4 ms·

As a candidate, I kind of like the homework thing. It's a lot closer to what you'd actually be doing on the job compared to white board tests, and interviewing

As a candidate, I kind of like the homework thing. It's a lot closer to what you'd actually be doing on the job compared to white board tests, and interviewing is a pretty big time commitment on both sides so I don't feel taken advantage of if it's not crazy (the interviewer has to spend a lot of time on it too) Also, I think it's really a stretch to call it abusive. If you feel like the test is too much of a time commitment or you don't think the company is serious, you can just not do it you know?

ghaff 8y ago
Something that takes an evening (whether code, writing, etc.) seems generally reasonable assuming that it serves as a reasonably effective screener. After all, some homework for an interview such as researching the company and their market space is typical. Something that takes 40 hours? Not so much.
- maltalex 8y ago
  If a homework assignment takes 40 hours then it’s likely that either you’re under-qualified or the company has some unrealistic expectations regrading the position. Either way, you should reconsider your application.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    Depends on the assignment. I don't regularly program these days but for work I often do (preparing/giving presentations, writing of various types) I could trivially come up with an assignment that would take a person skilled in the topic the better part of a week to do--especially given that they'd want to make their "homework" particularly impressive.
  - devhead 8y ago
    A third option could be that interview code takes longer to write than production code.
wirrbel 8y ago
As someone who sat in interviews on the hiring side (or in the office with a colleague they hired) I must say that there homework was the best predictor for a candidates performance. CV, resume, does often not say much about a candidates programming skill and style. I think for some candidates it really was a way to get hired when we wouldn't bothered to invite them for an interview (across the country). I do think homework shouldn't be send out as a default by the recruiter. And the hiring party should make clear about the intention. A homework should not be done on company product code, and it should be in some way standardized, i.e. we had a pool of 4 homework exercises that we send out depending on profile. As a candidate I like these exercises if they are not too big. I have applied somewhere once and they asked me to read a 16 pages journal article within 4 days, to present. (It was not a job in academia but industry). In the end I think I was rejected because coming from a different field than the interviewer I emphasized the wrong aspects for him. They were not aware of some aspects I presented and would have expected from a candidate. So there is a danger in vetting candidates this way. Just because you have them time, they don't need to be a copy of you .

ghaff 8y ago

Something that takes an evening (whether code, writing, etc.) seems generally reasonable assuming that it serves as a reasonably effective screener. After all, some homework for an interview such as researching the company and their market space is typical. Something that takes 40 hours? Not so much.

maltalex 8y ago
If a homework assignment takes 40 hours then it’s likely that either you’re under-qualified or the company has some unrealistic expectations regrading the position. Either way, you should reconsider your application.
- ghaff 8y ago
  Depends on the assignment. I don't regularly program these days but for work I often do (preparing/giving presentations, writing of various types) I could trivially come up with an assignment that would take a person skilled in the topic the better part of a week to do--especially given that they'd want to make their "homework" particularly impressive.
- devhead 8y ago
  A third option could be that interview code takes longer to write than production code.

wirrbel 8y ago

As someone who sat in interviews on the hiring side (or in the office with a colleague they hired) I must say that there homework was the best predictor for a candidates performance. CV, resume, does often not say much about a candidates programming skill and style. I think for some candidates it really was a way to get hired when we wouldn't bothered to invite them for an interview (across the country). I do think homework shouldn't be send out as a default by the recruiter. And the hiring party should make clear about the intention. A homework should not be done on company product code, and it should be in some way standardized, i.e. we had a pool of 4 homework exercises that we send out depending on profile. As a candidate I like these exercises if they are not too big. I have applied somewhere once and they asked me to read a 16 pages journal article within 4 days, to present. (It was not a job in academia but industry). In the end I think I was rejected because coming from a different field than the interviewer I emphasized the wrong aspects for him. They were not aware of some aspects I presented and would have expected from a candidate. So there is a danger in vetting candidates this way. Just because you have them time, they don't need to be a copy of you .