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> It's really helped us distinguish developers who see work as a 9-5 job that they only do because they must and those developers who just love solving problems

> It's really helped us distinguish developers who see work as a 9-5 job that they only do because they must and those developers who just love solving problems. The two aren't mutually exclusive. Many (most, even) of the best developers I know will come to work at 9am, be super-productive for 8 hours, and then completely switch out of Developer Mode at 5pm. It's entirely feasible for somebody to be extremely passionate about programming and learning and problem solving and all the other things that we associate with "good" developers without them doing any sort of work in their own time. Developers are people, too. They have families, friends, hobbies, and other things that are more important than your 2-3 hour coding test. You are alienating a large number of people by asserting that the ones who complete your coding test are "distinguished". You are also seriously reducing the size of your talent pool whenever you want to hire somebody.

joncampbelldev 11y ago
I think you have misunderstood me, or I wasn't clear enough. We're not looking for people who work endless overtime or spent every waking moment on open source projects. The text you quoted says "a 9-5 job that they only do because they must", which I believe would exclude anyone "extremely passionate about programming and learning and problem solving". I'm talking about people that have no passion for it, regardless of what their other passions are. Our new hire arrives at work at 9:30am and leaves at 5pm. With regards to hobbies, families etc. Thats understandable if they don't have time to complete the test even though they are job hunting. However, I'd rather miss out on a good hire than risk a bad hire. My company can more easily survive spending a bit longer recruiting in our reduced talent pool compared to living with several bad hires.

joncampbelldev 11y ago

I think you have misunderstood me, or I wasn't clear enough. We're not looking for people who work endless overtime or spent every waking moment on open source projects. The text you quoted says "a 9-5 job that they only do because they must", which I believe would exclude anyone "extremely passionate about programming and learning and problem solving". I'm talking about people that have no passion for it, regardless of what their other passions are. Our new hire arrives at work at 9:30am and leaves at 5pm. With regards to hobbies, families etc. Thats understandable if they don't have time to complete the test even though they are job hunting. However, I'd rather miss out on a good hire than risk a bad hire. My company can more easily survive spending a bit longer recruiting in our reduced talent pool compared to living with several bad hires.