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Comment by danjac | Hacker News Reader

From the point of view of the applicant, I wonder if I would prefer a long probation period over a long interview period.

If I'm unemployed and I have bills to pay, a paid probation period is the better option - even if I get fired after 90 days, that's still 3 months' salary. On the other hand, if I already have a job, joining another company is a big risk - I'm giving up a comfortable position for a job I might lose in 90 days if it doesn't work out - maybe I'll be in over my head, maybe I don't get along with the manager or the team, whatever. A long interview process gives me plenty of opportunity to gauge my prospective employers and back out at any point.

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Sure, but, at least in my experience, new hires are ALWAYS on probation. So to me the status quo is this: you get vetted "harshly" in the interview process, then you have to clear the probation period. That said, I think it's pretty much a given you clear the probation period if you don't clash with coworkers, and write decent code. During your first ~90 days, you're ramping up, learning the company's procedures and coding conventions (and code base itself), and getting to know your coworkers... so I think the only time probation really bites you is if it's a bad fit culturally (which I would think you're at higher risk for the smaller the company - those startups are selective as hell about who they hire).

You can and probably should negotiate that clause away. If an employer offers you an at-will contract, it should have a US salary written on it or at least a large sign-on bonus.

I've never had a job where there wasn't a probation period. It's one of my major gripes with the current hiring process. They can fire you at any point during the probation period, so why the hunger games during the hiring process itself? That's the whole point of probation periods: because sometimes they get it wrong.

My guess is because of the opportunity cost. If you hire the wrong person you end up firing 3 months later, you likely missed your chance to hire a better candidate (who is unlikely to apply again to work for you) and you will need to restart the whole expensive hiring process again (even a more lightweight process is expensive in employee time, maybe paying recruiters and job listing sites, etc).

Also onboarding is expensive: even an experienced developer who has all the skills you need still has to learn your codebase, processes, business logic etc. while drawing a salary, and all that goes to waste if they leave before they can start becoming a net positive to your company.

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