The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

Post by jonhendry18 » Sat, Apr 21, 2018, 8:02 AM UTC

_pmf_ wrote: post #819

speby wrote: post #218

Our industry's hiring practices are absolutely obnoxious. In an ideal world, you could trust someone's resume. e.g. "I've written large production programs in C." Ok, great, so then clearly this person knows C so there should be no need to dissect code or run them thru some linked list algorithm and see if they know how to use pointers correctly. Yet, we do. Ok, then what about open source contributions (if they have…

> Apart from getting a candidate to actually pump out some code, even trivially, we don't really have a way to de-facto verify that the person says they can do what they say they can do, short of a personal reference from someone, say, in the company already that knows and has worked with the person in the past. How do hospitals make sure that their surgeons can do surgery without having them do surgery? Do they have…

Post by GordonS » Sat, Apr 21, 2018, 9:28 AM UTC

odiroot wrote: post #521

danielh wrote: post #17

I don't get it. The whole industry is complaining about not being able to hire developers, yet there seems to be some kind of competition who can come up with the most awkward hiring process. Requiring homework is a great way to deter the kind of people companies should be most interested in hiring: those who are not actively looking for a new job. I find this trend especially surprising considering that the U.S. has…

Very well summed up. Can confirm from the PoV of Berlin, Germany. I've been on an interviewing spree in January and February, totaling around 20 companies. There were maybe 3 or 4 with realistic and respectful hiring process. In the end I was left with just one company I actually liked.

Post by IloveHN84 » Sat, Apr 21, 2018, 10:14 AM UTC

speby wrote: post #218

Our industry's hiring practices are absolutely obnoxious. In an ideal world, you could trust someone's resume. e.g. "I've written large production programs in C." Ok, great, so then clearly this person knows C so there should be no need to dissect code or run them thru some linked list algorithm and see if they know how to use pointers correctly. Yet, we do. Ok, then what about open source contributions (if they have…

Post by user5994461 » Sat, Apr 21, 2018, 1:46 PM UTC

newobj wrote: post #703

user5994461 wrote: post #687

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all about location. Web is the west coast while finance is the east coast.

Let me put it this way, people that came to BigCo's from FinCo's in my experience (I mean, trading/quant, not banking software) generally were 90th percentile+ performers at BigCo's. Don't know about the other direction.

Post by user5994461 » Sat, Apr 21, 2018, 2:03 PM UTC

henrikschroder wrote: post #934

sudosteph wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 weeks is not standard in the US. I'm used to seeing 15 days of flexible pto/sick time and 6 holidays. Also, due to how the pto time would accumulate per each pay period, it can take many months to save up a whole week. I'm much happier with unlimited pto, as I now take 4-5 weeks spread out however I prefer.

> 6 weeks is not standard in the US. I know, I was trying to add some outside perspective. Where I'm from, 5 weeks is the legal minimum, and everyone has the legal right to get 4 consecutive weeks off in the summer. Consequently, since everyone does this, and expects this, companies adjust for it, and most importantly: No-one bitches about it. There's no masochist culture around not taking vacation. The problem with…