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We've recently given a huge amount of thought to this idea (how to technically assess applicants) and sought input from many sources. This is because we are building a curated online community of technical (job) profiles, and we have a very strong incentive program for people to sign up. (It's being announced any minute.) In fact, you could say our incentive program is too strong, and we are afraid of getting "CTO/senior web applications developer" with "20 years of Linux and AWS experience" who can't actually define what "ls" is or what "for" does (in any language). So, what shall we do? How can we very strongly incentivize every qualified person to upload their profile, in a way that lets us curate people's actual abilities? The suggestions this article makes, to demand githubs or complete projects done for demonstration purposes, have both been rejected. Sure, it may be a good strong signal. But then so is the signal of someone creating a complete application for your company (complete with branding) to actually A/B test on the front page, and then if it does well, for the canddiate to show up for a 3 month unpaid trial during which he or she must contribute as a full member of the team and can be dismissed at any time for no reason. I guarantee, anyone who passes that test would be a great candidate. The issue is that there are perhaps three people on the planet who would even consider applying to a company on those terms - and they're the original founders' siblings. The problem is that it is not a reasonable burden on job applicants, and neither is a complete github profile, and neither is a complete programming project. It's just too much. What is needed is a smaller burden that is a good, strong signal. We think we've found one, but are not sure. (You can see it on our web site as soon as we announce.) In the mean time, if anyone here has any breakthrough ideas in this space, we would be very interested. |
Even if you don't have the right answer, you at least found the right question.