So happy to see Practical Engineering on HN! One of my all time favourite channels. I implore anyone to go back through the back catalogue of seemingly mundane subject matter (sewers, for instance), you'll be surprised. Great channel, very well done.
As a dev of nearly 20 years, a phrase I've often found useful when justifying my hires...
"We can teach them to code, but we can't teach them not to be a dick"
I generally try and decline "tech tests". Ive contributed to open source, and I've got 100 projects I've built from scratch, or as part of a team. I will happily bring my own, and walk through my decisions, and a potential employer can go through them with a fine tooth comb if they like, but honestly, I think those arbitrary tests don’t show off anything about my skillset that I'd actually want to show off.