[Chicago] Sanity Check

[Dan Krol]

"Sanity Check" may in fact be an appropriate phrase for the situation. My
personal (mostly uneducated) guess would be that they really do want to just
do a quick check to make sure you're who you say you are. It doesn't take
too long, and it saves them the hassle of an additional hire. I think I've
heard that some people do weasel their way into a position they are
unqualified for just to gain a little bit of experience.
On Dec 1, 2010 8:38 PM, "Peter Fein" <pfein at pobox.com> wrote:
> Hiya-
>
> Need to sanity check with a broader group... I've had a few phone
> interviews lately, which have been followed by demands for programming
> tests. I am THIS CLOSE: || to telling the next company that asks to
> shove off.
>
> The actual content of the tests has ranged from the trivially easy to
> straightforward but annoyingly difficult. The former at best indicate
> whether I'm totally lying about knowing the language at all. Most of the
> later have been ripped straight from Code Golf or a sophomore algorithms
> textbook. In no case has the test had anything discernible to do with
> the actual job. Being a person of integrity, I don't just go look up the
> answers.
>
> I'm particularly ticked off because:
>
> * I have ample open source code, which I've pointed people to. In fact,
> one company got in touch with me because THEY LIKED MY OSS CODE, then
> demanded I do a coding test anyway.
> * Some of the companies are startups, which have explicitly prided
> themselves on their low-bureaucracy/bullshit factor. Hypocrites.
>
> I've been coding in Python for eight bloody years already. Marketers
> don't take marketing tests, do they?
>
> Should I tell them to bugger off? Am I on crack?
>
> --Pete
>
> PS - I have a blog post on this and other frustrations titled: "IT
> Hiring: You're Doing it Wrong (or) The Author Sinks His Career Prospects
> for Fun and No Profit"
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