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I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

uxdesign.cc

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

#91

Post by Zenbit_UX »

I recently went through an interview with a company posting on HN and was shocked by their challenge.

They provided their current UI (barebones dashboard) as well as instructions to launch the backend server locally and requested I upgrade their UI to include a side panel for filtering a data table.

The task itself wasn't difficult, but the realization that these scum bags wanted me to upgrade their current product under the guise of a challenge. I instantly knew this wouldn't be a company I'd want to work for even if they did provide an offer.

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

#93

Post by albertgoeswoof »

This is a really great marketing example! The creator has combined a top page HN post with a PH launch at the same time with really polished looking apps & landing pages.

Essentially this will give them a huge traction boost on the app stores and a bunch of new users. Super impressive.

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

#94

Post by hdfbdtbcdg »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #91

I recently went through an interview with a company posting on HN and was shocked by their challenge. They provided their current UI (barebones dashboard) as well as instructions to launch the backend server locally and requested I upgrade their UI to include a side panel for filtering a data table. The task itself wasn't difficult, but the realization that these scum bags wanted me to upgrade their current product u…

Are you sure it was the latest version of their product? Asking someone to do a task that you have recently done could be a really good code test.

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

#95

Post by davnicwil »

matwood wrote: post #58
ivan_gammel wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the current market there’s abundance of junior or mid-level developers from body shops applying to senior level positions. If you cannot stand from this crowd and shine by balancing the tree right, why someone would care hiring you? I can tell you plenty of stories about people who had impressive background and great soft skills, but in the end barely can do their job.

> If you cannot stand from this crowd and shine by balancing the tree right I don't think memorization of an algorithm is what should make a senior level candidate stand out. Senior people need to be able to lead, mentor, self manage (this is a huge one IMO), and understand the bigger picture. "How do we avoid having to balance this tree at all?"

This is brilliant!

The role of the senior Engineer isn't to tell you how to balance the tree. You, or anyone you instruct to, can simply ask google that or use a library.

Their role is to ask why we need to balance the tree. You very definitely can't ask google that, and that's why you need to hire a senior Engineer.

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

#96

Post by irrational »

jordansmithnz wrote: post #39

This reminds me of a take home software engineering interview I was once given via email. Same deal, I was told about 5 hours. I’m an iOS developer, so I was expecting a pretty simple app. I opened the PDF to find not one, but three separate tasks. Completion of all three was expected, with an estimate of about two hours each. One of the tasks was to replicate Apple’s ‘Reminders’ app in its entirety, backend sync fun…

We've joked about giving potential hires a challenge to fix a problem we are currently experiencing, but we wouldn't really do it. That takes some balls to ask interviewees to write or fix production code.

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

#97

Post by yitchelle »

bitL wrote: post #17

Are you sure you didn't sign any NDA, preventing you from working on ideas you might get during interview? Google used to have pretty water-tight policy on outflow of ideas (but inflow was encouraged) during interviews.

An interesting aside is if the NDA is bidirectional? In most interviews, the candidate would discuss their past experiences and past projects, which could contain sensitive information via unintentional leaking. Perhaps even a side project that the candidate is working could be covered with NDA. Thoughts?

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

#98

Post by Zenbit_UX »

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.

I'm interviewing with 6 companies simultaneously and like you they all think they're deserving of free labor.

I'd wager your company must have the worst devs, those who have little self respect and zero other prospects.

Do you not understand that you're requesting free labor from an applicant? Did you forget the purpose isn't to have the sickest challenge ever but to evaluate someone's code/ingenuity?

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

#99

Post by VBprogrammer »

Urgh. I recently had a similar situation. I started interviewing with a company who have a take-home assignment which I could have completed in the required time without taking any care over the quality of code I was submitting, but to do it properly I spent a bit of time thinking about it and building a reasonably extensive test-suite along the way.

I was asked to come in for a face to face interview, for which I made clear I was having to take a day off of work, which was cancelled a few working hours before (so I wasn't able to cancel the holiday) without an apology. I was then interviewed again by phone and told that there was 'a bug' in my code and that I should try to find it and resubmit it without any other details. The spec was a puzzle with lots of weird edge cases and horrible inconsistencies.

I decided at that point that I didn't want to work with them.

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

#100

Post by Zenbit_UX »

ScottFree wrote: post #75
wycy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe, but from a self serving standpoint acquiring multiple offers drastically helps your negotiating position.
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