[dccoolgai]

"The problem is, we're not hiring people to build to a spec. We want to assess your decisions and ability to go from a basic problem to a first implementation"

You could have told the candidate that, then. That would have been some useful information to have for the hours the candidate put into their submission. Or like "hey, we're going to just skim over this with a subjective list of check boxes".

I have enough experience that I probably would have smelled this before I got that deep into the process and noped out, but for the hopeful mid-level/new-senior devs this sounds pretty demoralizing.

[iamleppert]

I’ve worked with, and been on hiring committees with people like mrkurt before. What always happens is they reject a bunch of candidates toward the beginning of the process, then eventually the time comes where they MUST hire someone. Because someone or something they are accountable to (investors, their boss or commitments they’ve made) asks why they can’t hire. Then there is a mad dash to interview and hire someone where standards are greatly reduced. They then end up hiring someone with similar skills and risk profile of people they have previously rejected anyways. The net result is just a bunch of time wasted for everyone.

If you ever get asked to do one of these exercises, it’s useful to try to determine where they are in this process. Ask about their hiring timeline, how long they have been interviewing for the position, and try to get a feel for how fatigued they are in general.

If it feels like they are just starting, ask how long you have to complete the exercise. If there isn’t a time limit, it’s better to wait as long as possible, so they can reject other candidates first and burn themselves out. If there is a time limit, ask to pause the interview process (insert some excuse here) before they send out the exercise.

If they are near the end and sound exhausted, that’s a good sign and the effort might not be wasted.

[dccoolgai]

Sound and practical advice from a fellow grizzled veteran that I will put to work my next go-round. Thank you, sir.

[tptacek]

You know, "take-home" projects are so cargo-culted, and so poorly executed at so many places, and in such bad faith, that this I think turns out to be perfectly reasonable, valuable survival advice, even though it applies literally not at all, in any way whatsoever, to the hiring process you're commenting on.