Is this typical of how start ups hire these days?

4 points by itistricky 4 years ago | 1 comment

So, I'm job hunting and I bumped into next task:

[system description - you need about 2 mins just reading through it]

1. Implement a new SDK method [method description]. A sort of graph search with limitations regarding scalability and space. Not trivial.

2. Write 1 simple unit-test and 1 simple happy-path integration test for the method above

3. Write a small technical design doc to formulate the technical problem and document your approach to solving it. Discuss the estimated scale of the problem, and propose an architecture for handling networks of such magnitude. Prove your hypothesis with running time and memory complexity analysis of the average and worst cases. How big do you think one's network can be in the absolute worst case? Discuss how you plan to engineer the SDK for testability.

[Another paragraph of hints/tips/dos/dont's that you need at best 5 mins to get through]

[And the punchline]

This is a small task (20-45 min)

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This is a small startup in Berlin. No huge salary. The best perk being remote working (which TBH post-covid is a given with most IT jobs).

I consider myself a fairly smart and competent dev but there's no way this task would take me under 2 hours. So, what exactly is happening with recruiting these days? I mean, there are devs that can understand and pull this off in 20 mins but for the life of me I cannot understand why such devs would opt to work for a no-name start up and not go straight to a FAANG. What am I missing here?

JSeymourATL 4 years ago |

Basic Human Connection has disappeared from recruiting.

Look up the founder, give him your feedback on the test. Send him your profile link.

Tell him you can probably help him, but instead of waisting time—- a quick Zoom conversation might be vastly more productive.

Essentially, you’re having the founder prove back his interest in you.