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Two branches: 1. It is near trivial for an experienced programmer in that language to do the task: You don't belong applying for this job. Example: Python. I
by ilc 4y ago
Two branches:
1. It is near trivial for an experienced programmer in that language to do the task: You don't belong applying for this job. Example: Python. If you can't setup a python virtual env in about 30s... don't apply for a python job.
2. It is near impossible without their IDE settings. Java projects can be like this, at times. Though usually not to the tune of 3 hours, but I could see it getting there with a complex J2EE + database setup.
Know which case you are in, judge accordingly.
Personally: I never do take homes, unless I have a good feel for the company. If the take home is given by HR. Welcome to my circular file. This is a hard and fast rule at this point. If the hiring manager wants me to do it... That's different. But I want to talk to them and decide if this is worth my time first.
- Jemaclus 4y agoIronically, the hiring managers wants you to take the test so they can decide if you're worth their time first. It's quite a pickle.
- mooreds 4y ago> It's quite a pickle. The old game of chicken: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_(game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_(game) As usual, the party with the best alternatives wins.
- roflyear 4y agoIt's sad because it costs nothing to ask someone to do a take home and it costs a lot in aggregate for people to do them.
- AtlasBarfed 4y agoIt costs you the best people not taking the job.
- roflyear 4y agoWell, yes lol
- yamtaddle 4y agoIf a company get get 500 candidates to each spend an hour on a task, for 500 unpaid person-hours of work, to save themselves single-digit paid hours weeding through applications to narrow them down, seems like it's very bad in an absolute what's-best-for-society sense, but quite a deal for the company.
- BurningFrog 4y agoI set up my Python env once 5 years ago. Haven't touched it since. It would probably take me an hour to set it up again. Still I produce quality Python code (almost) every day. To me, the skills are entirely orthogonal.
- semitones 4y agoYour experience is probably in the minority of Python developers. There have been plenty of updates to popular packages + the core interpreter during that time, updates to package/env managers (e.g. poetry). It's one thing if you're using python to solve projecteuler problems, but it's another if you're writing any full-stack code that has a variety of dependencies. It's great when you can set up a dev environment and then "forget" about it for some time, but 5 years is an exceedingly long time to not touch an env setup, and it implies that you are not really working with external dependencies, or too many other coworkers.
- BurningFrog 4y agoWe're using Poetry, and I frequently update dependencies. But I was commenting on this: > If you can't setup a python virtual env in about 30s... don't apply for a python job.