Fantastic freelance developers and where to find them

Three years ago I moved to another country, and took my family with me.

I was hoping for a fresh start and endless possibilities.

But it turned out, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t manage to find a job.

No one would hire a sales guy who was just adjusting to the whole new scenery while taking care of his new-born son. I was ready to take any opportunity that came to me.

So, when someone I met on a networking event complained to me that she was struggling to hire freelance developers, I readily said:

?Hey, I can help you with that!?

Little did I know.

Finding freelancers who wouldn’t let my first client down was a nightmare.

Everyone I found on generic freelance platforms, like Fiverr or Upwork, either spoke very little English, couldn’t understand the tasks correctly, or turned out to be disastrous developers to whom deadlines meant nothing.

But I couldn’t let my first client down. And I couldn’t let down myself too.

So I decided to approach the problem from another angle. I had a little knowledge of web development and knew a few software engineers back in Ukraine, where I’m from.

So, I decided I’d interview a couple of them and see if they’re good enough to do some projects.

And that’s how I started to slowly build a network of vetted developers.

It was a blast! I actually solved the issue for the customer, and now she was recommending my services to her friends and colleagues.

Put the 2 and 2 together, that’s how I started connecting businesses to tested programmers.

And that time, it was just me, Gmail, and spreadsheets where I kept my records.

Three years later

Coding Ninjas have grown into a marketplace of vetted developers.

We have mastered and automated the vetting process in which every engineer goes through code quality tasks, English proficiency tests and live interviews to prove their skills.

We manage to find the developers for the jobs in less than 24 hours after the initial request from a client.

We’ve built a live support team that can handle any possible scenario.

Our grown network of highly skilled dev talent from Eastern Europe still offers one of the lowest price points on the market:

Great freelance platforms and how to find one

There are a few great choices of freelancing platforms for hiring developers out there. Toptal is one of them, Codeable, Crew, CodingNinjas (of course!) - those are just a tip of the iceberg. But how do you tell if the freelance platform you chose can live up to your expectations?

First of all, the best freelancing sites can be determined by a few common traits:

• freelancers are vetted - this is especially important if you are not a tech person yourself and can't estimate how competent the candidate is through a live interview or a test task. Freelance marketplaces with vetted developers also have another unfair advantage: the vetting process allows us to learn as much about developers' skillsets as possible. And that's what helps us handpick developers for every coming project based not only on how soon they are able to start the project, but also how well their experience matches the customer requirements. Basically, what it means, with vetted freelancers who have passed English, programming and communication tests, you are getting a great developer every time you hire. With generic platforms - you are wasting time on recruiting, while still not guaranteed to get a satisfactory result.
• Live support available - if things go South, you'll need a backup. Unfortunately, not all the freelance websites offer the live support that can actually help you solve any issues with the freelancers. Most of the support teams will only solve some tech or payment issues, the rest will become your own responsibility. But what we've discovered that in a lot of scenarios support team servers as an intermediary between that helps solve misunderstandings.
• it’s a non-bidding marketplace - a bidding marketplace is the one, where freelancers can bid their own rates for the projects. But the problem is that the story behind the failed projects that relied on freelancers from bidding marketplace very often gets like this:

1. Developer gets tired of doing the same routine work

2. Decides to try freelancing 

3. Registers on one of the most popular freelance marketplaces 

4. Never gets a project 

5. Decides to turn things around and bid the lowest possible price 

6. Receives their first project 

7. Gets demotivated, skips the first deadline, then skips second, and finally, they’re off the platform hiding from a pissed off client

Non-bidding marketplaces offer their freelancers fair pay, allowing them to make the real living off full-time freelancing and become just as responsible and dedicated as it's required by any traditional full-time employee.

• they only offer professional in one to three verticals - mastering and optimizing the vetting process to the point it actually helps to distinguish a skilled professional is a challenge. We've been doing it for three years now, and it's still a work in progress. You hear someone say they offer vetted freelance professionals from tens of different industries - you know they're lying.
• high job success score & great customer reviews - probably the only way to find the average success score for the projects is to ask the manager :) But I strongly recommend doing so. If they don't know or don't want to tell you - it's a huge red flag. With customer reviews, it's much easier. Trustpilot is the first place I'd go to, but Reddit and Quora can bring some valuable reviews too.

Conclusion

Gig economy is here to stay. Different researches show that in less than 5 years 50% of the US and UK population will be working either remotely, or freelancing. Now is the time to choose who you want to take this road with. And I strongly don't recommend choosing unreliable partners. In the end, they always cost you more.