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Re:Reddit is hiring. We're looking for 3 rockstar programmers. by wccrawford on Friday February 11, 2011 @11:37AM (#2206950)
I think it's fine to ask someone to code something as a pre-interview so long as it's short (can be done in 48 hours by just about anyone) and it's something you're actually going to use on your system.

I was recently asked to write a simple CRUD page for contacts (name, address, etc) as a pre-interview test and that's well within the above.

You have to keep in mind that people can't apply for many jobs if they are all doing that, though. You're going to severely limit the number of applicants you get. It'll limit it to only people who really want to work there, but also to people who have enough free time to throw away to do the interview.

Re:Reddit is hiring. We're looking for 3 rockstar programmers. by trotsky on Friday February 11, 2011 @12:03PM (#2207121)
As a hiring manager, I think it's inappropriate to ask a candidate to spend significantly more time in the iapplication process than you're willing to spend evaluating them. High end talent search where you or your board will spend days agonizing over every candidate? Totally OK to ask for a significant amount of their time. Asking for some time consuming unique delivery from people that you won't necessarily even interview? You're just being abusive.

When you're in a position of power, either because jobs are rare or yours are uniquely appealing it's very easy to fall in to this mode, but that doesn't make it right. Especially in a case like this where you'd expect a high number of applications you're likely to dismiss out of hand (ie, sorry, no high school students) - at the very minimum you should be willing to do that first screening before you request anything needing a time investment.

Re:Reddit is hiring. We're looking for 3 rockstar programmers. by hessenwolf on Friday February 11, 2011 @11:59AM (#2207094)
48 hours meaning 5 days work; 48 hours meaning two full time days; or 48 hours meaning two evenings after a full time + usual overtime day, so about 4.5 hours with a beer?