How to Hire Skilled MEAN Stack Developers
Since JavaScript is the most popular programming language in the world, it can be quite difficult to find available MEAN Stack developers for hire. As such, as a recruiter or employer, before you hire skilled MEAN Stack developers, it is recommended to gain a good background of the MEAN Stack, the pros and cons of hiring a MEAN Stack developer, and the criteria to look for when hiring the best MEAN Stack developers.
The MEAN stack is a collection of open source components that provide an end-to-end framework for developing web applications. MEAN stack refers to four JavaScript-based technologies namely: MongoDB, Express, AngularJS and Node.js. Its notable advantage is its innovative use of one programming language, which is JavaScript. As such, it is a full stack JavaScript.
Here are the components of the MEAN stack:
- MongoDB - Adapted specifically for JavaScript, it is a database management system that saves data in a binary JSON format. This allows data to easily pass between the client and the server.
- Express (also called as Express.js) - Inspired by the Ruby framework Sinatra, Express is a relatively minimal back-end framework that runs on top of Node.js. It allows developers to create powerful single and web applications and APIs.
- AngularJS - Developed and maintained by Google, this is the front-end side of the MEAN stack web framework. It provides a complete solution for quick front-end development and includes features such as two-way data binding.
- Node.js - It is a server-side JavaScript platform that helps to quickly create scalable and existing applications. It is built on Google Chrome’s V8 engine and is an important part of creating complete applications. Node.js can also act as a web server, work with external libraries and cite commands from JavaScript code.
Why should you hire a MEAN Stack Developer?
There are plenty of benefits with hiring a MEAN Stack developer. For one, the MEAN stack has more advantages than the traditional LAMP stack. The LAMP stack refers to Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP and is fundamental for creating Linux hosted websites. However, due to the older technologies in the LAMP stack, many find it easier to adapt to the MEAN stack over it.
Advantages of MEAN stack over LAMP stack:
- Using Node.js instead of Apache allows applications to run on both Linux and Windows operating systems
- A MEAN Stack developer can also use Node.js to directly deploy applications to the server unlike with Apache
- Node.js is also simpler, more flexible, faster and scalable compared to the LAMP stack because of its non-blocking architecture.
- With MongoDB, applications can be easily developed, tested and hosted in the cloud.
- MongoDB also comes with automatic replication and full cluster support which is not present with MySQL in the LAMP stack.
- In addition, MongoDB helps deploy cloud functionalities by reducing the cost of disk space.
- The MEAN Stack provides a cleaner architecture.
- It allows isomorphic coding which allows code to a different framework. As such, code can run on both server and client. With this, the MEAN Stack has been regarded as a leading edge in technology. Many companies are already utilising the MEAN stack to boost applications and web projects.
- MEAN stack uses JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) which allows data to easily pass through all layers of web development and makes working with external APIs. JSON is used in Node.js and AngularJS.
- An open-source JavaScript framework, AngularJS provides maintenance, testability and reusability.
- All the technologies in this stack are open source and free. It uses libraries and public repositories which helps reduce costs in development.
- Employers would only need to hire developers knowledgeable in JavaScript when hiring MEAN Stack developers. On the other hand, employers would have to hire developers skilled in JavaScript, MySQL and PHP for the LAMP stack development.
What technical skills should you look for when hiring MEAN Stack developers?
When hiring MEAN Stack developers, recruiters or hiring managers must carefully assess a candidate’s technical skills and their compatibility with the given job description.
A MEAN Stack developer is a specialist who can actively take part in all stages of web development, from server logic to the client code directly working on the browser.
Aside from a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or any related field, a MEAN Stack developer for hire should possess the following basic and ideal technical skills that employers and recruiters should look for:
- Preferably with proven experience and knowledge of working with the MEAN stack development
- Experience working with JavaScript on both the client and server-side.
- A good understanding of front-end and back-end development
- Knowledge and experience working with front-end applications using HTML5, Angular, LESS/SASS
- Knowledge and experience working with databases
- Good understanding of guidelines in architecture design and programming templates
- Knowledgeable in profiling and optimising applications
Some recruiters also consider the following technical skills to be an advantage for a MEAN Stack developer:
- Experience with cloud technologies
- Knowledge in developing RESTful-based web services in XML and JSON, JavaScript, JQuery
- Familiarity with version control such as Git and SVN and continuous integration such as Hudson and Jenkins
Remember that technical requirements may still vary depending on your project scope and specifications.
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