Hiring a developer without being one is not a handicap if you know what you can judge. Many reliable signals require no technical skill — and some technical signals mean nothing at all.

What you can judge alone

Without writing a line of code, you correctly assess:

  • Clarity. A developer who explains their last project without jargon, to you, will also explain it to colleagues and to your clients.
  • Ownership. Ask what went wrong on a project. A strong profile describes their part without shirking or self-flagellating.
  • Situated curiosity. "What have you learned in the last six months, and why that subject?" The "why" matters more than the subject.
  • Consistency. Do the CV, the profile and the story tell the same thing, with the same dates?

Those four points already rule out a fair share of applications that would not have held.

What not to try to judge

Do not decide alone on the quality of code, the soundness of an architecture or the choice of a tool. And beware of two common illusions:

  • the list of technologies, which mostly measures the wish to appear in searches;
  • raw seniority, which confuses five years of experience with one year repeated five times.

Three questions that reveal the level

They need no technical skill to ask, only attention.

  1. "Tell me about a problem that took you a long time to solve." What matters is not the problem, it is the method: what was tried, in what order, and how the cause was found.
  2. "What would you do differently on that project?" A solid profile has specific regrets. "Nothing" is a bad answer.
  3. "Explain what your last project does, as you would to a client." You are measuring the ability to step out of technical detail — the one whose absence will cost you most.

Use outside evidence

When you cannot judge the technical level, lean on an independent measure. On AsatekUP, a certificate is issued after a technical assessment passed at 70% or above, with a score and a verifiable identifier. It is not a ranking of developers, but it is a check you do not have to run yourself.

You can also send a technical assessment to a candidate from their application, and compare answers without interpreting them yourself.

Get a technical read, at the right moment

A technical opinion costs time to someone who has little. Do not spend it on ten applications: sort on the signals above, then ask for an opinion on the two or three profiles left. One well-placed hour beats a diluted day.

If nobody internally can do it, an experienced outside developer can run a one-hour technical interview. That is a modest expense next to a failed hire.

Reply, even when it is no

The Malagasy tech market is small: candidates talk to each other. A clear rejection, sent within the timeframe you announced, builds a reputation that brings candidates back for your next role. So does silence.