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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

#141

Post by mceachen »

hobs wrote: post #117
comboy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sai…

Simply put, no. If you have "too many people" you dont make the quality of your hiring "better" by making the process worse. Being more selective about who you hire is not related to making a stupid test.

You're assuming that most recruiting pipelines are reasonable.

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

#142

Post by davemp »

Tomte wrote: post #121
irrational wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What's the copyright situation in America anyway? I can't see company lawyers over here be comfortable with using code written outside formal employment.

Code is copy-written by default. So unless the company has you specifically license the code in a way they can use, there's defiantly some room to go after them.

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

#143

Post by Loughla »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #93

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.

Honestly, this type of advertising usually rubs me exactly the wrong direction.

But after reading the discussion it prompted, I'm left questioning exactly why it does so.

And like you said, slick marketing on the part of the creator at the very least needs to be acknowledged.

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

#144

Post by zdragnar »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #98
dnaismith wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Many people prefer this to an in-person whiteboard challenge. It's lower stress, and doesn't require taking additional time off from your current employer.

A 2-4 hour challenge is less time than I've spent in interviews at some companies, and would gladly have done it prior to an in-person interview given the option. That way, the actual interview time could have been spent talking about things of value, rather than having them stare at me while I white-board out problems around graph data structures and recursion and whatever other trite trivia they can come up with.

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

#145

Post by acdha »

wycy wrote: post #77
leadingthenet wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wi…

Interesting — does iCloud otherwise work normally? We've used it heavily for years and never seen anything like that. They used to have an option in the iCloud.com settings (under advanced) to reset the sync system which might be worth looking for — back in the day there used to be a utility to reset the Mac sync database which often fixed problems like this but I believe that was removed at some point.

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

#146

Post by ep103 »

djhaskin987 wrote: post #140

Is HN truly this bad of a bubble that everyone thinks interview tests are normal? The last time I had to do a test it was on site and I was just out of college. Most interviews just talk about the challenges of the team, my past work on similar problems, and how I solved them. I've been on the other side of the table too. It's usually easy to tell if the applicant is a quack or if they are skilled by how they talk ab…

My company tends to hire more junior developers, I've been pushing for years to raise our requirements for certain teams, but its a cultural understanding problem from people at the top. Coding tests are the only strong indicator I've found for the interviewing process. I've had candidates talk their way through all of the other steps, only to find they can't code their way out of a paper bag. I really think the only accurate way to tell how well someone codes, is by looking at their code, and a coding test is a good way of not only doing that, but also comparing code from one developer to another in a controlled manner. I'll take it over hackerrank and other similar shitty websites any day.

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

#147

Post by grogenaut »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #132
hdfbdtbcdg wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They had given me a live demo of their product on a call beforehand, so I know they didn't have this. They wanted me to design a feature they didn't have yet on their current product.

If they had paid you for your time would it have been ok?

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

#149

Post by onlydeadheroes »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #137
onlydeadheroes wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really in this case. If you go to the job you like saying that the shitjob offered you 2x the salary... and they call your bluff? Now what? Take the shit job you are not going to take? For that you could have bluffed with an empty hand anyway.

I was condoning lying about offers or salaries on offer, just that having more offers signals a perspective employer that you're a desirable candidate. I've heard of companies asking for proof of other offers so saying so and so offered me 2x is a very risky play if untrue.

> I've heard of companies asking for proof of other offers so saying so and so offered me 2x is a very risky play if untrue.

My point is that it is also risky if it is true, but the other offer is not a job you would take.

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

#150

Post by pxue »

Loughla wrote: post #129
rdez6173 wrote: post #104

I am a software engineer and I was once asked during an interview at a large hedge fund to pick a side and debate why war is justified. When I pressed them about the relevance, they indicated that they often have heated debates on all manner of topics, so they wanted to see my thought process. I enjoy solving complex problems, but socio-ethical problems are way outside of my wheelhouse. I politely indicated that I di…

How is that even remotely related to the job at hand? Why would you sabotage possible good candidates just so you can get your needless debate rocks off?

Because you're joining a team and should be a good fit beyond technical expertise.

I would be very happy to have answered that question and would be a plus one in my books if I can have these types of heated talks with my coworkers.

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