How to interview engineers as a startup

Re:How to interview engineers as a startup by solve on Monday September 23, 2013 @09:26AM (#6430673)

I've done a few take-home interview coding challenges -- absolutely would NEVER do them again. Both that I did ended up just getting tossed in the trash. I was able to get in contact with my interviewers later, not one of them had even seen my take-home work.

If you're a company using this tactic, hopefully you're aiming for only the most desperate or green candidates, because that's exactly what you're going to get.

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Re:How to interview engineers as a startup by coreymaass on Monday September 23, 2013 @09:38AM (#6430738)

I've done a few as well. It left a bad taste in my mouth every time, too. It never showed what I could do, and I felt it was wasting everyone's time - the company's and mine.

Now I usually make a counter offer. I ask them to find a small project they can hire me for. It's a better use of everyone's time.

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Re:How to interview engineers as a startup by tomblomfield on Monday September 23, 2013 @10:17AM (#6431072)

We spend a long time (30+ mins) reviewing every single coding challenge we receive. We also use it as the basis of an hour-long interview - probing on the choice of libraries, asking extension questions, etc.

But it's important that you weed out no-hopers at the CV- and phone-screen stage, otherwise you're going to get hundreds of coding challenges and you won't be able to give them due attention.

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