We do something similar if we are hiring a remote freelancer. Although first thing we look for is github code, then we do a short call, and then if that all looks good we do a 10 hour paid task. We then scale the work up from there with larger and larger tasks as our trust in them grows, because, as we've found, the hardest part of hiring freelancers is getting people that can reliably deliver. You don't want to give someone a too large task initially because the risk of them not delivering is too high and you need to know that you can cover the work if necessary.
How To Hire Outsourced Developers
41–50 of 82 posts
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#42Is anyone else tired of being assigned homework when applying for jobs? In both this and the author's previous article on hiring, he mentions giving people tasks to complete by a certain deadline as part of the hiring process. For someone that's just starting out as a programmer then maybe that's reasonable, but for those of us that've been in software for years, what's the point? You wouldn't ask a carpenter to make…
>You wouldn't ask a carpenter to make you a closet before you decide if you want to hire them, you look at the other houses they've created[...]There's a lot of crappy carpenters out there, and it feels like I've worked with them all
The author is saying you could have avoided working with any of the crappy carpenters, if you had paid them to make something dead simple in an hour as part of evaluating them.
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#43Is anyone else tired of being assigned homework when applying for jobs? In both this and the author's previous article on hiring, he mentions giving people tasks to complete by a certain deadline as part of the hiring process. For someone that's just starting out as a programmer then maybe that's reasonable, but for those of us that've been in software for years, what's the point? You wouldn't ask a carpenter to make…
Can a developer on a H1-B/TN/etc visa in the US legally do these homework assignments?
IANAL. They can do the homework in their free time, but they can most probably not get paid for it.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/part-time-work-multip...
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#44+1 for no ~foreign people are dumb~ undertones I've seen in other posts. I'm brasilian and I'm sure my skills could punch the skills of some developers elsewhere in the face, even if I make less. If you don't respect people who you work with, what are you? That's why, also, I'm at my last remote job, after this one goes, I'm getting back to local and corporate stuff.. Current one is great, but I've had enough bad exp…
You should contact me (see my profile). We're always looking for remote devs and we have a pretty good reputation at this point for how we work with remote developers.
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, you would look at similar things that your potential carpenter has built. You would also try to do that with programmers. But a good deal of the things programmers built are team built, or proprietary, it's difficult to know what they've created in the past. Having them work on a simple task beforehand is a way to normalize and make sure every programmer you're looking at is on a level field.
Also, unlike a programmer, a carpenter can't simply copy+paste work that someone else did and claim it as his own. It's a lot harder to fake tangible work in real life than it is to fake intangible work on the internet.
They can point at a house and say "I built that" even if someone else did, and how are you going to know the difference? The same way as you verify that someone in software did the work they said: put in the due diligence. That part can't really be avoided.
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#46We do something similar if we are hiring a remote freelancer. Although first thing we look for is github code, then we do a short call, and then if that all looks good we do a 10 hour paid task. We then scale the work up from there with larger and larger tasks as our trust in them grows, because, as we've found, the hardest part of hiring freelancers is getting people that can reliably deliver. You don't want to give…
Excellent. I like it.
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can a developer on a H1-B/TN/etc visa in the US legally do these homework assignments?
IANAL. They can do the homework in their free time, but they can most probably not get paid for it. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/part-time-work-multip...
Thanks for posting this.
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#48This post doesn't contemplate one of the biggest problems on Odesk. The best of the "team" will perform the test. Then they put one of their low level team members on after the team leader passes the test.
The only way I have learned to work around the problem is to require use of the odesk time tracker with WEBCAM. Can't hide who is doing the work with the WEBCAM taking shots of the person. :)
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#49This post doesn't contemplate one of the biggest problems on Odesk. The best of the "team" will perform the test. Then they put one of their low level team members on after the team leader passes the test. The only way I have learned to work around the problem is to require use of the odesk time tracker with WEBCAM. Can't hide who is doing the work with the WEBCAM taking shots of the person. :)
Very true. I've ran into this problem as well. Fortunately for me the team was actually very good. I'm glad you brought this up though. Good points!
Re: How To Hire Outsourced Developers
#50In a somewhat related question... remember the guy[1] who worked at Verizon who out-sourced his job? I'd sure love for him to write up exactly what/who/when/how he did that and got it to work out so smoothly; except for the part where he got fired.
1. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/16/169528579/out...