Whilst hiring for perm staff is a more arduous process than contractors, there's still loads of candidates who are forced into a code exam that the customer hosts.
Here's my thoughts on the cost/benefit analysis:
| Short Term Cost |
Short Term Benefits |
| Developer(s) from the company need to book out 2.5 hours for every candidate |
Developer(s) of the company are able to give a code exam that is with their codebase |
| The employer may feel obliged to give someone a fair shake even if the interview is not going well for any reason but still spend this 2.5hrs) |
A developer may prefer the face to face interview to get to know the client and who they'll be working with; maybe better candidate selection by proxy) |
| Candidate selection is slower as you need these 2 developers to be booking in these interviews in between other meetings and engagements, and the time has to work for the candidate too. |
It might be quicker for someone to explain a few basic programming things rather than set hard DS&A questions in interviewing platforms) |
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The developer may have completed a very similar assessment e.g. C# which is very similar to the language used. |
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Feedback to the candidate will be quicker as it could be delivered in this assessment. |
| Long Term Cost |
Long Term Benefits |
| Candidate selection is limited as the developer does not wish to travel (C-19, 1000 miles away or even just simply does not wish to go through a 3 or 4 step process) |
You can be assured you have made a good decision should a candidate somehow fraudulently did this code quiz (even though the platforms do have this protection) |
| If you hire 3 developers a quarter and you for example have a candidate selection process, you'd have taken 2 developers out from day to day BAU (napkin math: 3 * 5 candidates * 2.5hrs incl prep. * 2 devs = 37.5hrs, an entire workweek a quarter) |
You have more time interviewing the developer and understanding their thinking (e.g. the solution is worth nothing; the execution or showing an understanding of solving a problem is worth more) |
| Developers who are doing candidate code reviews actually break focus in the day |
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| The questions asked in the interview take ages to create and also are questions most would possibly Google, therefore you end up with the problem where the test is in C# but the work is Wordpress |
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| The code exam could be flawed in some way, in comparison to keeping it modern and fresh on interviewing platforms. |
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Whilst hiring for perm staff is a more arduous process than contractors, there's still loads of candidates who are forced into a code exam that the customer hosts.
Here's my thoughts on the cost/benefit analysis: