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> Likewise, I've had some novel interview processes that more closely approximate real working conditions. One company's interview was conducted over git-hub. I

> Likewise, I've had some novel interview processes that more closely approximate real working conditions. One company's interview was conducted over git-hub. It was asynchronous, with tasks spread out over a week. After building the first solution, the interview came back with further feature requests and comments on the first iteration. This tested the candidate's ability to refactor existing solutions to meet changing tasks, and the ability to integrate feedback. These are things that are rarely captured by whiteboard interviews, but are arguably some of the more important skills in software development. But on the flip side, it was much more time-consuming in aggregate than 4 hour-long interviews. These you can afford to do if you are Google. If you aren't, candidate sort the places they want to work at in descending order. By the time they get to that take-home, they might already be further along the interview stages at better companies.

manfredo 6y ago
Google certainly has more monetary resources. But in my experience large companies like Google are the ones that can't afford to do something like this. The logistical benefits of white-boarding interviews and the accountability gains are much more important to large companies. This interview process was for a smaller company. But you're absolutely correct that the more time-consuming the interview process is for the candidate, the more likely they'll interview somewhere else. In fact, that's exactly what I did: I received an offer partway through this git-based interview process, and the offer was good enough that I didn't see value in completing it.
- flukus 6y ago
  Google is a large well known and well paying company that can get candidates to make that sort of time investment, smaller companies can't because they're just generic companies that no one particular wants to work for, I'll skip the elaborate test and apply for the next generic company in the list. Aside from that, I really don't have time for these elaborate interviews if I'm already in a job, companies that do this are limiting their potential candidates to the unemployed.
  - 908B64B197 6y ago
    > companies that do this are limiting their potential candidates to the unemployed. And sometimes there's a reason folks are unemployed...
    - mechEpleb 6y ago
      Yes, usually that reason is that once you are unemployed you fall to the bottom of any hiring manager's list of eligible applicants.

manfredo 6y ago

Google certainly has more monetary resources. But in my experience large companies like Google are the ones that can't afford to do something like this. The logistical benefits of white-boarding interviews and the accountability gains are much more important to large companies. This interview process was for a smaller company. But you're absolutely correct that the more time-consuming the interview process is for the candidate, the more likely they'll interview somewhere else. In fact, that's exactly what I did: I received an offer partway through this git-based interview process, and the offer was good enough that I didn't see value in completing it.

flukus 6y ago
Google is a large well known and well paying company that can get candidates to make that sort of time investment, smaller companies can't because they're just generic companies that no one particular wants to work for, I'll skip the elaborate test and apply for the next generic company in the list. Aside from that, I really don't have time for these elaborate interviews if I'm already in a job, companies that do this are limiting their potential candidates to the unemployed.
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  > companies that do this are limiting their potential candidates to the unemployed. And sometimes there's a reason folks are unemployed...
  - mechEpleb 6y ago
    Yes, usually that reason is that once you are unemployed you fall to the bottom of any hiring manager's list of eligible applicants.