How to hire a good coder/programmer

Coding as we all are well aware is a complex stressful and time consuming process for any coder out there which is why it's extremely important that both coders and the client work together. Hiring someone and let them do the job is never the route to follow, whether it's a retail, pest control, site administration or anything for that matter requires both parties to work together to develop a good end product.

If you're a coder it's really important that you know exactly what you're capable of(never sell yourself short though) and what you're not. Being greedy, taking client's money and NOT delivering the product on time is nothing but a reputation destroyer, just as good word spreads quick bad word spreads quicker. The important factor that we all can agree upon here is communication, as tiring and time consuming coding is, it as a coder is your responsibility to be the first one to get the conversation started and update the client as often as possible so if there's any issue or change in plans the client wont be as surprised. The client too will think twice before telling you to make major changes.

Here's a few thing to ask the coder before you hire him:
- Portfolio
- If worked on similar project
- Rough deadline
- TOS(Extremely important, discuss what they intend to do if project is not finished on time, how they plan on making changes, if there's an additional fee etc..).
- Logical process coder plans on taking. How to plan on achieving what you require.
- Name
- Phone number
- Address


Here's a few thing to ask the client as coder:
- Name
- Phone number
- Address
- NDA(Non disclosure agreement, if there's any)
- Availability(times they're available for discussion)
- Budget(Make it clear what they pay in advance and what after project completion).

It's also very important that you have clear idea of your own project. Being totally illiterate to technology wont help. You should almost always ask the coder certain somewhat technical questions. They should be able to answer it in a simple way that you understand, If you're having trouble understanding it's either you didn't study about your own project or this coder's not the right person that will update you frequently in non technical manner that you understand and make decisions if necessary.

Pricing is an interesting yes quite simple to guess, all it takes is a word with different coders asking for price and figure out whichever makes most sense to you. Do note that there's hundreds of things that determine the price for example coding style, deadline, experience(even shitty coders but with lots of experience can charge you alot), maintenance and whatnot..

Last thing's just like everything if you plan properly everything will go right, hurrying in any investment is never a good idea. Luck aside, most of the you'll end up losing money and time and give up, not because coder didn't do the job properly but because you chose the wrong service that wasn't really suitable for your project.