skills for Senior Developers

As we considered the best employment model and the costs, let’s discover the knowledge and expertise required for senior Golang developers. The specialists working here at Exceed Team are skilled and experienced enough, and so must be the Golang developers that you will hire. Let’s look at the list of the most significant characteristics. Hard skills for senior Golang developers:

1. Being an expert in Go.
2. Knowing other languages, especially C, Python, and Java.
3. Working with all Golang tools, frameworks, and libraries.
4. Writing clean, easy-readable code.
5. Knowing relevant technologies (databases, cloud software) and systems (Git).

There will be special requirements depending on whether you hire senior Golang developers for mobile applications or websites. E.g., frameworks like Gomobile are essential in app development, while Gorilla or Revel are common in web development. All in all, you better start with your project requirements before you make a list of tech skills for remote Golang developers — that’s the most efficient way to hire the specialists you need. Soft skills for senior Golang developers:

1. Cooperative, able to maintain teamwork. Those personal characteristics are significantly important in the IT industry, as one person can’t handle the whole project independently. The best option will be to hire Golang developers from outsourcing companies, as they already have teamwork experience.
2. Good at managing their time. When you hire senior Golang developers, you expect them to navigate all development steps and control other devs’ work, which becomes possible only if your senior dev is a brilliant time manager.
3. Trainable, hungry for knowledge. GO is a relatively new language, so there are still plenty of things to learn about it. Make sure to hire developers who can keep up with recent updates and trends by being active in the Golang community.

Job Interview with Golang Developers

Questions to Ask

How do you evaluate the hard and soft skills of your potential team members? The most efficient way to hire senior Golang developers is interviewing them properly. We’ve made a list of the most appropriate questions on various aspects of GO development.

Questions about microservices

What are the differences between microservice and monolith architecture? What problems did you encounter while building microservice architecture?Questions about databases

What types of NoSQL solutions do you know or worked with? What are their advantages and disadvantages?

Questions about Golang

What are Goroutines, and how do they work? What is “panic” in Golang? How do you control it? How would you use GO to break monolith into microservice? How would you solve a problem with a “concurrent map write”? How to implement LRU Cache? How to append a slice? What are your favorite Golang frameworks? Why?

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

The right questions will help you hire Golang developers to entrust your product to. If you don’t feel qualified enough to run job interviews by yourself, we advise you to hire an expert to be your assistant — that may be another GO developer, an IT consultant, or a project manager. When you run an interview to hire senior Golang developers, make sure to test their practical skills and the knowledge of the main functions and methods. For example, you can ask them to build something from this list:

• Database interaction;
• Unit tests;
• Separate microservice;
• External API integration;
• Microservice (or anything else) on the base of REST architecture.

When you hire developers, the quickest way to assess their skills and knowledge is picking up tasks and questions that reflect the main aspects of your project.

Tips to Help You Hire Senior Golang Developers for any Project

Suppose you have chosen several people after the technical part of your job interview. What would be your final selection strategy? There are three main areas you should consider: Product, Industry, and Culture.

1. Ask candidates about their experience with the type of product you’re developing right now. Do they know how to build specific features you’re planning to include?
2. Another good idea is to wonder if a candidate has already developed something for your target audience — e.g., Real Estate, Education, or Food Delivery.
3. Ask your candidates what they expect from a remote work system, management style, and other aspects of company culture. Decide if your values meet — this will significantly help you in the future when your team is delivering innovative, top-quality products.
4. Hire a senior Golang developer that fits all the criteria, or most of them at least.

In a Nutshell

Hiring Golang developers isn’t an easy task, especially when you’re selecting specialists for your remote project. Golang is a young and exciting language that continually attracts new developers and allows them to build all kinds of software. Do you want to hire senior Golang developers with relevant technical skills and teamwork experience? Are you looking for cost-efficiency as well? Contact us.