Nice way of hiring but is it really worth it to give the public a trip to Maui (kinda expensive these days)

Does it really reveal that much talent to make it worth the money?

Just curious

tgsovlerkhgsel 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The prizes (Maui trip, second/third prizes, swag kits, shipping for the swag kits) probably cost around $20k in total.

Assuming an engineer costs $200k/year, 200 effective working days per year, that's 1k/day. Developing the contest (from the idea to building the rules to building the site to playtesting) likely cost more than 20 eng-days, making it the biggest cost.

Hiring is expensive. If it takes 30 minutes to screen one candidate for suitability for the "real" interview and 5h to do a "real" interview (including evaluation etc.), 5 screenings for one interview-worthy candidate and 5 interviews for one hire (I suspect the real factors might be closer to 10), that's 12.5h of screening and 25h of interviewing per hire.

	▲	boutell 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sure, hiring is expensive, but firing is really expensive! I salute your efforts to get it right on the first try.

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armandhammer10 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's less about the money. It's about giving people a chance to do something fun / show off their skills and get rewarded for it.

Plus, Hawaii is awesome.

	▲	dr_kiszonka 14 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I think it is a fun contest! As for recruitment, it suggests to me you are looking for people with no kids, and possibly young people.
	▲	nylonstrung 9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Appreciate this, very cool of you to do that

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AndrewKemendo 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Way less than you would pay for a recruiter

they usually ask for a non trivial percentage of the first year salary