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I mean, obviously exceptions were frequently made for folks with special needs or just personal preferences. I’m aware of many times that was done for both sit

by mewse 4y ago

I mean, obviously exceptions were frequently made for folks with special needs or just personal preferences. I’m aware of many times that was done for both situations. I assure you that I’m not a monster and I would really appreciate it if you’d assume positive intent in such replies.

samatman 4y ago
That isn't obvious at all, you explicitly say 'no computers allowed' and yeah, I consider a forty-page handwritten essay a sadistic way to find out more about a computer programmer. I don't think you're a bad person for it, and ok, good to know you're willing to make accomodations, but my reaction to being asked to do this would be sharply negative. The keyboard is inherent to the profession. Assuming you read the essay it is impossible to not judge the applicant on their penmanship. A difficult skill with absolutely no bearing on the qualification for the job. I urge anyone reading this to not offer a 40 page handwritten essay to software developers in the first place. It's an awful idea.
- mewse 4y ago
  I have explicitly and repeatedly pointed out that individual applicants each engaged with only a very small portion out of a very large test — the entirety of which had its questions printed across 40 pages. There was obviously no “sadistic 40 page handwritten essay”; individuals engaged with whatever individual questions they wanted to, and would normally write their answers into the bits of blank space left in between the questions. I’d estimate that a normal applicant who answered ten to twenty questions would normally write substantially less than what would constitute a single page of text in total. Again, I’m not a monster. I’d really appreciate it if you’d assume positive intent and ask for clarification rather than jumping to the worst possible interpretation you can invent and then stridently declaring that you’d take legal action on the basis of the fictional “sadistic” thing you’ve chosen to believe I was making people do.

by mewse 4y ago

samatman 4y ago

That isn't obvious at all, you explicitly say 'no computers allowed' and yeah, I consider a forty-page handwritten essay a sadistic way to find out more about a computer programmer. I don't think you're a bad person for it, and ok, good to know you're willing to make accomodations, but my reaction to being asked to do this would be sharply negative. The keyboard is inherent to the profession. Assuming you read the essay it is impossible to not judge the applicant on their penmanship. A difficult skill with absolutely no bearing on the qualification for the job. I urge anyone reading this to not offer a 40 page handwritten essay to software developers in the first place. It's an awful idea.

mewse 4y ago
I have explicitly and repeatedly pointed out that individual applicants each engaged with only a very small portion out of a very large test — the entirety of which had its questions printed across 40 pages. There was obviously no “sadistic 40 page handwritten essay”; individuals engaged with whatever individual questions they wanted to, and would normally write their answers into the bits of blank space left in between the questions. I’d estimate that a normal applicant who answered ten to twenty questions would normally write substantially less than what would constitute a single page of text in total. Again, I’m not a monster. I’d really appreciate it if you’d assume positive intent and ask for clarification rather than jumping to the worst possible interpretation you can invent and then stridently declaring that you’d take legal action on the basis of the fictional “sadistic” thing you’ve chosen to believe I was making people do.