4 ms·

I would rather be happy to spend a day or two (or a week) solving their real customer problem & go through mutual learning process. That gives both sometime to

I would rather be happy to spend a day or two (or a week) solving their real customer problem & go through mutual learning process. That gives both sometime to understand each other & decide.

Aachen 5y ago
In Europe we call that a trial period. In NL I'd expect it to be 2-3 months during which you get normal pay but your employer can let you go any time and you can also cancel any time. In Germany it's apparently more commonly 3-6 months and my contract said the cancelation term was 2 weeks which kind of defeats the purpose. As a Dutchman 6 months seems crazy to me, surely you can see if someone can walk the walk after some weeks, even if you're still onboarding them? And in the unlikely event they managed to hide their lacking skills, you tell them on their performance review, then they either improve or not, and if they don't you can let them go. Anyway, a trial period like you said seems like a better way to learn whether someone is a good fit for the team (and whether the employer is a good fit for you) as well as technically skilled than trying to do these coding interviews that seem to be overemphasised in the USA (we do them here too, but most of the time they sound very reasonable). It's a bit odd because from what I know of USA law, you're permanently on trial and can be fired with 2 weeks' notice regardless of having an indefinite-term contract. Might as well do two-week trials with anyone that seems promising if it's that easy to let someone go.
- NateEag 5y ago
  > It's a bit odd because from what I know of USA law, you're permanently on trial and can be fired with 2 weeks' notice regardless of having an indefinite-term contract. It's actually easier to fire someone here than that makes it sound - many US states have what's called "at-will employment", which means that you can be fired from a job for any not-illegal reason with no notice.

I would rather be happy to spend a day or two (or a week) solving their real customer problem & go through mutual learning process. That gives both sometime to understand each other & decide.

Aachen 5y ago

In Europe we call that a trial period. In NL I'd expect it to be 2-3 months during which you get normal pay but your employer can let you go any time and you can also cancel any time. In Germany it's apparently more commonly 3-6 months and my contract said the cancelation term was 2 weeks which kind of defeats the purpose. As a Dutchman 6 months seems crazy to me, surely you can see if someone can walk the walk after some weeks, even if you're still onboarding them? And in the unlikely event they managed to hide their lacking skills, you tell them on their performance review, then they either improve or not, and if they don't you can let them go. Anyway, a trial period like you said seems like a better way to learn whether someone is a good fit for the team (and whether the employer is a good fit for you) as well as technically skilled than trying to do these coding interviews that seem to be overemphasised in the USA (we do them here too, but most of the time they sound very reasonable). It's a bit odd because from what I know of USA law, you're permanently on trial and can be fired with 2 weeks' notice regardless of having an indefinite-term contract. Might as well do two-week trials with anyone that seems promising if it's that easy to let someone go.

NateEag 5y ago
> It's a bit odd because from what I know of USA law, you're permanently on trial and can be fired with 2 weeks' notice regardless of having an indefinite-term contract. It's actually easier to fire someone here than that makes it sound - many US states have what's called "at-will employment", which means that you can be fired from a job for any not-illegal reason with no notice.