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I find the 'take home exercise' to be tolerable. I hate the live coding things. Those are awful. Even the take home things are not fantastic, though - if you a

by davidw 5y ago

I find the 'take home exercise' to be tolerable. I hate the live coding things. Those are awful. Even the take home things are not fantastic, though - if you already have a job, a family and other stuff going on, "just 4 hours" is kind of a PITA.

handrous 5y ago
"Just 4 hours" for a chance at the job, and how high a chance depends on the employer (i.e. how early in the process they drop the take-home exercise on you, whether you've already come to terms on pay at that point, et c.) In general I just wish places that weren't FAANG would be more open about their process. Do I need to brush up on leetcode shit before applying, or no? Are you gonna quiz me on obscure corners of a language that I reflexively avoid because they're terrible, so haven't thought about in a while? Gonna talk architecture? Will I be writing code with someone looking over my shoulder? Pairing? On what kind of thing, generally? Is your filter for the 200 candidates who apply to hit them with a take-home assignment or longish automated test first thing, so I know to just skip applying at all (screw burning that much time to apply for the privilege of getting an interview at just one place)? With FAANG you know what you're getting in to, so at least you know you're about to step in a big pile of shit and can put on your waders first. The blind roulette wheel of hiring outside FAANG is its own kind of trash-fire.
quickthrower2 5y ago
I remember this with a newborn I spent 20 minutes on such a test. Recruiter tells me they said no because code quality so i gave it another shot spending 2 hours. Remember with multiple applications these times added up. Got to the interview and they were so obsessed about this being written in some “perfect way” (see the enterprise fizz buzz someone linked to) that they knocked me back when I was explaining it at the interview. It’s the coding equivalent of “ooh so you are not using a suse vide” at a mates bbq.

by davidw 5y ago

handrous 5y ago

"Just 4 hours" for a chance at the job, and how high a chance depends on the employer (i.e. how early in the process they drop the take-home exercise on you, whether you've already come to terms on pay at that point, et c.) In general I just wish places that weren't FAANG would be more open about their process. Do I need to brush up on leetcode shit before applying, or no? Are you gonna quiz me on obscure corners of a language that I reflexively avoid because they're terrible, so haven't thought about in a while? Gonna talk architecture? Will I be writing code with someone looking over my shoulder? Pairing? On what kind of thing, generally? Is your filter for the 200 candidates who apply to hit them with a take-home assignment or longish automated test first thing, so I know to just skip applying at all (screw burning that much time to apply for the privilege of getting an interview at just one place)? With FAANG you know what you're getting in to, so at least you know you're about to step in a big pile of shit and can put on your waders first. The blind roulette wheel of hiring outside FAANG is its own kind of trash-fire.

quickthrower2 5y ago

I remember this with a newborn I spent 20 minutes on such a test. Recruiter tells me they said no because code quality so i gave it another shot spending 2 hours. Remember with multiple applications these times added up. Got to the interview and they were so obsessed about this being written in some “perfect way” (see the enterprise fizz buzz someone linked to) that they knocked me back when I was explaining it at the interview. It’s the coding equivalent of “ooh so you are not using a suse vide” at a mates bbq.