Hi all, I'm the guy who announced I was doing the Facebook app (for those who were at RORO in Melbourne last night).
I was also uncomfortable and thinking something similar myself - I have done 2x24 hours tests before (1 in information security for ethical hacking, and 1 in coding) and I found the process tedious... not only because what I thought would take 6 hours ended up taking 23 hours (20 hours, followed by 3 hours sleep, followed by another 3 hours)! I was actually going to push back on the next coding test, unless there was a significant chance of getting the job, because my time is quite limited with the things I am working on in my own time. It's a significant commitment and an easy way to ruin a whole weekend. I think the best balance, is probably a 4-6 hr initial test, with potentially a longer test later once they have gotten past a few other hurdles. That way, you can argue that if they are serious about switching jobs then they can be incentivised to continue. The second test would only be given to the top 1 or 2 candidates as final confirmation. Interview Street (http://www.interviewstreet.com) I have used before as a candidate... it works pretty well and should be able to test Ruby as well. This suits people who want to give problems with different degrees of complexity and not have to come up with a relevant problem. Its the same situation with a 1 or 2 week trial period for a new employee... why would someone quit an existing full-time contract to do a limited trial period where there is no guarantee of an ongoing position at the end? However, if you are paid to take a day off and spend some time doing something directly with the team before you commit, then the business gets a feel of you as a potential candidate... and can then commit to a longer (3-6 month) probation period. Cheers, Nigel On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 4:34 PM, Adam Boas <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Rob, > > I listened with interest to your talk last night and had a think back over > the many interactions I have had with the recruitment process both as a > candidate and as a hirer. Litening to your critique of candidates made me a > little uncomfortable but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what the > problem was at the time. Apon reflection I think the source of my > discomfort was this: > > Many companies these days, often for good reason, are making the hiring > process considerably more ownerous to candidates (and incidentally to > themselves). Multiple interviews, a requirement to be a good culture fit > (whatever that is), and code tests are becoming more and more common. > Expecting candidates to do all this is fine and well but companies do seem > to be becoming somewhat arogant about what is a fair burden to put on a > candidate (who after all, is not being paid for their time and often will > not get the job). > > I'm not suggesting that companies shouldn't put in place processes to > increase the likelihood of making a good hiring choice, but I do suggest > that such companies should think about what they in turn owe the > candidates. What, after all, does a candidate who has been to 2 interviews > and spent around 1 week on a coding test (I think that was the time frame > you metntioned in your talk) get out of the experience should they fail to > get the job? I think that companies that want to put in place such hiring > practices need to be prepared to repay unsuccessful candidates for their > time with well considered feedback and advice. > > I want to stress, I have never interviewed at C3 and this is not actually > directed at you or C3 in particular. It is more that I started thinking > about how little I myself have given back to condidates who have been > unsuccessful at various companies where I have been a tech lead or dev > manager and how useful it might have been for some of those failed > candidates to get back a really detailed synopsis of problems I saw in > their code test or interview and pair that with some suggested reading or > other resources where they might improve the areas where they had problems. > There is a real power differential that happens when someone applies as a > candidate for a job and it would be awesome if companies who use that > differential to leverage candidates to do a fair deal of work to be > considered, also took their commensurate reponsiblity just as seriously. > > Cheers, > > Adam Boas > m:+61 (0)457 741 117 > e:[email protected] > > > > On 24/02/2012, at 1:44 PM, Robert Postill wrote: > > Thanks to you too for hosting Ben :) > > My slides are on slideshare at > http://www.slideshare.net/robertpostill/how-to-pass-a-ruby-code-test. > > Rob > > On 24 February 2012 11:53, Ben Hoskings <[email protected]> wrote: > > Good stuff :) Cheers Fred. > > > Here's the analogue blogue from last night: > https://gist.github.com/1896373 > > > Thanks to Pat, Ivan, Rob & Gareth for their talks last night, I really > enjoyed all of them. > > > And another grateful tip of the hat to Heroku for generously sponsoring > our drinks last night -- I think pretty much everyone had a cleansing ale > or two on the Heroku tab. > > > Cheers! > > Ben > > > > > On 23/02/2012, at 11:54 PM, Fred Wu wrote: > > > Some snapshots of tonight's RORO: > http://www.flickr.com/photos/76172385@N07/sets/72157629436433815/ > > > Love, > > Some creepy dude in the dark > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rails-oceania/-/EkMCqWozfHQJ. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. 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