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Because, a) the 'best developers tend to love beating challenges so see it as a fun exercise to do one evening, and b) good developers want to work with good de

by ajg1977 16y ago

Because, a) the 'best developers tend to love beating challenges so see it as a fun exercise to do one evening, and b) good developers want to work with good developers and seeing the screening process is a benefit. Good developers of a certain experience level generally realize that if they apply for a job somewhere and waltz through the interview, or worse, the interview is a basically a pleasant chat with the tech director, then the chances are the hiring standards really aren't that great . Oh and c) - if a developer does feel they're too good for your screening test, or such a thing is enough to put them off your company, then weeding them out at such an early stage may actually be a positive thing. I do think it's crass to send out a problem sheet without at least verbally talking to the candidate briefly though. We currently do - 5-15 minute chat with a recruiter or PM who is savvy enough to filter out the people who really aren't experienced enough. 3 hour timed problem (debugging, coding, math, domain knowledge) Technical phone screen In-person interview (6-7 hours, all expenses paid).

bugsy 16y ago
What you say is true for mediocre to average developers. Before I had my own company, every place I worked whenever I would talk to clients or go to conferences I would get on the spot job offers. Principals would ask "Would you ever consider leaving XYZ?" I would say I'm not looking at the moment. They would always then hand me their cards and say "If you're ever looking to move, give me a call first." In addition, I would get calls at home to my unlisted number because of articles I had written or patents I held. When it was time to move on I would have dozens of open offers already to chose from. Why the hell would I or any other great developer bother dredging through monster hoping to find the 0.001% of ads that are both legitimate and for a place than isn't some web shop with slave hours and low wages? Answer is I wouldn't. Any company that only relies on job ads and resumes is not a place that great developers work for.
jchonphoenix 16y ago
Sure, but keep in mind people have busy schedules. Recently a startup I was somewhat interested in required a 4-5 hour coding project that was similar to the labs I do in school. I'm already bogged down in work interviewing, doing normal classes, writing a senior thesis, and preparing my research for publication. I decided to forget about the company and look elsewhere, for I already had offers from great places like Google and Facebook and could always fall back. I'm not saying its bad to screen candidates with interesting puzzles. I'm saying that you risk filtering out the better candidates that just don't have time to deal with puzzles from a company they don't know. Additionally, keep in mind that I come from a competitive university in the academic world (although I figure competition is pretty bad at most universities). Thus, with my current 100 hour work weeks, I would just rather not bother with solving tedious puzzles.

by ajg1977 16y ago

bugsy 16y ago

What you say is true for mediocre to average developers. Before I had my own company, every place I worked whenever I would talk to clients or go to conferences I would get on the spot job offers. Principals would ask "Would you ever consider leaving XYZ?" I would say I'm not looking at the moment. They would always then hand me their cards and say "If you're ever looking to move, give me a call first." In addition, I would get calls at home to my unlisted number because of articles I had written or patents I held. When it was time to move on I would have dozens of open offers already to chose from. Why the hell would I or any other great developer bother dredging through monster hoping to find the 0.001% of ads that are both legitimate and for a place than isn't some web shop with slave hours and low wages? Answer is I wouldn't. Any company that only relies on job ads and resumes is not a place that great developers work for.

jchonphoenix 16y ago

Sure, but keep in mind people have busy schedules. Recently a startup I was somewhat interested in required a 4-5 hour coding project that was similar to the labs I do in school. I'm already bogged down in work interviewing, doing normal classes, writing a senior thesis, and preparing my research for publication. I decided to forget about the company and look elsewhere, for I already had offers from great places like Google and Facebook and could always fall back. I'm not saying its bad to screen candidates with interesting puzzles. I'm saying that you risk filtering out the better candidates that just don't have time to deal with puzzles from a company they don't know. Additionally, keep in mind that I come from a competitive university in the academic world (although I figure competition is pretty bad at most universities). Thus, with my current 100 hour work weeks, I would just rather not bother with solving tedious puzzles.