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I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

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Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#71

Post by davidbanham »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #64
davidbanham wrote: post #18

> You have ‘4–6 hours’... No one acknowledges the fact that in reality, you’re about to dedicate up to 5 working days on this task I fixed that problem for my candidates then turned it into a startup: https://takehome.io

Meta: I assume you're doing a website update at the moment. I prefer the blue! Though I might still use a white version on the homepage to remove emphasis from the header. Also, on you signup page it would IMO look nicer if you pinned the page footer (eg https://matthewjamestaylor.com/bottom-footer ).

Thanks for taking a look! I actually have always had a different style on the landing page from the rest of the app. One was designed to be eye catching and the other functional. The landing page is probably due for a fresh coat of paint, though. I'll give some thought to pinning the footer.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#72

Post by aloisdg »

wycy wrote: post #44
aloisdg wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You took out the time to go to some office. How about a phone call or a quick email to ask what is their hiring process, what is the work and how it is usually fulfill? In the current market you are not a seller, you are the buyer. Why should I consider working for you?

Do you take this approach for jobs to which you actively applied in the first place, or only jobs for which they reached out to you first? I'm with your comment's parent: I don't think I'd have the guts to walk out of an interview either, especially for a job I applied to first.

The last time I applied to a company, I ask them all of this. Something in those lines "Hello, I use your product FooBarTools everyday and it help me a lot. I really like it. It is nice piece of software. bla bla bla. I see that you have some opening positions in your careers page. bla bla bla. I would love to be a part of the improvement of FooBarTools. bla bla. What is your hiring process? What do you expect a senior/midlevel/junior should be able to do? bla bla. Thank you for your time. Have a nice day."

For company who reach me, it is mandatory.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#73

Post by ubercow13 »

dnaismith wrote: post #63
sethammons wrote: post #56

The rule of thumb I subscribed to: have the interviewer(s) do the interview. Give the candidate 3x time to do it that the in-house people took. Or, framed in reverse, if you want the assignment to take and n minutes or hours, give yourself n/3 to complete it, and however far you get is the bar for the assignment. Interviewees are stressed, maybe outside their domain, and other things. Make something that they can sho…

We did this at my company. A developer at the level that that developer was applying for would do a task that took them 2-4 hours. We then gave the interviewee four days to complete the task with a recommended time of 2 days. We also always made sure to include the weekend in the time they had to complete the task as we know during the week time is precious.

A two day take-home coding test is absurd regardless of whether it's the weekend

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#74

Post by mrisoli »

amelius wrote: post #3

> You have ‘4–6 hours’ to design a slick product, with a memorable brand and cohesive working method. No one acknowledges the fact that in reality, you’re about to dedicate up to 5 working days on this task, with the potential for them to ghost you straight afterwards. To make this more fair, why not let the designer work at the company's office, so the interviewer can actually see how much time it took, and the inte…

I've done that a few time actually.

My last company they flew me from another continent to do a 3-days assessment, I worked with the team on a legitimate feature(that would be trashed after as they couldn't use the code because I was unpaid). I liked it, I met the team, I interacted with them, I did the task and got a job offer in the end.

All engineers at the company highly valued the 3 days assessment because we got to select great people to work with, but we were getting too many candidates giving up or false negatives, they eventually cut it down to 1-day despite our protests.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#75

Post by ScottFree »

wycy wrote: post #44
aloisdg wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You took out the time to go to some office. How about a phone call or a quick email to ask what is their hiring process, what is the work and how it is usually fulfill? In the current market you are not a seller, you are the buyer. Why should I consider working for you?

Do you take this approach for jobs to which you actively applied in the first place, or only jobs for which they reached out to you first? I'm with your comment's parent: I don't think I'd have the guts to walk out of an interview either, especially for a job I applied to first.

> I don't think I'd have the guts to walk out of an interview either, especially for a job I applied to first.

Have you no common courtesy? I terminate the process as soon as I find out I'm not a good fit for the company or vice versa, no matter who initiated first. Continuing with an interview when I'm sure I'm going to decline is just wasting everybody's time.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#76

Post by comboy »

swish_bob wrote: post #47

I once completed the task sent to me by a prospective employer, and then thanked them and said I wouldn't be submitting it, as it told me enough about the way they worked to know I wouldn't enjoy it. Never forget that the interview process is two way ...

Those few big companies probably have more than enough candidates. If you have too many candidates you need to adjust interview difficulty to still hire only as much as you need. I don't think these companies care that the task is too difficult for 99% of people, or that there are smart people who are not motivated enough to complete it as long as they can get as many smart and motivated people as they want.

That said, finding a job in IT if you are good at what you're doing is a dreamland currently, so declining if you think you won't enjoy working for a given company seems only natural.

Given dynamics above I think you're likely better off not working for one of those top few companies if you don't care about prestige and long term job stability.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#77

Post by wycy »

leadingthenet wrote: post #67
wycy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's Reminders app is so glitchy that your interview task probably would've been vastly superior to the actual consumer product.

It's barebones, but glitchy?! I've been using it for years, and it's been rock stable for me.

I've found it incredibly glitchy. I have some reminders that somehow duplicate and show up multiple times (all at the same time), and others that will show up and instantly dismiss themselves. I can even be looking at my phone and see them pop up and instantly disappear.

For a long time I thought it was perhaps due to poor sync with the Mac, since sometimes I manage reminders from there, but the same thing happens with the wife's phone and she doesn't sync Reminders. She has a single daily reminder at 10pm. Sometimes it shows up 4 times. Sometimes 4 times and 1 disappears for a net of 3 reminders. Sometimes just 1 shows up. Sometimes none of them show up. It's bizarre.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#78

Post by josh2600 »

Someone on my team once asked an iOS engineer to add a button to a codebase during an onsite interview. That is actually a horrible test to complete in 45 minutes if the codebase is large (and particularly hard if it’s not super well maintained because even just familiarizing yourself with the codebase can take a great deal of time).

It’s one of those things that sounds easy but really, really isn’t possible to do in the time allotted. I learned a lot about interviewing people that day.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#79

Post by kdazzle »

mrisoli wrote: post #74
amelius wrote: post #3

> You have ‘4–6 hours’ to design a slick product, with a memorable brand and cohesive working method. No one acknowledges the fact that in reality, you’re about to dedicate up to 5 working days on this task, with the potential for them to ghost you straight afterwards. To make this more fair, why not let the designer work at the company's office, so the interviewer can actually see how much time it took, and the inte…

I've done that a few time actually. My last company they flew me from another continent to do a 3-days assessment, I worked with the team on a legitimate feature(that would be trashed after as they couldn't use the code because I was unpaid). I liked it, I met the team, I interacted with them, I did the task and got a job offer in the end. All engineers at the company highly valued the 3 days assessment because we go…

3 days of work unpaid!!?

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#80

Post by yholio »

cf141q5325 wrote: post #20
yholio wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not selecting for individuals with an ability to do the job, punch out at the right time, and then live their lives. Corporations love obsessive-compulsive workers who feel thankful to have the job, are willing to sacrifice personal time towards their business goals and would never dream to unionize or otherwise engage in collective bargaining. They want solitary and competitive workaholics, that's the whole…

You are selecting for people who make it impossible to realistically plan deadlines.

A.k.a individuals who accept whatever deadline is imposed onto them and work round the clock to meet it instead of telling management they failed to properly assign time and resources to the project.
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