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My concern here is that it seems to signal a lack of respect for the candidate if the company expects them to complete a task with no matching employee time. I

My concern here is that it seems to signal a lack of respect for the candidate if the company expects them to complete a task with no matching employee time. Interviews are even; both sides clearly have skin in the game; a work-sample test could be given to any number of people at basically no cost. This is somewhat alleviated by the knowledge that you do a phone screen with each person prior to that stage, but it still leaves me with something of a bad feeling.

eru 12y ago
I think Matasano can make up for some of that with a good reputation. (Plus the 80 bucks they pay for books.)
vonmoltke 12y ago
Interviews aren't even. How many hiring discussions on various parts of the internet have talked about putting tens of hours into studying for the "undergrad CS pop quiz" interview in vogue at so many companies? How many of those same discussions have talked about how hiring is a "distraction" from the "real jobs" of the engineers involved at the company? The process is already badly asymmetric in addition to being artificial. At least the work sample ideal addresses one of those.
wavesounds 12y ago
It totally depends on the work sample they ask you to do. If no thought went into it then you are correct. If, however, a company devises an interesting project to work on it show they also put some energy into this. Most importantly though I like programming, but I don't like speaking up in front of a group of strangers, so 6 hours of programming is much more enjoyable to me then even just 1 hour of interviewing.
nvarsj 12y ago
> Interviews are even; both sides clearly have skin in the game; Uh, no. Have you ever been paid for your time at an interview? For most people, it costs them at least 1 day worth of pay (holiday or day rate).
- thedufer 12y ago
  It costs the company as much time as the person interviewing. At least for remote interviews, which are becoming the norm from what Ive seen.
jerematasno 12y ago
We actually pre-pay on that. Candidates get an initial call with a very senior person to start. That call includes coaching on how to get through our interview process, and concludes with us sending free educational material (books, etc.). This coaching and material is not specific to getting a job at Matasano, you can just as easily use it to get a job at one of our competitors. We invest hundreds of dollars in each candidate before we ask them to do our challenges.

eru 12y ago

I think Matasano can make up for some of that with a good reputation. (Plus the 80 bucks they pay for books.)

vonmoltke 12y ago

Interviews aren't even. How many hiring discussions on various parts of the internet have talked about putting tens of hours into studying for the "undergrad CS pop quiz" interview in vogue at so many companies? How many of those same discussions have talked about how hiring is a "distraction" from the "real jobs" of the engineers involved at the company? The process is already badly asymmetric in addition to being artificial. At least the work sample ideal addresses one of those.

wavesounds 12y ago

It totally depends on the work sample they ask you to do. If no thought went into it then you are correct. If, however, a company devises an interesting project to work on it show they also put some energy into this. Most importantly though I like programming, but I don't like speaking up in front of a group of strangers, so 6 hours of programming is much more enjoyable to me then even just 1 hour of interviewing.

nvarsj 12y ago

> Interviews are even; both sides clearly have skin in the game; Uh, no. Have you ever been paid for your time at an interview? For most people, it costs them at least 1 day worth of pay (holiday or day rate).

thedufer 12y ago
It costs the company as much time as the person interviewing. At least for remote interviews, which are becoming the norm from what Ive seen.

jerematasno 12y ago

We actually pre-pay on that. Candidates get an initial call with a very senior person to start. That call includes coaching on how to get through our interview process, and concludes with us sending free educational material (books, etc.). This coaching and material is not specific to getting a job at Matasano, you can just as easily use it to get a job at one of our competitors. We invest hundreds of dollars in each candidate before we ask them to do our challenges.