| I've had experiences similar to yours and have also had the same reaction. Technical interviews and whiteboarding is one thing, but projects -- especially MULTIPLE projects! -- get very obnoxious very fast. The actual project is a drain on my time and energy of course. In addition, by dragging out the interviewing process over weeks or months, you're killing my actual desire to work there. Two months of hoop-jumping is annoying, and I'm embarassed that I ever put up with it. I make clear now to any company I'm interviewing with two things: 1. Let's get to "yes" or "no" quickly
2. I'll do one project as long as it can not only be completed in 2 hours, but that 2 hours' worth of work on the project will yield something that I can be proud to show you. #1 is obvious, but #2 is very, very important. If your project is "create a blog app", yes I can complete it in two hours. But it will be gross and not something I'm proud of. I will definitely spend more time on it getting it just right so that when you see it you'll be blown away. What does this mean for the interviewing company? Don't give me an open-ended project. Tell me specifically what kind of thing you want, what functionality you want, and don't put shit like "...anything else you think is cool for bonus points!" That, IMO, translates to hidden requirements and guessing what you actually want. |