[jays]

We did this at the last startup I founded.

While it can be difficult on the paperwork side, it's nothing short of amazing. It helped us find high quality fits for the team AND we actually had a better understanding of skill levels.

We also used it to educate ourselves on what each employee would need in their on boarding and personal development plans.

[nomel]

I imagine this simply would not work for someone with multiple offers though, which could act as a pretty severe filter of talent.

[ljm]

It just looks like a consulting gig with the potential offer of a job afterwards. If the rates are good and the offer is decently compensated, it's probably a fine way to recruit for what looks to be a highly specialised position.

Probably not going to get that many low-level postgres specialists with deep experience walking through the door. If the consultant feels good about the project then they've got the chance to stick around in the long term.

[jays]

Well we didn't market it like that and while technically it is consulting for a period of time, it doesn't have to feel that way.

The interview process was similar to any other company, but at the end we asked the candidate to do a short project (20 hours or less), which they would collaborate on with someone internally.

So only the best candidates made it to the project and hopefully at that point there were pretty sold on the company.

Did we lose some candidates? Sure, but we also didn't have any hires we regretted after changing to it.

[zsmi]

> No need to quit your day job to do this gig

This might be true for the employer, but for the employee, I think there could be serious issues. For example, my present employer would be very unhappy if I agreed to this and I have no idea how it would play out. I'm almost positive it is in violation of my present employment contract.

Did the candidate that went for it actually have full time employment? If so, did they get approval first?

[jays]

We interviewed a lot candidates this way and yes all of them were employed full-time. None of the candidates we interviewed worked directly in our specific industry, so as long as they didn't work on company time of their current employer, there was no conflict.

Our time limit of 20 hours or less, also helps. The hours could be spread over many weeks if needed to ensure there wasn't a conflict.

That said, it's not unheard of that some employees have more strict contracts such as yourself and we certainly would have had to pass on those candidates or find another way to evaluate them.

We also had the luxury of being a fully distributed team (pre-covid), so collaboration could happen during the candidates off hours, with a team member that was working.

[kyleee]

Labor must not be so fearful; play it close to your chest and cover your tracks. Change jobs if it works out, otherwise stay at current position and nobody is the wiser.