[jghn]

We ask candidates to pick a work sample of something they already have, if they have one they can provide. If they don't we give them a relatively painless coding test instead.

It's not perfect, it'd be great if everyone could have a work sample but as you say that's just not the world we live in.

[pdxandi]

I appreciate this approach. I'd love to be more active with outside-of-work projects, but my days are usually already full. And I can't provide a lot of code samples because the majority of my work is IP.

[ryandrake]

This is true for most good people at big companies. Your day is already 60 hours long, and your company forbids (via IP ownership) coding outside of work. I fear that most of the interview approaches pointed out in this thread select against people who are already successful at well-regarded companies. Don't you want people like this in your interview funnel?

[jghn]

You'd be surprised. There are an increasing number of folks who get to at least occasionally work on open source projects as part of their day job, and many other less obvious ways of getting a prior sample. But if they don't have one we don't hold it against them for the reasons you cite

[jghn]

Exactly. Furthermore my experience has been that requiring prior work samples unfairly biases towards younger developers. Our system is far from perfect but it allows us to see prior work where possible by provide a fallback when it isn't