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It's been a while since I last interviewed, but I've wanted something like this for interviewing applicants at my own workplace. It strikes me as fairer to all

by giobox 9y ago

It's been a while since I last interviewed, but I've wanted something like this for interviewing applicants at my own workplace. It strikes me as fairer to all parties, especially compared to whiteboard coding exercises. I've heard of some companies doing exactly what you suggest - paying an appropriate amount to cover the few hours spent on the interview project. I get that some will criticise this saying it takes up your free time, but I'd argue the common practice of memorising algorithm solutions for interviews is often an equally unproductive use of the interviewee's own time.

ardit33 9y ago
Maybe for recent grads that have never build something worthwhile, but it is not reasonable for experienced people. If you are talking to 10 different places, then having to do all these pointless exercises (which are a waste of time and productivity), for all of them becomes unsustainable. Most senior devs. (people with 5 years or more of experience), have their own projects or productive lives (either hobbies, or families) going on. I advise my friends to skip this step, and move on to other companies that don't introduce these useless hoops. Usually 80% of the time the companies come back and decide to skip this "homework" stage and go for a traditional interview. If this happens after an interview, just refuse to do it and move on to other companies. I have almost never heard good outcomes from it as usually the task is given if the interview didn't go well and they are not convinced of you. If you have a choice, you don't want to join a company that doesn't fully like having you.
majormajor 9y ago
> I get that some will criticise this saying it takes up your free time, but I'd argue the common practice of memorising algorithm solutions for interviews is often an equally unproductive use of the interviewee's own time. At least in the algorithm case once you've got enough (whatever your own definition of that happens to be) you can ramp down the studying and just go off of memory, and they'll apply to multiple different interviews. Here you're putting in a bunch of time for just one opportunity that you're not even sure you want yet - the interview is as much about the candidate interviewing the company as it is the reverse, which is where I'm inclined to say "no thanks" to a process like this as long as there are companies out there not doing it. Especially as one's career progresses and you have people who would trust you to refer you and so on.

by giobox 9y ago

ardit33 9y ago

Maybe for recent grads that have never build something worthwhile, but it is not reasonable for experienced people. If you are talking to 10 different places, then having to do all these pointless exercises (which are a waste of time and productivity), for all of them becomes unsustainable. Most senior devs. (people with 5 years or more of experience), have their own projects or productive lives (either hobbies, or families) going on. I advise my friends to skip this step, and move on to other companies that don't introduce these useless hoops. Usually 80% of the time the companies come back and decide to skip this "homework" stage and go for a traditional interview. If this happens after an interview, just refuse to do it and move on to other companies. I have almost never heard good outcomes from it as usually the task is given if the interview didn't go well and they are not convinced of you. If you have a choice, you don't want to join a company that doesn't fully like having you.

majormajor 9y ago

> I get that some will criticise this saying it takes up your free time, but I'd argue the common practice of memorising algorithm solutions for interviews is often an equally unproductive use of the interviewee's own time. At least in the algorithm case once you've got enough (whatever your own definition of that happens to be) you can ramp down the studying and just go off of memory, and they'll apply to multiple different interviews. Here you're putting in a bunch of time for just one opportunity that you're not even sure you want yet - the interview is as much about the candidate interviewing the company as it is the reverse, which is where I'm inclined to say "no thanks" to a process like this as long as there are companies out there not doing it. Especially as one's career progresses and you have people who would trust you to refer you and so on.