4 ms·
40+ years (30+ professionally) here, and like others have said 4hrs take home is a real turn off. Having done a bunch of hiring myself using a bunch of techniq
by keithnz 4y ago
40+ years (30+ professionally) here, and like others have said 4hrs take home is a real turn off. Having done a bunch of hiring myself using a bunch of techniques (some really bad!), what I like to do is get people to code interactively with me, I usually set a small task that should take < hour, but usually within 10-15 minutes I have a really good sense of whether they can or struggle, especially with more senior people, I will start side tracking and talking different options, and play with code to try to get a sense of what kind of discussions this person is likely to have, what kind of design options they consider, also I like to get them to review some code, and refactor code, discuss some real problems we have, etc. For senior people, once I know they can code, I look at how rigid they are, I pay close attention to how strongly opinionated they are, what they think is important etc. (too often people can end up with "rules" instead of principles of software development which tends to be limiting). I also notice this on twitch, if you go to https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Software%20and%20Game%20Development https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Software%20and%20Game%2... and watch people code, you won't need 4 hours to work out who can program, you will likely have a good sense of what they can do in < 10-15 minutes (as long as they are actually coding, not chit chatting, or if they are learning a new language, might take a bit longer to work out), and within an hour you will get a pretty good sense of what they are like. So, optimize your interviewing process, try to engage the people so the interview is engaging and collaborative so that the interviewer / and candidate feel like they'd be working with someone they'd like to work with. Don't be too rigid about interview structure but be clear about the things you need to work out before giving them an offer.