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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

#681

Post by [deleted] »

eksemplar wrote: post #127
Grollicus wrote: post #22

I don't understand this development. In Germany, we've basically got full employment in the IT sector. Why would anyone waste their time with this? Just apply for the Job next door. As an employer, hiring someone new is always a leap of faith. Might work out, might not. If it doesn't, dont feel bad to fire people again.

In Denmark we put a job offer out on the various job banks, receive the applicants, go through them in the hiring team, starring them 1-5 and we call the best 5 candidates in for a 30-60 minute interview. Mainly it’s just a talk to see what personality is the best fit. Sometimes we do a personality test, but only for people who will do any form of project management. We’ve never done a technical test or had anyone pr…

[deleted]

Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

#682

Post by hulahoof »

enraged_camel wrote: post #445
neurobashing wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real talk? There is nothing wrong with being in IT. Imagine if someone said "I would be concerned I'd be seen as a carpenter and not a woodworking artisan". You're a carpenter. You nail boards together to serve the business interests of the company. Even if the boards are SQL queries or ReactJS or whatever. Companies need tech. You can bring value by making everyone's jobs better with your technology - sand off those…

Many non-tech employees view IT people as basically “computer janitors with bad attitudes”. Heck, I’ve worked in tech for a decade and I can count the number of people who have a positive view of their IT department in one hand.

To be fair, In my (admittedly limited) experience contracting at BigCorp - the IT department's procedures are often a bottleneck in a workflow or solutions.

We all know they are following business procedure, but there will always be some unconcious tension with departments that hinder a solution (I see marketing and legal butt heads all day).

Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

#683

Post by user5994461 »

newobj wrote: post #671
spookthesunset wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are getting paid $15/hr to code in new york, you are getting massively, massively, massively underpaid.

People in "offshored-to countries" are making ~$15USD/hr ... if you are making this anywhere in the primary market for doing code work, you're getting massively^3 underpaid ... nevermind NYC

I'm not sure you can get offshore work done for so little. Maybe that was possible up to a decade ago.

Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

#684

Post by wpasc »

newobj wrote: post #329
magissima wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're only applying to one job and you get it, sure. But when you're looking for a new job and sending out dozens of resumes, it adds up pretty quickly! On top of that, it makes rejections all the more dispiriting when you spend hours or days working on one job application.

IMHO, if you can't land, say, 1 out of 3 interviews, there is a systemic personal problem, not just a bad day, and "the problem is u" -- sadly you will just need to work harder because something in your skill set is not up to snuff.

I agreed with your main post, but landing 1 out of 3 interviews? I know several people who got offers at both Facebook and Google out of school who did not hit a 1 out of 3 ratio of offers to interviews

Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

#686

Post by adventured »

reaperducer wrote: post #255
speby wrote: post #218

Our industry's hiring practices are absolutely obnoxious. In an ideal world, you could trust someone's resume. e.g. "I've written large production programs in C." Ok, great, so then clearly this person knows C so there should be no need to dissect code or run them thru some linked list algorithm and see if they know how to use pointers correctly. Yet, we do. Ok, then what about open source contributions (if they have…

> Our industry's hiring practices are absolutely obnoxious. Agreed. The solution is to not work at a tech company, but instead work in a tech capacity at a real company. - No silly games (before or after hiring). - Better benefits (I'd rather have proper health coverage and a pension than a room full of toys and vaporware stock options). - Immensely more job security (Henry Ford didn't have an "exit strategy"). - Peo…

> Henry Ford didn't have an "exit strategy"

The several hundred other auto makers in Detroit did, they went bankrupt or sold out for peanuts right before going bankrupt.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Facebook, Cisco, Oracle, Intuit, Adobe, PayPal, nVidia, Intel, etc. don't have exit strategies either.

For the vast majority of businesses, you're either going bankrupt, or you're going to eventually sell as an exit. One in a million businesses turn into the next Ford scenario.

Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

#687

Post by user5994461 »

newobj wrote: post #469
haskellandchill wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $300k, $400k+ a year Amazon, Facebook, Google? Those are hard salaries to get in my experience. I'm reasonably well respected in my field; attending conferences, speaking, leading meetups, and tirelessly researching computer science in my free time. Can't get a job at those 3, but going to try and take the hedge fund route I guess (I'm in NYC).

In my head financial stuff is harder to get into than BigCo's... :) Why do you say you /can't/ get a job at those companies?

It's all about location. Web is the west coast while finance is the east coast.

Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

#688

Post by modbait »

Analemma_ wrote: post #661
modbait wrote: post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't tell in a ten-minute casual conversation whether or not someone is grossly lying on their resume, you probably shouldn't be an interviewer.

They can: with FizzBuzz. That's the whole point.

No--a ten-minute conversation with no coding, not a pop-quiz.

Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

#689

Post by amyboyd »

maxk42 wrote: post #580

This literally happened to me last week. On a Friday night before my girlfriend's birthday they sent me -- without warning -- an assignment that "should take about 8 hours". I told them to give the job to someone hungrier than me which was the politest way of telling someone to stuff it I could think of. The company in question advertises here on HN's "Who's hiring?" threads, but the role was brought to my attention…

I had the same experience recently with first-time founders on HN "Who's Hiring?" (Fat Lama). They expected 4 rounds of interviews and a tech test. Delusional.

Re: The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

#690

Post by newobj »

user5994461 wrote: post #683
newobj wrote: post #671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in "offshored-to countries" are making ~$15USD/hr ... if you are making this anywhere in the primary market for doing code work, you're getting massively^3 underpaid ... nevermind NYC

I'm not sure you can get offshore work done for so little. Maybe that was possible up to a decade ago.

Sure, I was being conservative. Point being that $15/hr in the US is just basically a complete screw-job.
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