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by jakebasile
3556 days ago
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I have begun doing this. The RoI just isn't there for me. I've been looking for full time employment for over 6 months now, doing contracting to make ends meet and to stay involved in the industry. I started out doing the tests, putting lots of effort into the insipid take home exams, and so on. It amounted to absolutely nothing. I'd get invited on site, get tortured with a whiteboard for 6 hours, and get no offer. Meanwhile, contract "interviews" have been "What have you done at your previous jobs?", "How can you help us do $THING", and finally "What's your rate?". They have, unlike FT interviewers, understood that I am telling the truth about what I have done, what I can do, and how I do it, and so didn't require a college test to prove it. |
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The only alternative is to be at least -somewhat- compromising -- as I don't mind these tests too much, if they're on the short and sweet side (up to 90 min timed, or 3-4 hours untimed). But once you've decided what your limit is, hold to it. "I'm sorry, but I've done enough of these already -- sometimes without getting any response at all from the company, even though I felt pretty confident my solution was at least ballpark correct -- so unfortunately I can't justify the time investment for your drippingly pretentious mandatory 4-hour HackerRank hazing session."
(Same goes for ridiculously over-hard and/or over-rushed algorithm questions which in realistic terms almost no one is able to genuinely "solve" in the time provided -- unless they crammed and/or did them very shortly before. Just sit back and assess the situation for 5 minutes before jumping in. And if, heaven forbid, you don't think you'll be able to crank out the flawless the solution they'll undoubtedly expect in the next 35 minutes -- just say, "I'm sorry, but I done challenges like these before and I just don't they're realistic problems to ask people to solve on the spot. So I'll have to pass.")
Of course you don't have to use the exact phrases "drippingly pretentious" and "mandatory hazing session." But at least you're giving them a qualified rejection (instead of "Neah, I'm just too cool for your shit.") Which they'll also almost certainly decide to pass on you for. But if so, then at least you've managed to hold your ground, and keep your head up.
And who knows, maybe at some point these companies will start looking at the response data on these poorly considered "challenge" tasks -- and will move on to some other filtering fad.