[akg_67]

My experience as job applicant:

Who is hiring, March 2014: I received three responses to my applications. One for code samples (no follow up afterward), one for quick phone conversation, and one for phone interview (Ed: three different companies).

Seeking Freelance, March 2014: No response.

Who is hiring, Feb 2014: No response.

Seeking Freelance, Feb 2014: No response.

YC Companies /jobs: No ACK or response in last two months.

[namelezz]

Same experience here. Need to pass an online code puzzle -> a short phone interview -> No response.

[fsk]

Why is it considered acceptable to just cut off contact after a phone interview or an onsite interview?

If you get an onsite interview or phone interview, they should at least have the decency for a form letter "Thanks for applying, but we chose someone else." (especially after an on-site interview)

[elandybarr]

It is not acceptable.

I have tried to be courteous to everyone who has applied where I am. However, keep in mind that one recruiter may be dealing with 20-50 applicants in that week.

And it is never fun rejecting people. It is easy to want to put it off.

[danielweber]

Some people don't like to reject others so they take the easy way out and just go silent.

This is a tragic mistake, because if you are running a company you need to be able to do something much worse -- cut people who are currently working for you.

[Matt_Mickiewicz]

Not sending a formal rejection email is a sign of an company that is still immature in developing its HR function.

Unfortunately, we see this more often than not at seed stage companies.

[wwweston]

I know people are busy (doubly so when hiring or looking for a job), so generally I think the best policy is to not take it personally and simply move on when people don't respond. It happens on both sides of the search, and dead ends are to some extent just part of the game.

However, with the rise of the code puzzle/challenge test/work sample, I wonder if it might be time to forge a new professional ethic where it's understood that it is an important courtesy to give an applicant's work attention and useful feedback in return for investing time in completing a challenge.

With that in mind, lately I've been thinking it's important to set expectations (and figure out if you're likely to end up wasting your time) by asking at least two questions before agreeing to submit work on sample problems:

* if they have reference solutions or other rubrics that someone in-house has recently completed, and if they'll be willing to share those with candidates who submit work

* what kind of time they're planning to devote to giving attention and feedback to candidates who submit work

If they have a reference solution, that's a good sign that they have clear ideas about what their standards for success are and a good baseline of the likely time involved in completion.

And if they're willing to at least say that they'll spend real time on studying solutions and giving feedback (ideally something within an order of magnitude of the time they ask candidates to invest) -- or at least show you the rubric -- that's probably an indicator that you're not going to waste your time.

If they don't give an indication that they can do either, it may be a better use of time to move on. And if enough developers use that as a standard, I think it'll be less common to submit work with no response.

(This isn't, by the way, meant to be anti-challenge. The merits seem pretty clear to me, and I've gotten offers including my current job from submitting responses to tests. I've also, however, spent hours or even days* doing free work with nothing useful in return.)

(* One more useful question: does the sample involve working with the Facebook API? Just say no.)

[akg_67]

However, with the rise of the code puzzle/challenge test/work sample, I wonder if it might be time to forge a new professional ethic where it's understood that it is an important courtesy to give an applicant's work attention and useful feedback in return for investing time in completing a challenge.

I agree with you on this front. I have never received feedback on such tests from any of the companies I talked to. In one instance, company asked me to prepare a decent size report before the onsite interview but it was clear during the interview that none of the interviewers looked at the report beyond the summary on the cover.

I started to address this issue by posting any presentations and reports, I prepared on the request of a company, as part of my work profile online. I believe one of the responses I received from Who is Hiring? March 2014 thread was due to one such work that I did for another company as test.

Your tips on checking who is serious are good. I will try them next time.

I have stopped responding to companies who want me to create account and/or use their API to create something. I learnt, from an angel investor acquaintance, that a lot of early-stage startups are using such tactics to inflate their user/API usage metrics for investor pitches.

[bound008]

I have done hiring at a YC company and elsewhere based on HN. Especially for sales jobs I would not respond because I want closers. Not people who wait around for the other party to act. ( Relevant: https://elasticsales.com/blog/2013/01/24/how-hire-best-hustl... ) For hiring freelancers on here, and FT engineers, I don't respond a lot to get an idea of personality, communication style, ability to confront, etc. For anything outbound, I would have constant touch points since you are trying to sell the candidate the role, not the other way around.

Many people just weren't good fits culturally or technically and when you are running a startup there things get overlooked.

[e-mail] - send me your resume with a subject line that says resume feedback and i'll take a look

Random anecdote, I was walking SXSW last week and some kids came up and said hi since they noticed the YC founder I was with. One said " I applied to your company and I don't think I got a response ". I took that kids card because his attitude is one to make things happen. So if you want something, make it happen.

[RogerL]

So, you want something (good hires), and you do nothing to get them? You are contradicting your own advice.

If somebody doesn't respond to me, I take that as an extremely loud and clear signal of "not interested" or "can't be bothered". It goes both ways.

[Bahamut]

Yep, I feel the same way. If you can't be bothered to handle being respectful of my time, your company is not one I want to work for. I have my pick of jobs, and do not appreciate wasting my time.

[danielweber]

For sales positions, it's not unreasonable to expect the candidate to show hustle.

For the most part, though, these explicit or implicit "personality tests" are just as well-thought-out as the dating advice from an issue of Cosmo. The candidate has to guess what the employer is looking for this month and try to match it.

[rrpadhy]

Hey thanks for your response.

Some follow-on questions: 1. How often do you visit HN in day? 2. How do you generally spend your time on HN? reading new articles, reading comments, Commenting and participating, or something else? 3. Are you actively looking for a job, or you stumble across a good job posting when doing your normal browsing?

[rrpadhy]

Hey thanks for your response.

Some follow-on questions:

1. How often do you visit HN in day? 2. How do you generally spend your time on HN? reading new articles, reading comments, Commenting and participating, or something else? 3. Are you actively looking for a job, or you stumble across a good job posting when doing your normal browsing?

[akg_67]

I visit HN few times a day. It is my guilty pleasure and a quick break from the work I may be doing. If I comment, I browse often to see if anyone responded or to follow-up on my comments.

I read articles and comments if I find article title/submission interesting. I comment only if I have an opinion, experience or something new to add.

I am actively looking for job, was laid off end of Dec.

[jacobolus]

Did you contact the companies looking to hire full timers / freelancers? Or did you just post your ad and hope someone would proactively contact you? If the former, how many companies have you contacted that you got “no response” from?

[akg_67]

I contact companies and people posting to hire FT and freelancers.

I posted only once as ad in Seeking Freelance thread, received no inquiry.

From March thread, I contacted 12 companies through email or online applications.