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by kassner 219 days ago
I still consider this a red flag. The company wants me to put time into the hiring process, but they can’t be bothered to do the same.

If there is at least a recruiter screening first, I’ll apply and ask about “Bring Your Own Code Examples”, mostly when their daily work would use tools that I have some code published.
2 comments
joshdavham 219 days ago
> I still consider this a red flag. The company wants me to put time into the hiring process, but they can’t be bothered to do the same.

Exactly this.

It costs a company nothing to give you a take-home, but it will cost you (the candidate) potentially many hours. On my last job search, I got burned a number of times where I'd work for hours on a take-home only to get ghosted. I don't think they even looked at my solution.

Now I have a personal policy where I will refuse to do a take-home unless the interviewer sits there with me while I do it. This demonstrates to me that the interviewer is actually serious and respectful of my time.

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ryandrake 218 days ago
Another thing problematic about take-home projects: They don't scale for the candidate. Sure, 2 hours is nothing if you want a job, but typically the candidate is going to be applying for dozens, if not hundreds of jobs. Even 20 take-homes just like this is now 40 hours of work--just to get through a hiring gate!

It is not "respectful of the candidate's time" if everyone is doing it.

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phrotoma 219 days ago
It CAN cost nothing to give a take home, but this is not a requirement. At my previous employer any candidate that made it as far as the take home project was paid for the time they worked on it.
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joshdavham 218 days ago
That’s a good distinction. A paid take home is very different than an unpaid one.
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resonious 219 days ago
> but they can’t be bothered to do the same

They will need to review your submission, which absolutely does take time.

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joshdavham 219 days ago
> They will need to review your submission, which absolutely does take tim

But that's the kicker: they won't review your submission!

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LtWorf 219 days ago
I'm sure the AI will do that.
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stavros 219 days ago
Who do you think will write the submission code?
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