On asking job candidates to code
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On asking job candidates to code
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Re: On asking job candidates to code
#2Like the author, having run a hiring program for several years based on coding challenges designed to mimic the work the team does (ie, work sample tests), I do not understand why any tech company does developer hiring in any other way.
I particularly like how this team iterated on their uploader problem, abstracting it out to a socket server and providing a test suite for it. Reacting to ambiguity by abstracting the problem was clever. And, of course, a great illustration of how a standardized hiring tool can, like any software project, be iterated on and improved --- unlike a free-form whiteboard interview.
Re: On asking job candidates to code
#3Like the author, having run a hiring program for several years based on coding challenges designed to mimic the work the team does (ie, work sample tests), I do not understand why any tech company does developer hiring in any other way. I particularly like how this team iterated on their uploader problem, abstracting it out to a socket server and providing a test suite for it. Reacting to ambiguity by abstracting the…
Because at the end of the day coming up with work sample problems & then applying rigorous metric analysis is much harder than "grab engineer & throw him in a room with the candidate".
Re: On asking job candidates to code
#4I really hate having to solve these kind of programming challenges. I've already sent you my CV, with references from former/current employers and co-workers. Call them up if you are worried that I'm lying on my résumé, don't waste my time by making me work for the chance of maybe getting a job as only payment. Doing multiple interviews already takes up enough of my time, seeing as I'm the one who has to commute to your location.
Re: On asking job candidates to code
#5Like the author, having run a hiring program for several years based on coding challenges designed to mimic the work the team does (ie, work sample tests), I do not understand why any tech company does developer hiring in any other way. I particularly like how this team iterated on their uploader problem, abstracting it out to a socket server and providing a test suite for it. Reacting to ambiguity by abstracting the…
Because at the end of the day coming up with work sample problems & then applying rigorous metric analysis is much harder than "grab engineer & throw him in a room with the candidate".
It's such a false economy. It's harder the first time. By the third or fourth time, it's free. And that's before you count the expense of making super dumb hiring decisions, which is what happens when you use virtually any other process.
Re: On asking job candidates to code
#6I like the 'simplified job description'. All too often a job description is simply a list of technologies the last guy claimed to be using/have used/knew something about.
Re: On asking job candidates to code
#7I really hate having to solve these kind of programming challenges. I've already sent you my CV, with references from former/current employers and co-workers. Call them up if you are worried that I'm lying on my résumé, don't waste my time by making me work for the chance of maybe getting a job as only payment. Doing multiple interviews already takes up enough of my time, seeing as I'm the one who has to commute to y…
I'm with you. Also sending this kind of projects many times requires a time that you don't have when working for another company.
Re: On asking job candidates to code
#8I can see the value from a hiring perspective in asking candidates to code, but it's no panacea. The bias in the interviewing process that so many acknowledge still bleeds through into many of the coding projects in the form of prescribed languages or frameworks. I suppose there's some merit to that if the intention is to screen for experience in a particular language or framework, but it does run counter to the commonly-expressed sentiment that companies are looking for smart developers who are able to learn new technologies rather than developers who have happened to use particular technologies.
As a candidate going through the job search process now, though, I have to say that it gets tiring to do a project or programming test for every different company. I can juggle more traditional applications (phone screens, on-site interviews) at a time than applications that require coding projects as I'm limited by the number of 4-hour (or 8-hour or whatever) blocks of time I can devote to completing a project for each one.
Re: On asking job candidates to code
#9> As brain-dead as I was after eight hours at my project, [..]
Is giving out an 8+ hour programming project as part of the application process really considered good hiring practice? If you apply to five jobs, you're expected to spend an entire unpaid work week writing code that doesn't benefit anyone? If a company receives 20 applicants, their ideal candidate selection wastes a collective work month?
I don't really understand this ideal. What's the point of maintaining an online portfolio and a github profile full of code if companies prefer to waste your time writing a pointless uploader?
Re: On asking job candidates to code
#10Flavio is a nice Guy! He wrote a great scala Database library, lately. (quill)