DEV Community

[Comment from a deleted post]
Collapse
 
dvddpl profile image
Davide de Paolis

insults the applicant by implying their time is incredibly cheap

I agree. but only to some degree.
because this is the result of the assumption that if you are applying for a job - you are not working and you have a lot of time on your ends. The entire recruiting process it very time consuming.
it does not end with code challenges, because then you have still hours - many! - of interlocutory phone calls, then tech interviews, hr interviews, half or full probation days.
I am happy with my current job, still i try to give it a go at at least a couple of interviews each year - you never know you find something better, you stay uptodate with the recruiting processes and world and it's a good training anyway.

but really it is annoying me that i have to take vacation to join the company for full day. in order to do the interviews and then spend the afternoon with the team i might join to asses the Culture fit

Collapse
 
ssimontis profile image
Scott Simontis

After going through a job hunt while still employed, I don't think I would do so again. It sucked hard. Most companies with coding challenges wanted a solution within 48 hours. If I was unemployed, that wouldn't be an issue, but when I am trying to escape from having to work 50+ hour weeks, it's hard to set aside the time to do a lot of coding challenges at once. I had to choose between companies several times and exit one application process early so I would have the time to do another company's challenge.

I get that a lot of places want to see how you think on your feet, but giving me no guidance and not setting expectations is frustrating. "Just code like you normally do!" "Your code should speak for itself" I think a great compromise would be if the company supplied a basic solution setup to get applicants started...that way applicants don't have to waste time stitching together a basic enterprise-y solution, and the applicant gets a chance to see what the company's coding style and expectations are like.

I wish more companies would take the time to give feedback. But then again, maybe they have trouble giving feedback because they have no idea what they are looking for. At the very least, it takes a few minutes to set up an automatic "thanks but no thanks" message as opposed to abruptly stopping all contact with me the second I tell you I couldn't complete the challenge in time.

Collapse
 
dvddpl profile image
Davide de Paolis

yep. agree. expecially the feedback part. if i give you my time for a coding challenge. or to go through the interview process it would be nice to receive a detailed feedback in what i did wrong or why i did not fit in the culture of your company. Did i seem unsure or arrogant, sloppy or fussy, was my code crap or overly complicated. It would be nice to know better the expectetions they had. Do you want an MVP with hacky shortcuts and without unittests or do you want to see the code at my best? ( normally i would do all by the book, but if the budget and time costraint are tight - what the heck do you expect?) I believe every interview should be a learning experience and these feedback would really help. but i understand also why they dont do that ( there are many legal reasons too..)