4 ms·

They're compensated for their time, of course. Taking on paid work for another company, possibly a competitor, would put nearly anyone who did so in breach of

by gaius 9y ago

They're compensated for their time, of course. Taking on paid work for another company, possibly a competitor, would put nearly anyone who did so in breach of their contract with their current employer, as well as complicating their tax situation. Not to mention the vacation time they would be burning on it. You will only be able to hire freelancers or people currently unemployed by this method. Do candidates set their rate, or is it just a token amount?

sillysaurus3 9y ago
In my case, I offered to do it for free. (It wasn't their idea to give me a task on the actual codebase.) Almost nobody would be fine with that, but I want to work there. The other option was to hope that none of the other candidates seemed like a better choice. It's good to lock in an opportunity. Perhaps it's unworkable in the general case. That would be unfortunate; it's the most effective type of interview.
alkonaut 9y ago
I think it would be prudent for the interviewer to just say that "of course we will compensate for your time because this takes a couple of hours". If you happen to have a contract that forbids you from doing that, just say "Can't take any comp, I'm happy to do it for free". I don't think the key is compensation, but at least not assuming the subject will work for free. If you are the interviewer in that situation, give them the t-shirt and mug.
- ng12 9y ago
  Unless your company was exceptionally unique in some way I'd probably just pass instead. It's awfully one-sided: you're just sending me some code and I'm supposed to invest hours on it. At least with an onsite interview our priorities are aligned: neither of us want to waste more time than we have to.
  - alkonaut 9y ago
    Yeah we all have different taste in interviews, I'd much rather spend 2h working for free than writing som tree traversal or fib function on a whiteboard for ten minutes. Interviewing is hard.
    - ng12 9y ago
      Is it? I feel like it's a skill you learn once when you're green and never have to think about again. Whenever I'm starting a new job hunt I just dust off my copy of CtCI, do a few practice problems on hacker rank, and I'm good to go. Yeah, it has almost nothing to do with my actual job but I've never felt it to be an exceptionally onerous process.

by gaius 9y ago

sillysaurus3 9y ago

In my case, I offered to do it for free. (It wasn't their idea to give me a task on the actual codebase.) Almost nobody would be fine with that, but I want to work there. The other option was to hope that none of the other candidates seemed like a better choice. It's good to lock in an opportunity. Perhaps it's unworkable in the general case. That would be unfortunate; it's the most effective type of interview.

alkonaut 9y ago

I think it would be prudent for the interviewer to just say that "of course we will compensate for your time because this takes a couple of hours". If you happen to have a contract that forbids you from doing that, just say "Can't take any comp, I'm happy to do it for free". I don't think the key is compensation, but at least not assuming the subject will work for free. If you are the interviewer in that situation, give them the t-shirt and mug.

ng12 9y ago
Unless your company was exceptionally unique in some way I'd probably just pass instead. It's awfully one-sided: you're just sending me some code and I'm supposed to invest hours on it. At least with an onsite interview our priorities are aligned: neither of us want to waste more time than we have to.
- alkonaut 9y ago
  Yeah we all have different taste in interviews, I'd much rather spend 2h working for free than writing som tree traversal or fib function on a whiteboard for ten minutes. Interviewing is hard.
  - ng12 9y ago
    Is it? I feel like it's a skill you learn once when you're green and never have to think about again. Whenever I'm starting a new job hunt I just dust off my copy of CtCI, do a few practice problems on hacker rank, and I'm good to go. Yeah, it has almost nothing to do with my actual job but I've never felt it to be an exceptionally onerous process.