I've been hired on bravado, reputation, pointless trivia contests, and other ways of interviewing, and it scares me that companies are willing to take on a risk without verifying skills in some way.
I've also been on the receiving side of delightful trivia questions like "What are all the ways the character '*' is used in Python?" and puzzle questions that test "creativity"/"ingenuity", whose value are totally alien to me. (I've also done online quizzes/tests, including personality ones(!))
I would like to think there's a broad middle ground in between, but that there isn't a single process that is going to be effective for all companies or for all candidates.
In the past, I've used "homework" as a final step in a hiring process, which worked for some (it certainly washed out a few candidates who got passed less strenuous interviewers), but which others weren't interested in doing - including two that we hired anyway and who ended up being great coworkers.
I imagine I would feel a bit put out if a startup wanted me to spend 2-4 hours on something before they allowed me the opportunity to get to understand the position and the company (especially since I would hope the startup would look at my open source contributions in lieu of the homework). New grads might have a bunch of opportunities, and they might decide on skipping something with that sort of requirement.
I've also been on the receiving side of delightful trivia questions like "What are all the ways the character '*' is used in Python?" and puzzle questions that test "creativity"/"ingenuity", whose value are totally alien to me. (I've also done online quizzes/tests, including personality ones(!))
I would like to think there's a broad middle ground in between, but that there isn't a single process that is going to be effective for all companies or for all candidates.
In the past, I've used "homework" as a final step in a hiring process, which worked for some (it certainly washed out a few candidates who got passed less strenuous interviewers), but which others weren't interested in doing - including two that we hired anyway and who ended up being great coworkers.
I imagine I would feel a bit put out if a startup wanted me to spend 2-4 hours on something before they allowed me the opportunity to get to understand the position and the company (especially since I would hope the startup would look at my open source contributions in lieu of the homework). New grads might have a bunch of opportunities, and they might decide on skipping something with that sort of requirement.