P(we hire you) =~ 0.0016

I wanted to submit this, because in the recent hiring thread [1] I got some responses complaining that we'd been posting for ages now, without apparently hiring anyone.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3060406

Super disappointed that this isn't David Lynch the director.

Just tossing this out there, cause I was one of the people making those comments. I don't think anyone is frustrated with not getting hired, I think it's just weird seeing the same monthly "We really want to hire people" post, but zero response to (what seems like)a lot of people that apply.

I feel like this is indicative of one of three scenarios:

1) For whatever reason, there is a high turn over rate at your company. This isn't always a bad thing, but if a company is always hiring, it's usually because they are consistently losing people as well.

2) You are experiencing crazy explosive growth, so much so that every month you need to hire more of the exact same positions.

3) The requirements for the job are poorly defined. This would lead to a lot of people (mistakenly) applying to a job that they have no hope of filling the requirements for.

Whatever the case may be, I really think the only reason you guys are getting any kind of backlash is just because it is becoming a common theme to apply to DeviantArt and never receive at the very least a "Sorry, not what we're looking for". Do it to enough people, and there's bound to be a response.

EDIT: There is a 3 month period in which 20% of new people get fired?! No wonder you are always hiring. You are effectively telling people to leave whatever job/security that they have, then cutting a non-trivial amount of them loose because they weren't a good fit? That's not their fault, thats a problem with the hiring process. Who knows what it does to the moral of the other workers. Oh wait, they are all remote. No one ever finds out...

You have two steps round the wrong way:

1. Do the phone screen first. Frankly, in my experience, you can filter out a lot of people in the first minute; and

2. Then do the test.

Speaking of the test, I had a quick look and it takes time. How much time? I'm not sure as I didn't look at the starting code, just the list of tasks. Maybe it only takes 30 minutes. Maybe it might take hours. I really don't know.

Either way, these sorts of things are huge barriers to entry because, as someone looking for a job, I also have to decide on how much time to spend on you. The fact that this test is just to get to the phone screen lowers the amount of effort I'm willing to put in.

Also, you don't need terribly complicated coding problems to weed out early stage candidates. Honestly, getting someone to code a relatively efficient (at worst O(n) space and time) factorial function will tell you ~95% of what you need to know from this test if you can witness them actually doing it. Seriously. So screenshare with them and get them to do it. No editor. Just a Google doc or similar.

That all being said, I'm really shocked how woefully unqualified an awful lot of programmers are at... programming. The sort of acceptance numbers talked about here and at places like Google (disclaimer: I work for Google) are more testament to the number of clueless cowboys infect our industry than anything else.

Also, bear in mind that an interview is a two-way street. The more effort you expect from the candidate the more they need to want to work for you before they even start interviewing. Google, Facebook, Twitter and the like have this kind of developer gravitas. Do you? I don't know.

Lastly, the three month trial thing is, for me, a huge problem. After all this there's a 20% chance I might lose my job for no reason other than you may not like me?

One reason Google is so selective is we take employment seriously. Leaks and criminal offences notwithstanding, it's actually pretty hard to get fired from Google and those decisions are not made lightly. That may have some negative side effects but overall I think it's a good thing that engineers aren't constantly worried about being fired.

I understand the benefit of a "trial period" for the hiring company, but for prospective hires this sounds terrible.

Is this common?