Have you ever had to do homework as part of a job application? I ask because in my experience, the companies asking for these tend to be a bit shady.
For instance, one company asked me to do this extract/load to Spark and analyze data thing. I did it because their e-mail said that they would reply to each individual with feedback. Guess what? 3 weeks later I get a canned response!
Another job assignment took me 4 days but landed me an interview that went really well and gave me a chance to talk about my code one-on-one with a real profession (I consider myself a newish developer). After the second interview, I'm told I almost definitely got the job and that the position pays a whopping $15/hour in NYC.
Right now if you offered me coding work for $15/hour, I would probably take it and be quite happy for a while...but if you put me through the wringer like that, make me explain all 500 lines of codes for 3 1/2 hours after I spent the entire work-week bootstrapping your next project, I expect you to at least negotiate around the minimum salary I wrote about on my my resume! And if you're going to flat-out reject me, that's fine but at least offer me feedback on my application or code!
I really enjoyed doing the coding exercises, it forced me to consider things I wouldn't think about when coding for myself. But I have to say, the whole thing is making me a little wary of companies that do this. I'm not saying I should have a job but a little reciprocity and honesty goes a long way.
Yes, for example, I spent two days implementing a typeahead search results system for Etsy, including writing my own ingestion pipeline, map-reduce framework, index builder, and request processor. Of course Etsy already had their own stuff, this was just a toy done in Java. It was fun. Got offered the job but didn't take it for personal reasons that cropped up concurrent w/ the interview process.
"I spent two days implementing a typeahead search results system for Etsy, including writing my own ingestion pipeline, map-reduce framework, index builder, and request processor."
Seriously? You did all of that? For a take-home interview problem?? Oy. This is why companies get away with this crap...
I'm going to say something harsh, but you really need to hear it: you failed at your number one responsibilty. It doesn't matter that you enjoyed the project or got the job. You need to maintain some level of professional self-respect in these situations. Professionals don't give away their time for free.
If Etsy asked you to do this, they were being abusive. If you did it because you enjoyed it, you signaled to them that you're desperate for the job, not very busy with other interviews, or willing to do work for very little in return. Or some combination thereof. None of these are great signals to send when you want to be treated with respect, and catastrophic signals to send when it's time to negotiate salary. Your time is not worthless.
If you're capable of developing software, being offered $15/hr /even without any interview at all/ is just broken. This is not about the interview process, that's just an old fashioned screwjob. I'm really confused by your situation. What are your qualifications and seriously what kind of compensation are you receiving right now if you are employed? If you want to talk, email me at my username at gmail.
To put things into perspective, I made $30/hr 23 YEARS AGO as a summer intern (coding) in my hometown city's IT department. In an "inland" state. Not even at a monied startup. This was before the dotcom boom, and it was a "government job", which never pay as well as private work.
I'm trying to be a fullstack developer and I'm not working at the moment. I also haven't been sending out a ton of applications (about 6 or 7 so far) because I'm enjoying the ability to work freely.
Anyways, check your inbox I'll send you some more details. I'd love to hear your take.
Alright it sounds like you're applying for higher caliber workplaces, whereas I'm operating somewhere around the junior/mid-level. My feeling is that the article rings more true the lower you are in the foodchain.
I'm guessing Etsy didn't offer you $15/hour, right? :)
People in "offshored-to countries" are making ~$15USD/hr ... if you are making this anywhere in the primary market for doing code work, you're getting massively^3 underpaid ... nevermind NYC
Frankly you have no idea about wages in the world outside of your country. $15/h is ok for dev in my country, maybe not the most experienced one but still ok. And WE are offshoring a lot of the programming jobs to countries with much worse pay.
They said it would be like that for 3 months and if they were satisfied they would make me an offer...but they would not say what the salary range was!
I almost took it just to get my foot in the door but decided I could do better with 3 months of polishing up my portfolio.
For instance, one company asked me to do this extract/load to Spark and analyze data thing. I did it because their e-mail said that they would reply to each individual with feedback. Guess what? 3 weeks later I get a canned response!
Another job assignment took me 4 days but landed me an interview that went really well and gave me a chance to talk about my code one-on-one with a real profession (I consider myself a newish developer). After the second interview, I'm told I almost definitely got the job and that the position pays a whopping $15/hour in NYC.
Right now if you offered me coding work for $15/hour, I would probably take it and be quite happy for a while...but if you put me through the wringer like that, make me explain all 500 lines of codes for 3 1/2 hours after I spent the entire work-week bootstrapping your next project, I expect you to at least negotiate around the minimum salary I wrote about on my my resume! And if you're going to flat-out reject me, that's fine but at least offer me feedback on my application or code!
I really enjoyed doing the coding exercises, it forced me to consider things I wouldn't think about when coding for myself. But I have to say, the whole thing is making me a little wary of companies that do this. I'm not saying I should have a job but a little reciprocity and honesty goes a long way.
PS: I'm a contrarian so I upvoted your rant.