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Comment by blackoil | Hacker News Reader

First, Ghosting is a shit move. No reason HR can't send a standard lawyer approved boiler plate rejection mail.

2nd aspect is unpaid take homes. It's complicated. Companies do pay a lot to fly candidates, put them in hotels and feed them for onsite interview. So financially company can afford to pay something. But it adds a moral hazard as you are paying cash irrespective of any expected quality or commitment.

Other thing I would like to highlight is that unlike any other industry, tech. allows people to enter at ease irrespective of the pedigree and credentials. No hospital would hire a physician who has read a lot on the Internet and did some pro-bono help to the neighbourhood kids. So what is the best way to hire isn't very well defined. It could be Leetcode, puzzle problems, take home tests or something else.

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> Companies do pay a lot to fly candidates, put them in hotels and feed them for onsite interview.

I tend to see 1) quick phone call with recruiter 2) please make assignment

in Europe at least

This is my experience too most of the time.

In one case, Airbus, they didn't even bother with a phone call. I applied via their website's application process. More than a month later, without having heard anything from them at all, I get an email from someone with an exercise that "should not take you more than 12 hours". They also gave me 3 days from the day the email was sent, to send my code. Eh...

Ah, there was a local company which, as part of the application process itself, would present you with a small test. First problem: it was incorrectly set up and I got some totally unrelated test about something like Excel or whatever. I added a comment to let them know that I thought it was the wrong test. Again, never heard from them for 2 or 3 weeks. Then an email addressed to no one in particular, asking to do an assignment. I replied asking for clarification. Saying I hadn't even spoken with anyone yet and the exercise felt weirdly unrelated to the position I had applied to. Never heard back, fortunately.

That's a red flag to me.I want to at least speak with someone on the tech team before I agree to do a few hours of work for free.

Yeah, over here, companies don't understand why anyone would want that. Surely the generic job description with 10 bullet points has answered all your questions, or you wouldn't have applied (/s)?

Then they go on to complain that candidates will jump off and that they can't find enough employees.

I haven't had an in-person onsite in the ~20 onsites I went to for my last job hunt. I think they're going the way of the dinosaur for technical interviews.

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