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I’m ambivalent. Sure, guess I’d like it as an industry practice. It would make my taxes very lengthy to do by having to deal with 40+ 1099 forms every year but

I’m ambivalent. Sure, guess I’d like it as an industry practice. It would make my taxes very lengthy to do by having to deal with 40+ 1099 forms every year but for sufficient payment not a big deal. I do worry this would raise the bar even further though on expectations because now they’re paying for time. They’d take even less chances on who they interview because it’s 2x as expensive as it used to be. And I don’t think it’d become a world of doing “practical” assessments - I think leetcode would still be very common.

learc83 5y ago
You interview at 40+ places every year? If that’s true there is something very wrong with our industry. How do you have time for that? One minor note they only have to file a 1099 if you made more than $600 (of course you’re still supposed to report it).
- bdcravens 5y ago
  The hirer is the one filing out the 1099, and interviewing 40+ candidates a year is easy. That said, you should only need to file a 1099 when the pay is $600+.
  - learc83 5y ago
    I think the OP was talking about interviewing at 40 companies per year, not interviewing 40 candidates at their company. Also hey man! Are you still doing work for Fusion?
    - bdcravens 5y ago
      How's it going? I am still doing some work for them, though I've had to scale back my freelancing as things have improved substantially at my main role.
      - learc83 5y ago
        Going well here. Glad to hear that things are picking up!
- bradlys 5y ago
  Every other year is probably more accurate these days. But is what it is. Last search I had something like 6 in hand offers (a few more that would’ve transpired but they realized they were out of their depth). It takes quite a bit of time. You have to schedule significant time off or sick days to do it. It’s not something that happens in a couple weeks. For me, I spent about a year studying(leetcode and system design), mock interviewing (30+), and interviewing. Spent about 3 months without an actual job and interviewing+studying. (Something like 25 interviews in a week at times - 3-4 onsites per week when not doing tech screens) Got the offer I wanted in the end - isn’t exceptional offer but I don’t have exceptional names on my resume either. Make $400k/yr. It was either that or another high growth startup and I wasn’t finding any that were that appealing on comp+culture after interviewing.
  - learc83 5y ago
    > For me, I spent about a year studying(leetcode and system design), mock interviewing (30+), and interviewing. Spent about 3 months without an actual job and interviewing+studying. (Something like 25 interviews in a week at times - 3-4 onsites per week when not doing tech screens) Ok so there is something terribly wrong with our industry.
    - bradlys 5y ago
      SV is very particular about the type of employee it wants. It’s not like they really like independent thinkers here. They want someone who they can mold and will do the work exactly as they say. Leetcode stands as a good test for that.
      - learc83 5y ago
        I’m more of a never attribute something to malice when stupidity provides a sufficient explanation type of person. I tend to the think the whole thing is just a massive example of cargo culting. Like how 10 years ago everyone asked why manhole covers were round.
      - chalst 5y ago
wpietri 5y ago
You only have to do a 1099 if you get paid more than $600. Assuming $100/hr you'd need 7 hours for an interview to need a 1099. 40+ * 7 = 280+ hours of interviews to hit that level, which seems like an outlier to me.
kapilkale 5y ago
Right on that payments is a challenge in implementing this. Companies need to pay candidates, who may be anywhere in the world, a small amount of money on a one-off basis without the hassle of paperwork. Tremendous.com (where I work) does this. Candidates can get payments, gift cards, or donate the money to charity. (we've been paying candidates to take calls, do tech screens, and complete projects, and it's easily been worth the cost. at some point we'll do a blog post on the conversion rate differences)
jnathsf 5y ago
We solved for this by giving Amazon gift cards - I believe you can have them go up to $2K
- compiler-guy 5y ago
  The form of payment doesn’t matter from a regulatory perspective. As soon as you hit reporting thresholds, you and the interviewee need to report. So please don’t do this as a way to bypass regulatory requirements. It puts your prospective employees in a bad spot.
flashgordon 5y ago
+100 to this. There is such a delta between interview skills (leetcoding, brushing up star formatting to suit target company values and leadership principles) and skills actually needed for a job that without mock interviews your success rates are significantly diminished. I know several folks who interview regularly just to not get rusty ... with interviewing! I blame commoditization of software engineering and plenty of NIH stack building!

learc83 5y ago

You interview at 40+ places every year? If that’s true there is something very wrong with our industry. How do you have time for that? One minor note they only have to file a 1099 if you made more than $600 (of course you’re still supposed to report it).

bdcravens 5y ago
The hirer is the one filing out the 1099, and interviewing 40+ candidates a year is easy. That said, you should only need to file a 1099 when the pay is $600+.
- learc83 5y ago
  I think the OP was talking about interviewing at 40 companies per year, not interviewing 40 candidates at their company. Also hey man! Are you still doing work for Fusion?
  - bdcravens 5y ago
    How's it going? I am still doing some work for them, though I've had to scale back my freelancing as things have improved substantially at my main role.
    - learc83 5y ago
      Going well here. Glad to hear that things are picking up!
bradlys 5y ago
Every other year is probably more accurate these days. But is what it is. Last search I had something like 6 in hand offers (a few more that would’ve transpired but they realized they were out of their depth). It takes quite a bit of time. You have to schedule significant time off or sick days to do it. It’s not something that happens in a couple weeks. For me, I spent about a year studying(leetcode and system design), mock interviewing (30+), and interviewing. Spent about 3 months without an actual job and interviewing+studying. (Something like 25 interviews in a week at times - 3-4 onsites per week when not doing tech screens) Got the offer I wanted in the end - isn’t exceptional offer but I don’t have exceptional names on my resume either. Make $400k/yr. It was either that or another high growth startup and I wasn’t finding any that were that appealing on comp+culture after interviewing.
- learc83 5y ago
  > For me, I spent about a year studying(leetcode and system design), mock interviewing (30+), and interviewing. Spent about 3 months without an actual job and interviewing+studying. (Something like 25 interviews in a week at times - 3-4 onsites per week when not doing tech screens) Ok so there is something terribly wrong with our industry.
  - bradlys 5y ago
    SV is very particular about the type of employee it wants. It’s not like they really like independent thinkers here. They want someone who they can mold and will do the work exactly as they say. Leetcode stands as a good test for that.
    - learc83 5y ago
      I’m more of a never attribute something to malice when stupidity provides a sufficient explanation type of person. I tend to the think the whole thing is just a massive example of cargo culting. Like how 10 years ago everyone asked why manhole covers were round.
    - chalst 5y ago

wpietri 5y ago

You only have to do a 1099 if you get paid more than $600. Assuming $100/hr you'd need 7 hours for an interview to need a 1099. 40+ * 7 = 280+ hours of interviews to hit that level, which seems like an outlier to me.

kapilkale 5y ago

Right on that payments is a challenge in implementing this. Companies need to pay candidates, who may be anywhere in the world, a small amount of money on a one-off basis without the hassle of paperwork. Tremendous.com (where I work) does this. Candidates can get payments, gift cards, or donate the money to charity. (we've been paying candidates to take calls, do tech screens, and complete projects, and it's easily been worth the cost. at some point we'll do a blog post on the conversion rate differences)

jnathsf 5y ago

We solved for this by giving Amazon gift cards - I believe you can have them go up to $2K

compiler-guy 5y ago
The form of payment doesn’t matter from a regulatory perspective. As soon as you hit reporting thresholds, you and the interviewee need to report. So please don’t do this as a way to bypass regulatory requirements. It puts your prospective employees in a bad spot.

flashgordon 5y ago

+100 to this. There is such a delta between interview skills (leetcoding, brushing up star formatting to suit target company values and leadership principles) and skills actually needed for a job that without mock interviews your success rates are significantly diminished. I know several folks who interview regularly just to not get rusty ... with interviewing! I blame commoditization of software engineering and plenty of NIH stack building!