
Ask HN: Would You Accept a Trial/Exploratory Week Before Joining a Company? - FrankZappa42
Survey form: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goo.gl&#x2F;forms&#x2F;6Sf7CqZyRBd9w96V2
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slap_shot
No. Good candidates don't want or need this. Like every other job-related
product or service, this is optimizing for the employer, not the employee.

It's a engineer's market right now. Find ways to make it easier for them.

Last year I piloted a project where I paid engineers ~$375 for 4 or 5 hours to
work through code with me. By the end of it, if they were an engineer I would
work with, I would recommend them to a select group of companies that I felt
were the best places to work (great product, team, environment). The condition
was that when I referred an engineer, they must be considered to have already
passed the technical interview. At that point, they were simply there to see
if they were a cultural fit and talk tech. Maybe some light technical
questions, no white boarding or trivia.

This afforded the candidates the ability to fast track to the final round of
an interview with 5-6 companies. And they got paid to do it.

It worked remarkably well, all parties loved, and it to this day I still get
emails from companies and candidates asking if I'm still doing it. Alas, I a
full-time founder and cannot do that anymore.

But should anyone want to take my idea, I can assure there is a demand for it,
and it pays incredibly well.

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mrfusion
That’s a really amazing idea. I wish there were companies that did this. How
did you make money with it?

It would be awesome as a candidate to take on five hour project and be able to
apply anywhere and skip the technical interviews.

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slap_shot
The hiring company pays a referral fee, typically a percentage of the hiree's
salary.

To do this, though, companies have to trust you and your referrals (send one
bad engineer and it can be game over). You also have to ensure the companies
don't waste the candidate's time or put them through another full round of
interviews. This wasn't really a problem because there's such a demand for
engineers and I managed the hiring process very closely.

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butteredpopcorn
If this is your idea: This is a weird, bad deal for the applicant. Only
desperate people will put up with the hassle and the insult. I predict you
will be shocked when these desperate candidates are not as good as you wanted.
Please do not take advantage of vulnerability any more than the world already
is.

If someone’s suggesting it to you: You deserve better.

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raviojha
Am I getting this wrong, or did everyone else in thread got it wrong? Is the
question more from candidate point of view, whether to join a company if you
enjoy working for the trial period?

If my assumption is correct, the candidate will fall in this situation if they
didn't already clear up the expectations, roles and responsibility
before/during the interview. A friend of mine recently found himself in a
situation where they decided to quit after working for less than 2 weeks at an
early stage startup. He ended up quitting by the end of the month.

I believe it's a shared responsibility to clear up such things before making
an offer (from company's POV) or accepting an offer (from candidate's POV).
This situation doesn't help either party.

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blastbeat
Personally no, because that's what the 6 month trial period is for in Germany.
On the other hand, I rejected offers which required this, and I know quite a
few stories from friends where it was required too. In the end it depends on
how bad you want/need the job.

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sethammons
If I were unemployed, probably. If I were employed, absolutely not: I'm not
going to violate my employment contract nor risk vacation time. Also, top
performers are rarely unemployed.

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NonEUCitizen
Yes, if it comes with a signing bonus equivalent to 6 months' pay, wired to my
bank account before the first day of the 1-week trial. The 1-week trial itself
also has to be paid.

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b_t_s
This feels like something that is only remotely feasible for contractors or
recent grads living with their parents. The interview process is enough of a
logistical PITA for most of us. Extending it to a week is comically stupid.
Besides, we already have one week trial periods in the USA. It's called at
will employment. It would be nice to say take a month and try out 4 companies
before making a move, but I can't see how that would ever work for your
average senior dev with a job, kids, and a mortgage payment.

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phonebanshee
The American phrase for this is contract-to-hire. You hire someone on a short-
term hourly basis, with the understanding that this is a trial period that can
be easily terminated by either side.

The huge downside for the employer is that you're never going to hire away
anyone from another company, so you're pretty much cutting out anyone who
isn't very junior.

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asdfajlkj
Been asked before. Said no immediately. Got the job.

If they ask that means you are good enough for the job.

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alexgmcm
How are people supposed to do this unless they are unemployed?

Don't probation periods already exist?

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FrankZappa42
Perhaps take some time off from current job?

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detaro
PTO is scarce enough for most people to make that a fairly unattractive
offering. Not even getting into things like that many are required to report
paid work for others to their employers etc.

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marssaxman
Of course not. Where would I get the week? I'd have to burn vacation time. I'm
not going to come join your company unless I really want to work with you.

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vkaku
I certainly would. It's often about discovering the actual people in the
company more than advertised culture or engineering skills.

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perfunctory
If it is paid, absolutely.

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FrankZappa42
-

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sethammons
Targeting users to answer the survey pollutes it's results.

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FrankZappa42
Removing my comment, just curious how does it pollute the results? it’s my
first time launching a survey :)

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sethammons
It looks like: "I like that answer, please bias my survey findings!" Might
have been n=1 and you might have asked the same of someone who answered
different. Ideally you get random sampling to respond.

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FrankZappa42
thank you!

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hhs
This would be an interesting study to do, prospectively. I'd be interested in
collecting measures for both sides. By the way, some universities do this
during "shopping week".

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toomuchtodo
Absolutely not worth the time.

