I dont really understand the way interviewing is set up in general. Interviewing in my mind is a two-way street. It’s not just the candidate that’s being interviewed for the job, it’s also the employer being interviewed to determine suitability.
In light of this, I think most interview processes don’t make any sense. I think that a screening phone/Skype call makes sense before either side commits any time/resources etc. In this process, I think there should always be room for the candidate to ask questions of the employer. Any situation that is unbalanced, in which the employer is playing the role of the one with the final decision is a completely skewed setup.
I interviewed a while back with a YC company and although I didn’t get the job, I was highly appreciative of the setup. Firstly, there was a Skype/phone call, which felt really like an open conversation; one in which I was free to ask questions and understand suitability too.
Then I was invited to an in-house hack. Essentially, I spent the day (a Saturday) hacking with the founders on a project. The project was a lot of fun and something that I learned a ton from. We actually ended up working till around 4am the next day. What I really appreciated is that although it was “an exam” for me, the investment of time on my part was weighed equally by their time investment. Also, I was happy to know that they had learned things during the hack too. I was at ease during the whole day precisely because they treated me as though I was their colleague already.
Coming out of that experience, I’ve wondered for a while why employers don’t take the stance that to hire excellence you have to commit time and resources. Most interview processes that I’ve heard of seem to be a cop out on the part of the recuiter/interviewer, in the sense that it seems that the priority is to hire the best people but spend the least time doing it. That to me is the ingredient for a broken process.
So, in a nutshell, I think talk of take-home interviews misses the point. It might not be scalable, but my intuition tells me that it would be much more effective to have the interviewee and company folks hack on something together. That way, the interviewee gets the opportunity to essentially interview the company too. I’d definitely preceed this with a few conversations on the phone/in person, to ensure that the time investment of hacking together is geared towards the best interviewee/company relationships.
Perhaps this is missing the point too, and perhaps it’s not workable in the real world. My anecdoctal evidence is simply that have spent an entire Saturday working on a project as part of an interview process and ultimately not getting the job, I don’t feel I wasted any time, nor do I feel bitter about it.