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> Anecdotally, people view the paid week-long trial as demeaning, but the (unpaid) challenge as exciting and fun. We live in a bizarre world. That's because it
by theothermkn 11y ago
> Anecdotally, people view the paid week-long trial as demeaning, but the (unpaid) challenge as exciting and fun. We live in a bizarre world.
That's because it is demeaning. It represents a large chunk of someone's life invested in proving that they're good enough for you. It's also inherently asymmetric in that the company you work for could not possibly be economically harmed by a week-long trial period, but a single person could be financially devastated by it. Additionally, if the person discovers an illness during that period, do you provide health insurance? What about employees coming from other employers? Do they have to quit their prior jobs or use up vacation time to complete your "interview" process?
A four or eight hour programming exercise skirts some really stupid aspects of interviews and the hiring process. Of course that's welcome. A week-long commitment to work is a sizable tenure as a second-class citizen undergoing prolonged scrutiny.
Your company should be deeply ashamed of this practice.
- cldellow 11y agoPerhaps I wasn't clear, the trial is an alternative path to employment if, for whatever reason, the challenge + interview isn't suitable. If you're on the fence about us, give it a shot. If we're on the fence about you, your option is no offer or a week-long trial. As I identified elsewhere, a drawback of the trial is it's mostly only useful for people who are unemployed. > Additionally, if the person discovers an illness during that period, do you provide health insurance? We live in a country with reasonable health care coverage, so this isn't really a thing. > A week-long commitment to work is a sizable tenure as a second-class citizen undergoing prolonged scrutiny. This is my knee-jerk opinion, too. However, what is the alternative? We could hire you full-time right out of the gate...but we could still fire you after a week. > Your company should be deeply ashamed of this practice. Deeply ashamed might be overstating it. Contemplative and reflective, perhaps.
- ygra 11y agoPerhaps you missed the part about paying normal rates for the person during that week? If I'm looking for a job so desperately that I'd be financially devastated by a lost week, then I'd surely jump at a paid week of work, no?
- RHSeeger 11y agoYou're not considering the situation where the candidate has a job already but is looking for a new one. Quitting your current job is a large commitment, and doing so for only a week trial period (where the odds are higher you'll be unemployed afterwords) is a pretty large risk. That being said, for someone who is currently unemployed, putting job interviews on hold for a week is less of a risk
- ygra 11y agoAh, indeed, I did not think of that. There'd be vacation days to avoid having to quit your current job for that week. Still, there's other problems, like maybe the contract forbidding you to have other jobs unless cleared by your employer, and taxes because you suddenly have two jobs – not worth the hassle for a single week, I guess.
- fsk 11y agoSpending half your annual vacation allotment on one job interview. Who would do that?
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