3 ms·

I don't assume every candidate is desperate, but I do assume that they have an interest in working for us. I think we're agreed that by the time you got to doi

I don't assume every candidate is desperate, but I do assume that they have an interest in working for us. I think we're agreed that by the time you got to doing any extended technical interview you'd have gone through a fair bit - the company would have seen CVs, the candidate would have done research. There would have been a shorter first interview where both sides could ask questions. At that point I'd hope that the candidate would know whether they were interested enough. I'm not saying they should be certain but it should be more than just an idle "what's this?" situation. If that wasn't the case then the right thing to do would probably be to talk a little more about what the candidate was looking for, what concerns they had and whether we could address them and what (other than money) might convince them that an extended interview was a good use of their time. If they couldn't be convinced then we could either talk about a shorter interview (either instead of or ahead of a longer one) or we'd have to accept that we'd not sold the opportunity to them and ask why we felt that was likely to change during a day together but couldn't be addressed in any other way. To be willing to hand over cash to someone to attend an interview I'd pretty much have to be convinced enough that I'd be willing to offer them a job without the interview. As for desperation - I don't think I've ever been or would ever be as desperate as you make out and this isn't a "random person off the street". If I was I'd hire a freelancer and still take my time over the long term hire. As for the price, no you get to make an offer, and I get to politely decline and look elsewhere. Both my experience of recruitment (both recent and long term) and standard practice in the industry says that that's working out just fine. It may be that there are specific local conditions where you are that mean otherwise but I can only comment on what I see in the UK. Out of interest, your bio says that these days you're largely management. Would you ever pay someone to come for an interview? Do you think you'd be able to sell it within your organisation?

bane 13y ago
> Out of interest, your bio says that these days you're largely management. Would you ever pay someone to come for an interview? Do you think you'd be able to sell it within your organisation? No, and I'd never try to do the practice that started the entire thread of getting somebody to work on my production code for free for a day either. It's probably illegal in both of our jurisdictions number one, opens you up to unbelievable liabilities number two if you don't hire the person (at least in the U.S.), and is just outright unethical. It keeps popping up here from time to time though and it makes me wonder about two things 1) What kind of people does HN attract that are in hiring positions? 2) What kind of abuse do engineers take for granted that they'd be willing to entertain the idea? > I think we're agreed that by the time you got to doing any extended technical interview you'd have gone through a fair bit - the company would have seen CVs, the candidate would have done research. There would have been a shorter first interview where both sides could ask questions. Personally, I've been very far along in interview processes before one side or the other decided to pull the plug. I've even been as far as starting to fill out initial employment paperwork before pulling out after finding out something about my future employer that hadn't been made clear to me during the earlier interview processes (in that case, I found out the people who I interviewed with were not going to be my supervisors. And after meeting him, I found him to be unsavory and that was that). I think we're probably talking about different subjects, I was referring to the rotten idea of grinding a day of slave labor out of candidates the OP brought up while it looks like you're focused on appropriate compensation for people's time during long interview processes. If I'm the one who got off track then I apologize.

bane 13y ago

> Out of interest, your bio says that these days you're largely management. Would you ever pay someone to come for an interview? Do you think you'd be able to sell it within your organisation? No, and I'd never try to do the practice that started the entire thread of getting somebody to work on my production code for free for a day either. It's probably illegal in both of our jurisdictions number one, opens you up to unbelievable liabilities number two if you don't hire the person (at least in the U.S.), and is just outright unethical. It keeps popping up here from time to time though and it makes me wonder about two things 1) What kind of people does HN attract that are in hiring positions? 2) What kind of abuse do engineers take for granted that they'd be willing to entertain the idea? > I think we're agreed that by the time you got to doing any extended technical interview you'd have gone through a fair bit - the company would have seen CVs, the candidate would have done research. There would have been a shorter first interview where both sides could ask questions. Personally, I've been very far along in interview processes before one side or the other decided to pull the plug. I've even been as far as starting to fill out initial employment paperwork before pulling out after finding out something about my future employer that hadn't been made clear to me during the earlier interview processes (in that case, I found out the people who I interviewed with were not going to be my supervisors. And after meeting him, I found him to be unsavory and that was that). I think we're probably talking about different subjects, I was referring to the rotten idea of grinding a day of slave labor out of candidates the OP brought up while it looks like you're focused on appropriate compensation for people's time during long interview processes. If I'm the one who got off track then I apologize.