> I don't plan on doing such a thing again unless I'm compensated fair market rates.
Was having drinks with a friend and a recruiter friend of his, and the recruiter began bragging about how her no-name, average-wage firm had the HARDEST coding challenge in town (not even close to true...) because it took candidates as long as 16 hours to complete. She then began regaling us with a candidate who applied, was supplied the challenge (before any in-person, or even phone) interviews. They rebuffed his request to have at least a phone interview with the hiring manager prior-to committing to such time, and then were aghast at his asking if they would be willing to pay for his time given the extreme time commitment necessary.
You know how hiring works for my chef friends? A paid shop-test, show up on an off-day and work some station(s) to demonstrate you can walk the walk. You know how hiring works for trade friends? A paid shop-test, they show up on an off-day and work on a discrete piece of work or some piece of a project. Suppose one can only assume that firm's operational principle is to hire the easily manipulated...
Personally, I never ask for more than a 2-hour commitment and these days have lowered it to less than 1-hour, providing a scaffolded project from which one could reasonably extrapolate, and typically on their time. To follow up, discuss what they did, why they did it, any differing opinions or approaches.
Perhaps I am lucky to not have an LA/NYC/SF sized hiring pool, though.
Was having drinks with a friend and a recruiter friend of his, and the recruiter began bragging about how her no-name, average-wage firm had the HARDEST coding challenge in town (not even close to true...) because it took candidates as long as 16 hours to complete. She then began regaling us with a candidate who applied, was supplied the challenge (before any in-person, or even phone) interviews. They rebuffed his request to have at least a phone interview with the hiring manager prior-to committing to such time, and then were aghast at his asking if they would be willing to pay for his time given the extreme time commitment necessary.
You know how hiring works for my chef friends? A paid shop-test, show up on an off-day and work some station(s) to demonstrate you can walk the walk. You know how hiring works for trade friends? A paid shop-test, they show up on an off-day and work on a discrete piece of work or some piece of a project. Suppose one can only assume that firm's operational principle is to hire the easily manipulated...
Personally, I never ask for more than a 2-hour commitment and these days have lowered it to less than 1-hour, providing a scaffolded project from which one could reasonably extrapolate, and typically on their time. To follow up, discuss what they did, why they did it, any differing opinions or approaches.
Perhaps I am lucky to not have an LA/NYC/SF sized hiring pool, though.