I interviewed at Canonical, doing all of the written stuff, and got an offer. But in the end I turned them down because their compensation wasn't competitive.
Same here. And they’re a BYOD shop too, which I found strange.
BYOD ?
Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
41–50 of 460 posts
Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
#42Did anyone think it's a bit weird that they don't give you a laptop? Are you supposed to buy your own hardware or something?
You are supposed to bring your device. If you don’t have one you can get a loan to buy one and pay it off by paycheque deductions.
Once hired, you do get a “laptop refresh bonus” every 3 years, the problem being that it’s a bonus and so is subject to income tax, plus in some jurisdictions you can’t tax deduct computer purchases unless you are self-employed, so the purchasing power of the laptop refresh allowance is basically halved; i always ended up having to top up from my own money to get a decent laptop every 3 years.
Source: former Canonical employee.
Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
#43Their focus on high-school looks like a thinly-veiled strategy for weeding out anyone who is old enough that they no longer remember the details of their high school education.
Ooh yes how clever
Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
#44I hate these things. This is at least from an outsider perspective, but when what I really want to know is WHY they do each step and what makes them work better.
Most companies have no reason to believe their process is better than taking a random resume (which selects for people who want to work for you enough to send a resume) and making an offer. Sure they have elaborate processes around interviews, tests, and the like. However are they helpful or just processes for the sake of process.
I know there is research on how to interview people. However I don't know where to find it, and most processes seem to have been created without looking at it.
Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
On paper Canonical is a company I'd rather enjoy working for. I love the product (despite its flaws) and have a lot of relevant experience. I wouldn't even object to the long interview process as such. Written materials? Sure! I'd love to see the bar raised on developers' writing skills! Why not. But man, that High School question? The implicit agism and the shere fuck-you irrelevance of my circumstances 35 years ago…
Yeah...I applied when I was job hunting at the beginning of the year and I hard stopped on the high school question. I've got over 30 years of relevant experience and if that's what they're asking, I'm obviously not the sort of person they're looking for. Implicit ageism describes it well. Was it age discrimination? I wouldn't go that far based on what I saw, but they either don't want older/experienced people or the…
Same exact thing happened to me. I'm not writing an essay about my high school life, that's ridiculous.
I don't do asymmetrical interviews. I'll consider a take in coding test in lieu of something else (or a very trivial one), but a written essay means I'm spending time and they are not. A phone or face to face interview requires an actual investment in their time, and doesn't treat my time as completely disposable.
Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
#46I’m just annoyed at how much they spam LinkedIn by posting the same remote job listing in 500 different cities.
Job searches take your location into account and sometimes won’t show remote-only positions if you do something like scoping your search to your area. Posting remote listings in specific locations allows those to show up in search results more frequently. And it works - it’s kind of gaming job search boards but it did result in Canonical getting an absolute deluge of applications for each position.
Canonical also re posts every month or so to also benefit from higher placement for more recent listings.
Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
#47Here is the funny part: If you somehow land a job at these companies, you will notice that recent hires (your new colleague) are not particularly good at their work but they are experts in gaming the system.
understandable, as each interviewing systems effectively selects people good at passing that system. if your interviewing system is heavy on personality tests, you'll get people that are strong at gaming personality tests. if your interviewing system is heavy on technology, you'll get people that are strong at gaming technology. if what you get is not what you want then most likely this means that middle management a…
Randomness in interviews is underrated because it offsets these over-selection effects.
I'd love to see the results for a company where every applicant that passed basic screening tests was given a 1% chance of an offer; with additional probability weight awarded for performance in interviews.
Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
#48Did anyone think it's a bit weird that they don't give you a laptop? Are you supposed to buy your own hardware or something?
You are supposed to bring your device. If you don’t have one you can get a loan to buy one and pay it off by paycheque deductions. Once hired, you do get a “laptop refresh bonus” every 3 years, the problem being that it’s a bonus and so is subject to income tax, plus in some jurisdictions you can’t tax deduct computer purchases unless you are self-employed, so the purchasing power of the laptop refresh allowance is b…
Speechless tbh ...
Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex
#49This is not the worst process I’ve seen, but likely the funniest stats bleeder scam I've seen in years.
“How would you change the company?”
Replace the bureaucracy with a 1 page web-form, fire most process management/agents, and hire more developers on a small per-project basis at first. If managers have to try this hard to remain mission relevant, there is likely a deeper issue with the business side.
Also, Canonical is still not Evil enough for the tech industry: