What do folks here think about an interview assignment where an applicant is asked to address an existing issue from an open source project, presented as a variety of cherry picked issues from popular projects but selected by the employer? The code would then be discussed during interview.
The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
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Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#82I worked for a company that did a 3-day, challenging take-home problem. It was a big ask, but it was amazing for getting a sense of people's problem solving and coding abilities. (The final result would only be 1000 lines of code or so, but 3 days provided time to think and experiment with different approaches.)
Maybe paying people for the time if you end up saying "no" is a nice compromise?
If you are potentially serious about hiring the candidate and they are serious about potentially working for you, doing some "homework" does not seem like a major amount of effort in the grand scheme of things to me.
Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#83I wrote a couple of these home works and finally gave up. In fact, I won't interview for any dev positions that require me to do a recruiter phone screen, another technical phone screen, a homework and then an onsite coding test.
Expecting production level code in a homework is just asinine.
I'd much rather do a timed coding test for 30 to 60 minutes and be done with it.
Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#84I don't want to name names but one YC company I interviewed at left me with the distinct impression that they talked a big game, just to get me to work on one of their (apparently) "strictly-hiring-related toy projects" as homework. Homework, "sure", except it: 1) integrated with a real system, 2) mirrored something they actually did, and 3) they would only agree to proceed if I signed an IP/work contract and accepte…
I have noticed a trend of not naming companies here. Is it against the rules? I fell that we should name and shame companies that are disrespectful of peoples time.
I don't believe I agree. Every story has two sides and I'm just not sure this is the forum to lay that all out in.
Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#85If the software development industry was the home building industry...
I'm a general contractor (Unicorn Homes Inc.) and I'm currently building a number of spec homes. We're going to need electrical work done in all the homes and I'm in the process of sub-contracting out that work. What I need from you, Joe Electrician, is for you to go wire the kitchen of one of these homes. Once you're done I will inspect your work and let you know if I'm interested in hiring you for more work.
Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#86I worked for a company that did a 3-day, challenging take-home problem. It was a big ask, but it was amazing for getting a sense of people's problem solving and coding abilities. (The final result would only be 1000 lines of code or so, but 3 days provided time to think and experiment with different approaches.) Maybe paying people for the time if you end up saying "no" is a nice compromise? If you are potentially se…
This heavily biases your interview process to only take candidates with time to complete your homework: unmarried, childless new graduates. If you tried to give me a 3-day interview I would walk away.
Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#87I worked for a company that did a 3-day, challenging take-home problem. It was a big ask, but it was amazing for getting a sense of people's problem solving and coding abilities. (The final result would only be 1000 lines of code or so, but 3 days provided time to think and experiment with different approaches.) Maybe paying people for the time if you end up saying "no" is a nice compromise? If you are potentially se…
I've met folks, recruiters and (tech) leadership, at companies that do these type of long, arduous interview processes.
They make it a point of ego / pride that they have such a long, arduous process. They've even mentioned the occasional candidate who asks about billable hours for an 8+ hour code problem, saying "Who the hell does that guy think he is?" Of course, they were shocked and appalled when I asked who they thought they were to ask someone to spend 8+ hours of their time on an code test before even having so much as a phone screen to determine compatibility.
As it were, this was a company in the contracting space so I assume this is an intentional filter to weed out all but the most compliant individuals. If you're not willing to bend over backwards, they're not interested.
Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
are you willing to pay for it? Would you pay the candidate a reasonable sum This would be additional income complicating tax, and many companies restrict employees from taking on outside paid work without approval. No matter how you slice it, these multi-hour homeworks are a stupid idea. And the real reason for them is to discourage candidates to justify getting indentured labour instead. Or to discriminate against o…
This would be additional income complicating tax, and many companies restrict employees from taking on outside paid work without approval. It seems wrong to reject a good idea because other bad idea will interfere with it. Maybe I'm fortunate; I take extra irregular work in the sum of about 30 days a year, and at the end of the year HMRC and I settle up very simply and easily. I couldn't imagine taking a contract tha…
couldn't imagine taking a contract that said I couldn't do any other work
It’s usually about avoiding conflicts of interest - you can generally get the box ticked easily enough to do something unrelated to your job with them. But “doing an audition at a competitor” is unlikely to be signed off!
But even so - these homework assignments are stupid, and discriminatory on factors unrelated to job performance, and no other industry does it. In fact they yield worse candidates because quality candidates don’t tolerate this kind of nonsense.
And how would this work - you take vacation to do your trial period? You quit to do a trial period knowing it’s still an interview not even an offer?
Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#89I prefer homework to timed, monitored programming sessions. But the task should never be a big task.
When i interviewed for a backend development position, the task was to set up flask with two routes, connect to a dB and retrieve a couple of rows when user visited the routes.
It was not hard even though I never worked with flask before, and it wasn't supposed to be hard either. It was a test if I had basic programming skills and that was it.
Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework
#90I think the best way to hire is to hire optimistically, without forcing ridiculous trivia questions or memorizing algorithms.
Then give up to 3 months of mentorship. If the person doesn’t look like they meet expectations, then fire her quickly. Give them the remaining time up to 3 months as severance.
This is the best way to do it because you're not subjecting people to bad interviews, and you're giving them up to 3 months severance if it doesn't work out.