4 ms·

I've always preferred to give very serious candidates some technical homework. Make an API that does this particular thing. You have two days. Then we look a

I've always preferred to give very serious candidates some technical homework. Make an API that does this particular thing. You have two days. Then we look at what they built and talk about it. It's way more realistic because that's how we actually work-- nobody is coding algorithms on a whiteboard. To any extent, it has worked very well. The people that have done great ended up being great employees and the people that did just enough to pass also did that once they were hired.

onion2k 6y ago
Multiply that by the number of jobs someone typically applies for when they want to change role and you're likely contributing to someone not seeing their family or friends for almost a month. Also... Is that 2 days total dev time, or a deadline that's 2 days away? Someone with few responsibilities and a willingness to forego sleep is likely to put in far more time than someone with a family of the deadline is two days away. It sounds like your interview process is designed to push away people with families and friends. Let me guess... Those great hires really put in the extra hours?
decafninja 6y ago
The problem with the rise of the homework approach though, is that unlike you, most companies don't treat it as an alternative to whiteboard leetcode interviews. They treat it as an addition to the whiteboard leetcode interview. It also doesn't scale. The assignment is for one company alone, so if you get rejected, that's time spent down the drain. As heinous as leetcode interviews are, the effort spent grinding leetcode can scale massively horizontally.
908B64B197 6y ago
The problem with take-homes is that they take a huge commitment from the candidate and almost none from the company. So you end-up with huge assignments and a poor reputation among the folks you are trying to hire.

4 ms·

I've always preferred to give very serious candidates some technical homework. Make an API that does this particular thing. You have two days. Then we look a

by stevecalifornia 6y ago

onion2k 6y ago
Multiply that by the number of jobs someone typically applies for when they want to change role and you're likely contributing to someone not seeing their family or friends for almost a month. Also... Is that 2 days total dev time, or a deadline that's 2 days away? Someone with few responsibilities and a willingness to forego sleep is likely to put in far more time than someone with a family of the deadline is two days away. It sounds like your interview process is designed to push away people with families and friends. Let me guess... Those great hires really put in the extra hours?
decafninja 6y ago
The problem with the rise of the homework approach though, is that unlike you, most companies don't treat it as an alternative to whiteboard leetcode interviews. They treat it as an addition to the whiteboard leetcode interview. It also doesn't scale. The assignment is for one company alone, so if you get rejected, that's time spent down the drain. As heinous as leetcode interviews are, the effort spent grinding leetcode can scale massively horizontally.
908B64B197 6y ago
The problem with take-homes is that they take a huge commitment from the candidate and almost none from the company. So you end-up with huge assignments and a poor reputation among the folks you are trying to hire.