[peterlk]

I strongly (very strongly) disagree with the idea of a "hack week". Having multiple rounds of interviewing and a programming challenge seems reasonable to me, but if you think you've found someone who is the right fit, hire them. Everyone makes mistakes, but have some courage, and be willing to fire fast if it isn't a good fit. People want to work at places that value them, and "conditionally" hiring someone does not convey that message

[edmundhuber]

It's part of the continual corporate drive to push risks off the company and onto the employee. No self-respecting employee should do a take home exam, or do a "hack week", because every time you do, you normalize and reward this behavior.

[mnm1]

Yup. And when one does make a mistake and do it once, one quickly learns it's almost always not appreciated. I've done it twice before. Once it landed me a free trip to SF and a rescinded job offer after (I aced their interview and almost finished the problems they said no one finishes but they didn't actually want to hire remote). The other time I did something it was immediately ignored and never looked at by the company. Mind you, I knew better but I was desperate at the time so I still did it. In other words, I was an idiot.

[ryanmarsh]

I went through a round of interviews as the interviewer and assigned take-home work. The problems were hard, fun hard, but would take time to solve. I had a number of people balk. They said they were too busy.

I realized in that moment what an asshole I was being for assuming somebody would be able to dedicate free time over a week to solving some problem just to prove to me they could, just for the potential of getting hired, and no other benefit.

Now, the way some people articulated (or yelled) their objections lead me to believe they wouldn't be a good culture fit. Others though opted for a lighter touch, "lets just talk through how we'd solve this" and I came away understanding how they think through problems. It was an attempt at saving the interviews. This stuff is hard, on both sides. That was a long time ago, I've since read way more horror (and success stories).

Please don't give people take home projects. I sure as fuck won't do them. I'm busy with hard problems I actually find rewarding.