Ask HN: Take-home project interview results == Final step?

2 points by danyim 9 years ago | 3 comments

Hey HN, I recently interviewed with a company in the Bay Area that specializes in remote work and need some opinions on a practice that borders on, in my opinion, unethical behavior and unprofessionalism.

After a quick exchange of messages on AngelList and a phone conversation prefacing the coding challenge, I completed the assignment over the weekend, and today, I went to their office for a brief 2-hour on-site interview to present my solution, meet the team, and have a chat with the CEO--no lunch.

From my experience with take-home project-style interviewing processes, you are more or less in the final round after you present your solution and go onsite, without any further need to validate my coding competency. However after I presented, the CTO of this particular company told me there is yet another final take home project that involves implementing a couple features on their dev environment.

My questions are: For companies who employ the take-home project interviewing style, is this additional step common practice? If not, do you think it's worth salvaging the situation to see if the CTO will understand that I had already sunk a lot of time interviewing for this particular company--or should I just run?

mattbgates 9 years ago |

This is an interesting thing they are doing to you. It is like they are testing you, but it can be seen as them taking advantage of you.

Maybe they are testing you to see if you can handle it, but most companies would give you little meaningless projects, but to have you work on company projects seems very odd.

I had to go through 3 months of intensive training AFTER I was hired before my former boss would even let me code within his beloved software program.

I know some companies, like Google and Facebook, spend hours interviewing.. initial phone interviews, flying people out to the headquarters, and giving them various tests, so its not unreasonable to know that they are trying to test your skills to see if you are a perfect match, especially if they are giving you the opportunity to work remotely. They are seeing if you will actually do the projects and complete them in a timely manner. Trusting someone to work from home and complete projects on time is a big deal.

If you are worried, try and research the company on www.glassdoor.com.

You could also just bluntly ask if they are testing you with intent to hire or compensate you for the time you have already given them.

If they tell you not to bother coming back, at least you won't be wasting anymore time there.

danyim 9 years ago | |

I agree. I wouldn't mind another take home assignment that was a meaningless project that they would discard, but they are asking me to essentially do some work for free.

I ended up sending an email of my concerns and am wiling to forego this opportunity if needed.

brudgers 9 years ago |

If the company culture doesn't suit you, that's o.k. To me, the bigger cultural disconnect is over going to lunch because it relates to social norms. The second take home is more or less a confirmation of your disconnect and that's why it is framed in terms of ethics and professionalism.

People struggle with social norms when it comes to remote work. It takes extra effort to treat remote workers well and so it is not uncommon for people to take a pass on it.

Good luck.