interview practices

Ranter

S-falken

1281

Comments

6

Fast-Nop

39093

6y

Probably fair from a financial point, depending how expensive it is where you live. However, there's one issue left.

As someone fully employed, I would not take one or two weeks of full time work BESIDES my current job - just as part of a job interview.

This rules out people from your process who are already employed, and nothing shows employability as well as having a job. So usually, companies go out of their way for exactly those people whom you're slamming a door in their face.
2

vane

11049

6y

I don’t know I had similar interview once.
I was asked to build something and when I looked at the codebase I resigned cause it was so stupid that I felt offended.

I responded that I don’t have time to do such stupid shit in my life.
1

delegate212

1094

6y

That's a long process. It can be hard to find developers at best of times never mind requiring them to do 10 days worth of work paid or otherwise.

Moreover, not everyone has ten days to spend on your interview process. I freelance in my free time I might be able to fit in a couple hours, but 10 days worth? I think not.

Our interview process is as follows...

1) Informal phone call to root out those who clearly have absolutely no clue - you'll be surprised at how many fall exceptionally short.
2) Simple "technical" challenge that shouldn't take more than a few hours. We review this internally before the next step.
3) Face-to-face interview in which you run us over the code you wrote.

Its just a real world small project for which you fill in the gaps.

We haven't rejected anyone at stage 2 everyone gets the chance to explain what they did do and what they would have done given more time. This also ensures that the person interviewing wrote and understood what they wrote.
0

delegate212

1094

6y

@delegate212

You'll find developers with more experience tend to be those that complain that they have to answer some technical questions or complete a small task.

However, they don't see the amount of people with 10+ years experience who interview that are unable to answer the most basic of questions. It's an honest mystery how these people managed to get 10 years experience in the first place.

I personally prefer that candidates are issued a simple relevant task over a barrage of technical questions. While basic question are defiantly a requirement to root out those who fall very short as mentioned above. People can be nervous, and when put on the spot fail to answer questions they have the answers for.

Moreover, they may not understand/link the terminology, but in actual fact use/practice it anyway.
1

delegate212

1094

6y

@vane

Often these tests are merely a means to root out those who are complete cowboys. If you've never sat on the other side of the table you wont be aware just how many candidates would likely fail such a simple task.
1

S-falken

1281

6y

@Fast-Nop true I hadn't thought about it like that. Guess I thought the people who were employed and saw my post were looking for a job and therefore would be interested in doing the extra work. I did double the amount of time it should take to complete.

so I guess back to the drawing board have to find out a way to interrupt happy productive developers and make them think about job change.
1

nibor

4811

6y

Another consideration is how do you know the person actually wrote the code and didn't get a mate to do it? 5 days is far too long for a job interview, nevermind 10. You should invite them in for 1 or 2 hours technical interview /test
0

Fast-Nop

39093

6y

@S-falken Well you could motivate them of course e.g. by paying way more than the market rate is. But your financial department would probably refuse such an expensive consequence of this interview process.

Plus that for people who already have a job, the last thing you want is to put up bumpers. Because they can always say no thanks.

Also, you are not their only option. Other companies are competing with you, and for someone who seriously considers a change, it's normal to check out like 5-6 different companies.

If each company does this, then applying becomes impossible. So it's natural and easy to just weed out companies who don't appreciate the interviewee's time constraints.
0

delegate212

1094

6y

@nibor Its fine if they complete the test remotely at their convince provided they're asked to run over what they wrote, explain why they did it the way they did and what they'd like to have done if provided more time.

I disagree bringing an interviewee in and forcing them to pump out code there and then creating a 4 hour interview when its simply not necessary.
1

vane

11049

6y

@delegate212 I recruited over phone and in person and a few simple questions are enough for me to check if someone knows something or wrote bullshit in resume.
I don’t know how but I need 2-3 questions and I know, trust me, people that I recruited are still there hired and working.
1

Fast-Nop

39093

6y

Btw., while I wouldn't put in 12 hours a day of total work or sacrifice my weekends just to gain a lousy job interview, I might use my contacts to Indian subcontractors.

There's surely someone with a nephew or so in CS studies, and $300 is a lot of money for an Indian student. He could stitch together an app in a few days and chalega.

The remaining $700 would be margin of course.

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