4 ms·

I haven't run into this on the interviewee end, but my company has applicants work on real projects, and here's how we deal with it: Pay them.

maratd 11y ago
This is a simple solution to the problem. Paying someone for an hour or two is absolutely nothing for a healthy company. So if the company wants to have you write code to prove your mettle, have them pay you for the time.
- xsace 11y ago
  Except you cannot do that in every country. You know, Labour right.
  - hndl 11y ago
    I'm not sure I understand. Care to elaborate? Pointers?
    - juandopazo 11y ago
      In my country the potential employee would have to be registered as an independent contractor before being able to charge for the provided service. And then if he wanted to become a full time employee he'd have to unregister as a contractor.
      - xsace 11y ago
        Yes. In some countries, laws are strongly in favor of employee protection (for a good reason). That's the case here. One employer could severely abuse paying candidates for some quick job without any contract being even mentioned between the 2.
  - jschulenklopper 11y ago
    Well, in case labour laws prevent people being paid for some labour -- or if the applicant needs to be registered as an independent contractor in order to receive payment for the work -- can't the company just pay for the expenses (and a little extra) and thus compensate the applicant sufficiently? It should be possible to pay for travel, stay, lunch or other 'inconveniences' in case the labour/deliverables can't be paid for directly, right?
breischl 11y ago
Seems like the obvious solution. I know Automattic (makers of Wordpress, among other things) does that.
kasey_junk 11y ago
This rules out all manner of great employees. Basically all of them that have a job currently and have read their employment agreement. In most places it is standard boilerplate that your employer gets approval rights on any outside work you do while employed by them. Current employees also have more restricted IP agreements typically which can put the contracting company in legal trouble as well. For this reason, I've found paid real work projects problematic in that it biases against the currently employed.

maratd 11y ago

This is a simple solution to the problem. Paying someone for an hour or two is absolutely nothing for a healthy company. So if the company wants to have you write code to prove your mettle, have them pay you for the time.

xsace 11y ago
Except you cannot do that in every country. You know, Labour right.
- hndl 11y ago
  I'm not sure I understand. Care to elaborate? Pointers?
  - juandopazo 11y ago
    In my country the potential employee would have to be registered as an independent contractor before being able to charge for the provided service. And then if he wanted to become a full time employee he'd have to unregister as a contractor.
    - xsace 11y ago
      Yes. In some countries, laws are strongly in favor of employee protection (for a good reason). That's the case here. One employer could severely abuse paying candidates for some quick job without any contract being even mentioned between the 2.
- jschulenklopper 11y ago
  Well, in case labour laws prevent people being paid for some labour -- or if the applicant needs to be registered as an independent contractor in order to receive payment for the work -- can't the company just pay for the expenses (and a little extra) and thus compensate the applicant sufficiently? It should be possible to pay for travel, stay, lunch or other 'inconveniences' in case the labour/deliverables can't be paid for directly, right?

breischl 11y ago

Seems like the obvious solution. I know Automattic (makers of Wordpress, among other things) does that.

kasey_junk 11y ago

This rules out all manner of great employees. Basically all of them that have a job currently and have read their employment agreement. In most places it is standard boilerplate that your employer gets approval rights on any outside work you do while employed by them. Current employees also have more restricted IP agreements typically which can put the contracting company in legal trouble as well. For this reason, I've found paid real work projects problematic in that it biases against the currently employed.