Re: What Web Developer Qualifications should I look for?

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> Does having a knowledge with Frameworks (eg. zend, codeigniter ) a “must” requirement?

( Are you *using* such frameworks )? “yes”: “no”;

*( see what I did there )* :p

Personally, I’d be more interested if they actually understand what the frameworks *do*.

Who you look for must depend on what you’re going to need them to do. For a booking system, you’ll want someone who has experience with databases (particularly schema design) and forms (possibly including things like ajax APIs). For e-commerce, you’ll need someone who is very security-conscious and knows their way around the payment APIs of whatever merchant you’re using.

Give candidates real problems. Ask for code samples related to things your company does. Choose something you’ve developed already and ask how they would approach the task. They might come up with the same solution you did, or something you didn’t think of (but like). If you don’t like their answer, say goodbye. If not, ask them about a task that they might be responsible for if hired and see what they can “bring to the table.”

At the same time, you need to be assessing their confidence (do they know how to plan things out? or are they making this up as they go along?) and how much you’d like working with them. Personal feelings are entirely appropriate. If you don’t think you’d *enjoy* working with them, don’t hire them.