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Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
51–60 of 94 posts
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#52This and the other startups like Interview Street seem to be focusing on the less lucrative side of the hiring problem. Like Joel Spolsky said, and like I know from personal experience, my best developer friends aren't in the market salivating to take interview tests, and do code sprints to prove they are good. They are passionate about developing, have many great jobs to pick from at a given time if they tried. If t…
I agree with this 100%. Coding tests and filters like this make sense when we have a market with an oversupply of developers that need to be filtered out. Right now, we're in the opposite situation with more jobs than skilled devs.
I think a few companies (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc) have more applicants than open job reqs, so for them these types of products have value.
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with you. This trend in our field is really making me uncomfortable. Judge me on what I know and what I did before, no more, no less. Or, to make this even more futile, how about I ask the company to build a small app for me? Since I also want to know if I should work for them. If they think their main business is enough to judge them, then my past experience is equally enough. This is bordering ridiculing in…
"This trend in our field is really making me uncomfortable. Judge me on what I know and what I did before, no more, no less." You are uncomfortable in demonstrating your knowledge in a practical way? I don't understand. You are looking for a role doing web development, which requires up-to-date knowledge not just of techniques, but of understanding. These code exercises make an excellent starting ground for a technic…
> You are uncomfortable in demonstrating your knowledge in a practical way?
The concern is potential employers trying to bilk free work out of developers. The small project strategy is hardly fool-proof either. If it becomes widespread, we'll just see phony developer put their assignments up on rent-a-coder and ask for a crib sheet to study so they can withstand a technical interview on what they've created.
Anecdotally, the 2 developers I know who were hired via the "do a small project for us first" method both ended up in companies with high dev turn-over, shitty tools (slow, single monitor computers), and were surrounded by lots of "green" co-workers who required significant hand-holding despite the fact that they too completed their small projects to get hired.
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#54I think it is important for some cases at least, that the libraries used by a candidate be limited. For some algorithms (lets say a search algorithm), it would be convenient to use a searching library. What library a person chooses is informative, but not as much as how a person implements it himself/herself. I do understand that this is essentially a screening test, but if lets say, DuckDuckGo was hiring, then how a person implements searching, even if trivial goes a long way in deciding how applicable that person would be for the job. This will be extremely difficult to implement though, I'm just saying one can require them to submit source code and then manual checking can be done for candidates who pass the screen. The reason is that there are a lot of drag-and-drop style wizards that can just generate some skeletal web service that could be used to break this screening test.
In the end, this is an amazing service, but sometimes, these tasks are essentially trivial, like, for example, exposing a function to a web service. I believe (and this is just my opinion), that the function is more essentially than how one can wire it to different interfaces.
But, what do I know, I'm too drunk right now.
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#55@ksat - I think it's easy to get the wrong idea of what your site is for from the heading - "...having them develop a real web application". Of course building an entire web app just to apply for a job is overkill. But it looks like that's not what you meant? I read further down the page and the examples given are more like short coding challenges. That's acceptable, and I think you need to focus your site more on filling that need. Position it as some sort of "Automated Fizzbuzz Test".
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#56I think you'll have traction problems on the developer side. Doesn't matter what kind of job it is, you can be pretty much 100% guaranteed that the job will be listed on the company website without any of the extra hoops to jump through. Requiring someone to build a web app just to apply is a huge requirement. It's fine if you gave someone an interview, and this is the final step before you hire...but requiring someo…
This idea/service needs to sold to HR departments who are seeking developers. As someone who hires I want to know what they can do vs what they say they can do. When I hire I ask job applicant to cut up and code a PSD. Some refuse while the eager ones whom are really serious and are excited about the job happily do so. Overall it's good practice and we give each applicant feedback on how to improve. The flip side all…
> I ask job applicant to cut up and code a PSD
You judge job applicants by their willingness to jump through boring scut work hoops in the hope of getting a job? I don't know what you're optimising for there, but it certainly isn't programming talent.
I've known a few C-class bumblers who would probably do that for a job interview. The number of grade-A talented engineers, the people I would want to hire, who would put themselves through some pointless, arbitrary slog just to impress you with their "eagerness"? Precisely zero.
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#57@ksat - I think it's easy to get the wrong idea of what your site is for from the heading - "...having them develop a real web application". Of course building an entire web app just to apply for a job is overkill. But it looks like that's not what you meant? I read further down the page and the examples given are more like short coding challenges. That's acceptable, and I think you need to focus your site more on fi…
Got it. Thanks. I'll see how I can word it better.
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#58Want to work here? Do work for us for free! Then maybe we'll hire you afterwards. Great idea if you want to hire suckers.
Maybe hire me? I have applied at a few places without getting a response, let alone a phone interview. If I'm spending a couple of hours writing code for them, they might as well take out a couple of minutes to reply back to me.
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#59I wouldn't code for free if you paid me to
Re: Show HN: Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
#60I first posted a snarky comment saying how this is spec work and what not. I then looked closely and deleted it, because it's not a spec work.
Your description -
Recruit web developers by having them build a web app
Recruit web developers by having them build a TEST web app