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Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

ballardgames.com

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Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#11

Post by kassner »

ro_bit wrote: post #7

One note that might be good to highlight in the article is that the take-home is expected to be 2 hours long. From my experience, they are much longer so I was initially surprised to see take-home's being given before an initial call until I looked at the assignment itself.

I still consider this a red flag. The company wants me to put time into the hiring process, but they can’t be bothered to do the same.

If there is at least a recruiter screening first, I’ll apply and ask about “Bring Your Own Code Examples”, mostly when their daily work would use tools that I have some code published.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#12

Post by Vegenoid »

testing22321 wrote: post #10
dainiusse wrote: post #8

Curious about "no-AI" policy. From my experience interviewing lately AI is allowed,but the task is usually big in a small time window. So you quickly spin up the project but I see most of work in QA

A friend at a nearly-FAANG said not using AI tooling in the interview is now an automatic fail. “Not that you’d be able to complete the task on time without it anyway”

I interviewed at a place that proudly stated that they have a goal that x% new LOC are LLM-generated. They didn't say what x was, but implied it was high.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#13

Post by arresin »

> Work with Indies — no formal connection, but the results were great! –. Our listing went live at 11:30 AM on October 15th, and we had to ask them to shut it down by 6:30 PM on October 17th because we had too many candidates. In the end, we collected 159 applications.

Is this normal in Seattle? That’s a tonne of applicants especially on what seems like a niche job site. Are they mostly junk offshore applications or bots?

Interesting that out of that it looks like 90% were late applications or not qualified and only 17 total completed the take home.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#14

Post by teiferer »

testing22321 wrote: post #10
dainiusse wrote: post #8

Curious about "no-AI" policy. From my experience interviewing lately AI is allowed,but the task is usually big in a small time window. So you quickly spin up the project but I see most of work in QA

A friend at a nearly-FAANG said not using AI tooling in the interview is now an automatic fail. “Not that you’d be able to complete the task on time without it anyway”

That's a good policy. If that's what they do in the job later as well, then it allows LLM-skeptical applicants to immediately move on.

An interview is a two way street. I'd like the company to present itself authentically so that I don't waste time if they eventually turn out to have a culture I don't like, e.g. demanding LLM coding assistent use.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#15

Post by OptionOfT »

Vegenoid wrote: post #12
testing22321 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend at a nearly-FAANG said not using AI tooling in the interview is now an automatic fail. “Not that you’d be able to complete the task on time without it anyway”

I interviewed at a place that proudly stated that they have a goal that x% new LOC are LLM-generated. They didn't say what x was, but implied it was high.

Unless they empower developers to thoroughly review that generated code this is a recipe for disaster. And even then, reviews are the first thing to be cut when pressure goes up.

It's a dangerous line to cross.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#16

Post by aeonflux »

DeathArrow wrote: post #6

I would have outsourced the initial screening to a hiring agency and only interview top 5. For a 3 people team this 4 weeks hiring process is too tedious.

Results from outsourcing can vary. You might end-up with totally unmatched 5 candidates and complain that there is no good people on the market. How would asses that the agency did good job (or any job at all)?

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#17

Post by qsort »

testing22321 wrote: post #10
dainiusse wrote: post #8

Curious about "no-AI" policy. From my experience interviewing lately AI is allowed,but the task is usually big in a small time window. So you quickly spin up the project but I see most of work in QA

A friend at a nearly-FAANG said not using AI tooling in the interview is now an automatic fail. “Not that you’d be able to complete the task on time without it anyway”

How does that work? I assume it's not Leetcode anymore then? Current LLMs mostly one-shot these types of algorithmic exercises, except maybe for the most difficult ones.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#18

Post by danenania »

dainiusse wrote: post #8

Curious about "no-AI" policy. From my experience interviewing lately AI is allowed,but the task is usually big in a small time window. So you quickly spin up the project but I see most of work in QA

We’re using AI tools heavily but also ask candidates to code without it in interviews, and I think it’s reasonable.

Even if you are primarily using codegen, your own coding ability, taste, problem solving, etc. are still deciding inputs to the quality of the final result. And it’s much easier to assess these things in an hour when a human is writing and debugging a relatively small amount of code.

AI tools just produce too much code in a short time. It’s hard to assess what the candidate’s quality bar and attention to detail are really like when there’s so much code to wade through. Anyone can vibe code, but not many can do it without creating mountains of tech debt… the ones who can are usually good programmers with or without AI.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#19

Post by resonious »

kassner wrote: post #11
ro_bit wrote: post #7

One note that might be good to highlight in the article is that the take-home is expected to be 2 hours long. From my experience, they are much longer so I was initially surprised to see take-home's being given before an initial call until I looked at the assignment itself.

I still consider this a red flag. The company wants me to put time into the hiring process, but they can’t be bothered to do the same. If there is at least a recruiter screening first, I’ll apply and ask about “Bring Your Own Code Examples”, mostly when their daily work would use tools that I have some code published.

> but they can’t be bothered to do the same

They will need to review your submission, which absolutely does take time.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#20

Post by LtWorf »

resonious wrote: post #19
kassner wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still consider this a red flag. The company wants me to put time into the hiring process, but they can’t be bothered to do the same. If there is at least a recruiter screening first, I’ll apply and ask about “Bring Your Own Code Examples”, mostly when their daily work would use tools that I have some code published.

> but they can’t be bothered to do the same They will need to review your submission, which absolutely does take time.

I'm sure the AI will do that.
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