Working with freelance professionals is markedly different from working with permanent employees in your company. You may be even unsure how to hire freelancers for specific projects.
Asking the right questions during the interviews is an important step in hiring the right freelance professionals. Let’s say, you wish to hire freelance web designers Los Angeles, and you like a candidate based in another city. However, if you don’t ask any question related to remote work, then you might regret your hiring decision when the web designer you hired is not able to work well with your team in Los Angles. So, it is important to formulate the right questions depending on your specific hiring situation.
Here are the top five questions to ask before hiring a freelance web designer.
Question 1 – What are your strengths as a designer?
How it helps – The answer to this question can help you gauge the strength of prospective candidates and if you find those qualities crucial for your project or organization.
The candidate may respond in various ways such as ‘I am very creative.’, ‘I am very comfortable working remotely,’ or ‘I am a quick learner.’ These are good answers. However, the candidates need to support their responses with real examples. If they can’t then you need to look closely at their other responses to find any link there to support these claims.
Question 2 – Can you elaborate on your design process?
How it helps – The answer to this question can help you know how nuanced and professional the prospective candidate is and how they begin the work on a project.
A good designer will always ask the client questions about the project and what is that they desire to achieve with the website in question before accepting the project.
The kind of question a designer asks you will tell you a lot about the proficiency of the candidate. Did they ask about the target audience, the budget, and your vision/requirement? Did they ask about the problems inherent with the existing website (if it’s a redesign)? Better still, did they ask you if they could give their thoughts on the existing website? The last question can convey to you that the candidate has given this interview/project some thought already.
Question 3 – What do you require from the clients for completing a project remotely?
How it helps – The answer to this question can let you know if the candidate can take necessary actions for the success of the project. It can tell if the candidate is committed to working on the project.
A good potential answer is anything that satisfies you as an employer or the hiring manager. Some examples – ‘I require proper communication from my team members so that I can execute the design properly.’ ‘I need clear instructions on the result you wish to achieve from the website’s design.’ ‘How much creative freedom do I have for the project or do I need to adhere to your guidelines strictly?’
For instance, there are many talented freelance designers in Los Angeles who work out of the city due to the greater availability of creative work there. If a designer is very comfortable working remotely, then you will be able to hire the candidate even if you are based in another city or country.
Question 4 – How do you deal with negative feedback from a client?
How it helps – You need to know if the candidate can handle constructive feedback. You won’t want to work with a difficult candidate. However, it is best to work with designers who can offer you various improved suggestions based on your feedback rather than silently following your orders.
Question 5 – Can you tell me about what contributed to the success of a project you executed recently?
How it helps – The answer will help you gauge if the candidate can work well in a team and other criteria such as remote work, easy to work with or not, etc. If the candidate only talks about his efforts and not the assistance/clear guidelines from the company, then you need to evaluate the candidate’s suitability for your company a bit more.