

Spare me your puny little Coding Contest, earthling - adrianscott
http://www.adrianscott.org/spare-me-your-puny-little-coding-contest-eart

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amykhar
I view them as sort of a password to get past a gate-keeper. I tried posting
job ads without puzzles in many places. I was always inundated with emails
from a) recruiters b) people on unemployment who were required to apply for x
number of jobs c) foreign candidates wanting visas d) others who didn't read
the ad criteria.

Our last hiring round, I placed an ad on craig's list with no return email
address. The only way to apply for the job was to solve a trivial programming
problem. Solving the problem gave you the email address to send your portfolio
to. I got no recruiter responses. I did get responses from people across the
country who didn't want the job, but had fun with the puzzle. Those weren't a
waste of time for me because I generally enjoy talking to fellow developers.

Puzzles may be silly. But, they can also be a lighthearted way to do a first
screening of potential candidates. And, I honestly feel better about having
people program something I can't use for financial gain - that way I don't
feel I'm taking advantage of people that I have not yet hired or paid.

~~~
famousactress
I think this is the opposite reason to do them. I don't know anyone looking
for developers who really needs a gatekeeper. "I get lots of great candidates
but it's so hard to find their resumes in this pile of recruiter emails!" ..
is not the problem.

The upside to the puzzles as I can see it is that it may signal that the
company is development focused, or even run by developers (attractive to
developers), and that it might actually sort of trick people into applying who
wouldn't have otherwise. There are legions of folks that are 'comfortable'
where they're at but might be enticed into solving a puzzle, and might further
take a meeting and see if there's something to this new opportunity.

That's the value I see, anyways. That said, I've not gone this route.

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marlek
If you took your time to go through scribd's ('the fruity game' authors) blog
and info you would see that they are a company that looks for people exactly
opposite from you. They race go carts inside the offices, challenge other
people in simple AI programming and do a lot of stuff that has nothing to do
with coding, deploying or 'helping to solve real problems'. They do it in free
time because it's fun, and they want similar people around the office. And
this is probably the case for most of the companies that have similar ways of
attracting employees

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astrodust
Sometimes you need to do things simply to exercise yourself.

Would you rag on joggers because for all their running they always end up back
in the same place?

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ssebro
I agree - at first it was novel and interesting that some companies would give
you a puzzle to solve. As I've gotten older, and as my time has increased in
value, I'm not as interested in solving a problem just because someone gives
it to me. I like to create value, not merely create code.

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zem
for many people it's a game. they have no desire to join scribd, they just
want to compete in a fun contest against other programmers. if you don't want
to play, don't, but don't sneer at the people who do want to.

