Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app

Leaving aside whether or not this is a valid way to attract top people, my suggestion is to rebrand the name - "cull" has too negative a connotation ("cull the herd").

So #1, I'm part of "the herd", and #2 this tool is being used to possibly cull me. Great. No thanks, I'll spend my time applying to a place that doesn't have a tool dedicated to weeding me out. It doesn't portray the hiring org or your tool very well.

I'd be afraid that you're turning off devs right away, before they even get to the site (which has the potential to turn them off even more). My $0.02

Yes that's a valid point. We do ask the candidate to submit the source code once the they have solved the challenge. So employers who need only say "Rails" developers can mention it in the instructions and check the source later.

"However, as a very quick "can this candidate actually write code" filter, I think you're well on track."

Yes, that's exactly what I wanted this to be. Quickly filter out the 80% and move to the next stage where you can do much better justice reviewing the candidate's past work, working with the candidate on a project etc.

This and the other startups like Interview Street seem to be focusing on the less lucrative side of the hiring problem. Like Joel Spolsky said, and like I know from personal experience, my best developer friends aren't in the market salivating to take interview tests, and do code sprints to prove they are good. They are passionate about developing, have many great jobs to pick from at a given time if they tried. If they have free time, they would rather put it on an open source project that excites them, or a smartphone/web app that they are making for themselves.

If you look at filtering mechanisms themselves, there are companies that try to have puzzles that they ask you to solve before joining (eg: ITA software). But they are really challenging puzzles that I would solve just for fun anyway, (which is what I did for months till I one day decided to apply for a job there). The fact that these puzzles are also made by the company (and not a third party website) makes a difference. It tells me about the people that work there and potentially about their culture. On the other hand, building a random web app to prove basic skills is not something I would imagine most talented web developers would like to do anyway.

If you look at it from the perspective of a company that is hiring, tools like this solve merely one part of the puzzle. It takes the subset of developers who are already in the market for a new job and filters them. As a startup though, what I want to do is lure the great engineers who are content at their regular jobs and not looking at all because of inertia. It sounds like there is more of a "search for developers" problem that will expand the breadth of all the developers available to me, instead of focusing on the ones who are already out there (and are most likely not the cream of the crop by definition).

In short, I don't mean to be negative, and am not saying that there might not be a market for a tool like this. But I am pretty certain that if you are a great developer, you don't have an incentive to make a web app on this.

"This trend in our field is really making me uncomfortable. Judge me on what I know and what I did before, no more, no less."

You are uncomfortable in demonstrating your knowledge in a practical way? I don't understand. You are looking for a role doing web development, which requires up-to-date knowledge not just of techniques, but of understanding. These code exercises make an excellent starting ground for a technical interview, and has the advantage of being built in your preferred choice of environment, entirely in your style. It's a time where you can show off your real skills. Which is what hiring companies want to know about.

There's very little room to hide in these coding challenges / exercise.

I've been on both sides of web developer tests / challenges, and the one I enjoyed the most was interviewing for Global Radio in London. I had a weekend to build a web app. So I built something I wanted to build anyway, gave it to them.

The next step was to go in with their web development team who then code reviewed it.

Still use that web app today.

More to the point, showing your skills after you've been granted an interview, and being forced to do spec work before you are allowed to apply (wtf?????) are not the same.