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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

#511

Post by fhbdukfrh »

monsieurbanana wrote: post #331
monocasa wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that certainly selects for engineers willing to do unreasonable amounts of work without questioning it.

If that's how you want to test potential engineers, I don't necessarily see a problem with the task itself. Just pay them! I'm sure Uber can find the budget for that.

Yes, because the only limiting for for super qualified engineers is they don't get paid for coding in their copious amounts of free time.

If you want to limit your pool of potential hires to rock stars who don't have jobs (pool size of approx. zero) this is a great approach.

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

#512

Post by paulcole »

Biggest takeaway to me is that the candidate didn't do as asked because they thought they knew better. When someone asks you to do 3-5 hours of work, do that.

If it's obvious you spent DAYS on this, what does that tell me as the interviewer/recruiter? I have no idea if this person can follow instructions and I have no idea what this person can do in 3-5 hours.

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

#513

Post by robocat »

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…

They are simply stating one strong aspect of their workplace culture.

You self-selected out, because you didn't like their culture.

Seems like a great outcome for both parties!

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

#514

Post by fhbdukfrh »

kelnos wrote: post #449
distances wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having never worked in SV, are these home assignments common there? I know several engineers who would refuse to do any homework at all as a matter of principle, so a task of this magnitude without compensation sounds laughable on the face of it.

Home assignments are probably not yet the norm, but are becoming more common. There's been a lot of backlash toward whiteboard coding, but most companies still want some sort of concrete work product. I would expect a reasonable home assignment would take no more than a couple hours to complete. If a company gave me something as time-consuming as Uber's, I'd say no thanks. Otherwise, I'd prefer a home assignment over…

Our current assessment is about 4 hours and i think that's too long. When i was hired I remember multiple points where i seriously considered giving up. O can't help but think how many good people we lose to an excessive applicant process

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

#515

Post by spraak »

smeyer wrote: post #420
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…

My employer has sometimes given out challenges that take a few hours. We just ask the candidate when they'd like to do the take-home and email it to them on that schedule. Then they have to submit their solution within the allotted time. It's a nice way to make sure the candidate knows it really only will take a couple hours, because neither side wants the candidate to spend 30 hours on a 3 hour take-home.

That still sounds quite stressful. Are any of your devs able to complete the task or similar in n hours/3 tim

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

#516

Post by fhbdukfrh »

rifung wrote: post #486
gcheong wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's on par but still bullshit. I interviewed with Uber, got said phone screen, managed to solve the problem then was told Uber decided to "go in another direction" and would not be moving forward with my application. When I asked for clarification as to what that meant considering I solved the problem the recruiter called me and said some hand wavy stuff about how I didn't solve it "quickly" enough (I had plenty of…

> I interviewed with Uber, got said phone screen, managed to solve the problem then was told Uber decided to "go in another direction" and would not be moving forward with my application. When I asked for clarification as to what that meant considering I solved the problem I understand the frustration with interviews but your comment seems to show a lack of understanding in how interviews work. Interviews are a compe…

This implies some sort of standardized assessment, which is seldom true. All sorts of bias is at play under the guise of culture, personality and team fit.

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

#517

Post by quickthrower2 »

max76 wrote: post #269
0xffff2 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The feedback I got afterwards was "We're passing on you as your code doesn't compile/run on Linux", a requirement that wasn't specified. I have to ask, was there something that implied that it should specifically run on Windows? If I got a software spec that didn't spell out exactly which platforms needed to be supported, one of the very first things I would do would be to ask for clarification.

Applying for a dotnet position and assuming dotnet framework instead of dotnet core would have been very responsible two years ago.

It still is IMO and rejecting someone because their .NET code didn’t work on Linux without specifying is like doimg the same for a Ruby developer whose code fails on Windows.

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

#518

Post by antt »

Alex3917 wrote: post #458
monocasa wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that certainly selects for engineers willing to do unreasonable amounts of work without questioning it.

If you've never had a job as a developer before and don't have any open source contributions, then that's actually a pretty good take home project. Yes it will take a week or two of unpaid work, but no one is going to hire you for your first job without having built at least one project of that size anyway.

Sound great. I have a job offer for you. Contact me for the two week unpaid test.

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

#519

Post by Alex3917 »

dajohnson89 wrote: post #494
Alex3917 wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've never had a job as a developer before and don't have any open source contributions, then that's actually a pretty good take home project. Yes it will take a week or two of unpaid work, but no one is going to hire you for your first job without having built at least one project of that size anyway.

Do you really think that's an appropriate question for an entry-level developer?

For an entry-level fullstack iOS developer it's not that bad.

For context, for my first job as a developer the take home assignment I got was creating a web app that logged realtime CPU usage and created a graph of that CPU usage that was updated in real time.

And this all had to be done using a specific language, web framework, and database that I had never used before.

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

#520

Post by kccqzy »

monocasa wrote: post #309
thoreauway wrote: post #305

I interviewed at Uber before they launched. Their "take home" was to create... Uber. Here's the exact challenge: UberCab Coder Challenge 1) Write a program that determines the wait time, trip time, rating, and fare for a black car trip in San Francisco, given that the customer's pickup location and destination is randomly placed anywhere in San Francisco proper, and given that there are X number of cars all placed ra…

Well, that certainly selects for engineers willing to do unreasonable amounts of work without questioning it.

One thing I've tried at my company is to present a complicated task with many parts and considerations, and then explicitly say that you are not required to complete all of it. Just do the the minimum required (which can be done in an hour or so) and the parts that catches your interest. Looking at which parts the prospective engineer completed, we could also determine which part of the stack he/she likely wants to work on.
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