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A comment on Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by kamaal on Monday February 03, 2025 @03:21AM (#42916084)
>>Do either no take home test, or one that takes at most two hours. I do discuss the solution candidates came up with, so as long as they can demonstrate they know what they did there, I don't care too much how they did it. If I do this part, it's just to establish some base line competency.

The biggest problem with the take home tests are not people who don't show up due to not being able to finish the assignment, But that those people who do, now expect to get hired.

95% people don't finish the assignment. 5% do. Teams think submitting the assignment with 100% feature set, unit test cases, onsite code review and onsite additional feature implementation still shouldn't mean a hire(If not anything, there are just not enough positions to fill). From the candidate's perspective, its pointless to spend a week working and doing every thing the hiring team asked for and still receive a 'no'.

I think if you are not ready to pay 2x - 5x market comp you shouldn't use take home assignments to hire people. There is too much work to do, and receive a reject at the end. Upping the comp absolutely makes sense as working a week to get a chance at earning 3x more or so makes sense.

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Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by mavhc on Monday February 03, 2025 @04:04AM (#42916332)
If you're expecting a week's worth of work from them you'd better pay them for their time, if they turn up.
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Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by wkat4242 on Monday February 03, 2025 @04:06AM (#42916349)
> From the candidate's perspective, its pointless to spend a week working and doing every thing the hiring team asked for and still receive a 'no'.

Uhhh yeah. That would really piss me off. Like reviewbombing glassdoor type of pissed.

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Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by Fr3dd1 on Monday February 03, 2025 @03:36AM (#42916164)
We did a lot of these assignments and no one assumed that they will be hired if they complete it. Its about how you communicate your intent. I always told the candidates, that the goal of the task is 1. to see some code and if some really basic stuff is on point and 2. that you can argue with someone about his or her code.
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Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by kamaal on Monday February 03, 2025 @03:48AM (#42916231)
>>We did a lot of these assignments and no one assumed that they will be hired if they complete it. Its about how you communicate your intent.

Be upfront that finishing the assignment doesn't guarantee a hire and very likely the very people you want to hire won't show up.

Please note that as much as you want good people to participate in your processes. Most good talent doesn't like to waste its time and effort. How would you feel if someone wasted your time and effort?

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Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by Fr3dd1 on Monday February 03, 2025 @04:14AM (#42916395)
I am in germany, so by far not the same situation as in other areas of the world. If I would get such an assignment myself and I have the feeling that this will help the company and also me to verify, if it is a fit, I will do that 1 to 3 hour task very happily.
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Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by dolmen on Monday February 03, 2025 @09:10AM (#42918357)
If I have a public portfolio of existing projects on GitHub, couldn't that replace an assignment? Choose one of my projects (or let me choose one), and let's discuss about it during the review interview.
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Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by sage76 on Monday February 03, 2025 @07:33AM (#42917544)
Most of the time, those take home tests cannot be done in 2 hours. I remember one where I wasn't even done with the basic setup in 2 hours, installing various software/libraries and debugging issues with them.
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Re:Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using... by kamaal on Monday February 03, 2025 @11:35PM (#42928011)
People mostly fix some issue, or implement a feature at work. And then somebody outside can do the same in the same time.

In reality they need to look at this like onboarding a new team member.

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