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People say this and I have yet to find a company that doesn't do some kind of technical assessment. But I have seen multiple coworkers with 10-20 years of exper

by duped 4y ago

People say this and I have yet to find a company that doesn't do some kind of technical assessment. But I have seen multiple coworkers with 10-20 years of experience as software engineers with glowing recommendations get fired because they couldn't write software. So I'm a little happier to have some bar for myself and coworkers to clear. > I'm never, ever doing a 4 hour assignment for you. Boo hoo, you need to spend four hours of your life to take home multiples of the median American family's income. It blows my mind how conceited some people in this industry can be, and I'm glad I don't work with them. This is one reason why the take home is a great filter.

AndyNemmity 4y ago
You're not responding in good faith with your "boo hoo" comment. No one is crying here. The point here is there are many, many companies that don't require a 4 hour take home technical assessment, and thus people can decide to do them or not. The post is about this topic, so the responses are about the topic. You think that 4 hour take home technical assessments are a reasonable filter. Awesome, you are a person who can apply for the position op is focused on.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Exactly the point they're missing - if everyone does it, it's part of the shit sandwich you have to eat. But if you're the only one doing it, there are entire classes of applicants that will pass you by. Hiding that you're going to spring it on people should give you numbers, by the people who ghost you the moment it appears, if you wanted to test for it.
cableshaft 4y ago
If I'm interviewing at multiple companies and they all do that, that's 4 hours per company I want to check out. And let's be honest, most of these I've been asked to do weren't reasonable to do, and do well, and double check, in four hours, despite the claim. Eight hours is more reasonable to do them properly, usually. If I interview at three places, that's three days of unpaid work (or 6+ evenings after I've already worked a full day at my normal job), and if I'm already making "multiples of the median American family's income" elsewhere, then it becomes less attractive to put up with that, especially if other companies aren't asking for it. Like I just can't find the energy to put up with Amazon's 2.5 hour span of unbroken time take-home test, no matter how desperate they make themselves sound or how often they contact me (which is almost every week at this point). When I last considered it, I was already having trouble juggling just finding holes in the day to manage about 30 interviews I ended up doing, across about 8 companies. I had no energy to study for, and then do, that exam on top of it (I did do three 45-60 minute exams, across three evenings, for three other companies, though).
- adhesive_wombat 4y ago
  > Like I just can't find the energy to put up with Amazon's 2.5 hour span of unbroken time take-home test By the sounds of it, that test would be the best bit of your time at Amazon.
  - cableshaft 4y ago
    Haha, yeah that certainly hasn't helped motivate me to go through their process.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    I assure you that the sort of person who is qualified for the original submitters job is not doing a “take home” test to get into Amazon. (raises hand).
smeagull 4y ago
> Boo hoo, you need to spend four hours of your life to take home multiples of the median American family's income. It blows my mind how conceited some people in this industry can be, and I'm glad I don't work with them. This is one reason why the take home is a great filter. Point is they don't need to, and companies that insist on it are hurting only themselves. > But I have seen multiple coworkers with 10-20 years of experience as software engineers with glowing recommendations get fired because they couldn't write software I can imagine multiple reasons for this to occur at a company and a bunch of them reflect poorly on the build and architecture at the company
throwaway5959 4y ago
The problem isn’t the four hour take home. It’s the multiple interviews then surprise we need you to interview for two days with our junior engineers all from MIT and Stanford and go over how you think you would improve our systems. Thanks but no thanks.

by duped 4y ago

AndyNemmity 4y ago

You're not responding in good faith with your "boo hoo" comment. No one is crying here. The point here is there are many, many companies that don't require a 4 hour take home technical assessment, and thus people can decide to do them or not. The post is about this topic, so the responses are about the topic. You think that 4 hour take home technical assessments are a reasonable filter. Awesome, you are a person who can apply for the position op is focused on.

bombcar 4y ago
Exactly the point they're missing - if everyone does it, it's part of the shit sandwich you have to eat. But if you're the only one doing it, there are entire classes of applicants that will pass you by. Hiding that you're going to spring it on people should give you numbers, by the people who ghost you the moment it appears, if you wanted to test for it.

cableshaft 4y ago

If I'm interviewing at multiple companies and they all do that, that's 4 hours per company I want to check out. And let's be honest, most of these I've been asked to do weren't reasonable to do, and do well, and double check, in four hours, despite the claim. Eight hours is more reasonable to do them properly, usually. If I interview at three places, that's three days of unpaid work (or 6+ evenings after I've already worked a full day at my normal job), and if I'm already making "multiples of the median American family's income" elsewhere, then it becomes less attractive to put up with that, especially if other companies aren't asking for it. Like I just can't find the energy to put up with Amazon's 2.5 hour span of unbroken time take-home test, no matter how desperate they make themselves sound or how often they contact me (which is almost every week at this point). When I last considered it, I was already having trouble juggling just finding holes in the day to manage about 30 interviews I ended up doing, across about 8 companies. I had no energy to study for, and then do, that exam on top of it (I did do three 45-60 minute exams, across three evenings, for three other companies, though).

adhesive_wombat 4y ago
> Like I just can't find the energy to put up with Amazon's 2.5 hour span of unbroken time take-home test By the sounds of it, that test would be the best bit of your time at Amazon.
- cableshaft 4y ago
  Haha, yeah that certainly hasn't helped motivate me to go through their process.
- scarface74 4y ago
  I assure you that the sort of person who is qualified for the original submitters job is not doing a “take home” test to get into Amazon. (raises hand).

smeagull 4y ago

> Boo hoo, you need to spend four hours of your life to take home multiples of the median American family's income. It blows my mind how conceited some people in this industry can be, and I'm glad I don't work with them. This is one reason why the take home is a great filter. Point is they don't need to, and companies that insist on it are hurting only themselves. > But I have seen multiple coworkers with 10-20 years of experience as software engineers with glowing recommendations get fired because they couldn't write software I can imagine multiple reasons for this to occur at a company and a bunch of them reflect poorly on the build and architecture at the company

throwaway5959 4y ago

The problem isn’t the four hour take home. It’s the multiple interviews then surprise we need you to interview for two days with our junior engineers all from MIT and Stanford and go over how you think you would improve our systems. Thanks but no thanks.