jQuery
How to hire jQuery developers
Looking to add animations and Ajax (asynchronous JavaScript) interactions to your website? A jQuery developer can help.
So how do you hire jQuery developers? What follows are some tips for finding top jQuery consultants on Upwork.
How to shortlist jQuery professionals
As you’re browsing available jQuery consultants, it can be helpful to develop a shortlist of the professionals you may want to interview. You can screen profiles on criteria such as:
- Technology fit. You want a jQuery developer who understands the libraries, frameworks, and other technologies behind your web project.
- Project experience. Screen candidate profiles for specific skills and experience (e.g., using jQuery with Bootstrap to create responsive web pages).
- Feedback. Check reviews from past clients for glowing testimonials or red flags that can tell you what it’s like to work with a particular jQuery developer.
How to write an effective jQuery job post
With a clear picture of your ideal jQuery developer in mind, it’s time to write that job post. Although you don’t need a full job description as you would when hiring an employee, aim to provide enough detail for a contractor to know if they’re the right fit for the project.
Job post title
Create a simple title that describes exactly what you’re looking for. The idea is to target the keywords that your ideal candidate is likely to type into a job search bar to find your project. Here are some sample jQuery developer job post titles:
- jQuery developer needed for creating a responsive WordPress theme
- Front-end developer with jQuery/HTML/CSS experience
- Need help fixing jQuery issues for a simple WebRTC project
jQuery project description
An effective jQuery job post should include:
- Scope of work: From Ajax to animations, list all the deliverables you’ll need.
- Project length: Your job post should indicate whether this is a smaller or larger project.
- Background: If you prefer experience with certain industries, web technologies, or developer tools, mention this here.
- Budget: Set a budget and note your preference for hourly rates vs. fixed-price contracts.
jQuery developer responsibilities
Here are some examples of jQuery developer job responsibilities:
- Develop front-end web features
- Translate UI/UX designs into front-end features
- Write Ajax callbacks and manipulate the DOM using jQuery
- Create responsive HTML web/email templates
jQuery developer requirements and qualifications
Be sure to include any requirements and qualifications you’re looking for in a jQuery developer, such as:
- Web fundamentals HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Working knowledge of Ajax and jQuery
- RESTful web services
jQuery developers FAQ
What is jQuery?
jQuery is a JavaScript library that makes the DOM (Document Object Model) traversal and manipulation easier. With jQuery it’s possible to implement animations, event handling, responsive design, and Ajax with fewer lines of code than with vanilla JavaScript.
How much does it cost to hire a jQuery developer?
The first step to determining the cost to hire a jQuery developer will be to define your needs. Rates can vary due to many factors, including expertise and experience, location, and market conditions.
Cost factor #1: project scope
The first variable to consider when determining scope is the nature of the work that needs to be completed. Not all jQuery projects are created equal. Debugging a simple internal GUI will typically take less time than building a jQuery-powered application from scratch.
Tip: The more accurately your job description describes the scope of your project, the easier it will be for talent to give you accurate cost estimates and proposals.
Cost factor #2: jQuery development experience
Choosing the right level of expertise for the job is closely tied to how well you determined the scope of your project. You wouldn’t need an advanced jQuery developer to whip up a simple landing page UI for an information product. On the other hand, if your UI requires tricky DOM manipulation and animations, you’ll probably want to invest in an expert.
Beyond experience level, you need to consider the type of experience the talent possesses. The following table breaks down the rates of the typical types of jQuery developers you can find on Upwork.
Rates charged by jQuery developers on Upwork
| Level of Experience | Description | Hourly Rate |
| Beginner | Can use jQuery to build a simple webpage. Familiar with Ajax, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. | $20-30+ |
| Intermediate | Beyond jQuery, familiar with the larger JavaScript development ecosystem. Proficient in technology stacks such as MEAN (MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node.js). | $30-60+ |
| Expert | Strong JavaScript programming skills. Experienced with tricky DOM manipulations, complex jQuery migrations, and custom builds. | $60-90+ |
Cost factor #3: location
Location is another variable that can impact a jQuery developer’s rates. It’s no secret that you can leverage differences in purchasing power between countries to gain savings on talent. But it’s also important to factor in hidden costs such as language barriers, time zones, and the logistics of managing a remote team. The real advantage to sourcing talent remotely on Upwork is the ability to scan a global talent pool for the best possible person for the job. Location is no longer an obstacle.
Cost factor #4: independent contractor vs. agency
The final variable regarding talent cost is hiring an independent contractor vs. an agency. An agency is often a “one size fits all” model, so you’ll often have access to a designer, a project manager, an engineer, and more. When hiring individuals you have total autonomy regarding who is responsible for which part of the project, but you’ll need to source each of those skills separately.
The trade-off between hiring individuals vs. hiring an agency is the level of administrative overhead you incur personally in coordinating tasks among all members of the team. Project scope and personal preference will determine which style is a better fit for your needs.
Common jQuery developer mistakes
Disabling async when you don’t really need to: jQuery’s known for its support for Ajax, but there are times when you care about the order in which operations are executed in the browser. But while it might be tempting to disable async, this can actually slow down your application and potentially lock up the browser as it synchronously loads different parts of your code. A better way to manage how you want things executed is to use callbacks.
Writing spaghetti code: jQuery’s been around for a long time, and as a result it’s developed a bit of a reputation for spaghetti code. Infinite selector chains, overusing general-purpose functions instead of objects, and nondescriptive variable names all lead to a codebase that is difficult to understand and maintain. That’s why it’s important to document your code and adhere to proper formatting best practices to ensure future developers will be able to access and build off your work.
Redundant jQuery selectors: Every time you call $( this ) or $( ‘selector’ ) you ask jQuery to rescan the entire DOM for the matching element, wrap it in an object, and create a new instance in memory. The problems start happening when you repeat these selectors within a callback function or throughout a script, creating redundant instances of jQuery objects you already have. Do this too many times and your code can crash due to memory cascades.
Tips and best practices
Keep DOM manipulations to a minimum
Just because jQuery is good at DOM manipulation doesn’t mean you want to do it too often. Every time you manipulate the DOM directly, you trigger two things:
- DOM reflow, which is the official term for when the browser needs to recalculate the position/size of your DOM elements across the entire page.
- DOM repaint, the repainting of the skin (e.g., color, visibility) of DOM elements on the screen.
It takes time and resources to scan, reflow, and repaint an entire page for every little change. So only manipulate the DOM directly when you need to.
DRY (don’t repeat yourself)
If you find yourself writing the same code for the same action multiple times, chances are high you could probably refactor it into a leaner, more performant block of code. If you can use one event on multiple selectors by wrapping it in a var, do it. The DRY principle encourages readability, flexibility, testability, and efficiency when writing code.
Merge and minify
Before you push your code to production, make sure to merge and minify your script files. This reduces your file size and prevents browsers from having to make multiple HTTP requests to process all your scripts individually. The combined result can lead to an overall performance improvement.