I remember in the mid-90s going to an interview in Manhattan - pre-Internet. Someone met me and led me to a table and said, "Here's where you're going to take your test." I said, "I don't take tests." She said "Everyone that comes in takes the test". I said, "Well, that's no longer true because I came in and I'm leaving without taking the test"

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progforlyfe 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

While I love the "edgy-ness" of this, I remember doing something like this around 2013 in Manhattan and kind of enjoyed it. They had me go into a room, and gave me a paper with an open ended question: it was something along the lines of, write as much detail as I could about what happens when a user visits a URL in a web browser. E.g. explain as much as I know about TCP, HTTP requests, web servers, etc. I think I touched on how Cookies worked as well.

No AI, no leet code, just old fashioned gauging someone's experience and communication skills.

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intrasight 31 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

My first job interview in 1989 after college:

Them: "Do you know TCP/IP?". Me: "Yes". Them: "you're hired"

Job at the Westinghouse instrumenting nuclear power plants. Simpler times then.

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nzjrs 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I did this as a test in 2018! Compares to the leetcode screens now, it was a dream

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intrasight 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm fine with technical interviews that are "test-like", with questions and answers and discussion and with an engineer who is my technical equal. But this was not that.

	▲	steveBK123 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		The more inhumane the screener the worse the job in my experience. Had one recently that waived me thru and then sent me straight to talking to senior management/stakeholders/etc but literally no one on the team itself. Couldn’t get a straight answer as to what team does, what role is for, real day to day I’d be walking. Only clear thing was scale of architectural mess stemming from a political mess… and not a lot of interest in changing it. They wanted a seasoned tech body to throw into the grinder 12-15hr days to replace the last one. No thanks.

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bmacho 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm confused, I'm probably missing here something.

By 'test' you mean a school-type paper exam, questions and answers? (On unspecified topics.)

Why would you refuse that, when applying to a job?

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hnlmorg 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And I bet you both came away from that interview feeling like you’d dodged a bullet. The interviewer just as much as yourself.

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Horffupolde 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Wow how tough.

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gosub100 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's also for liability. If someone comes in with the intention of suing them, they can point to the test and have objective evidence that the rejection was not based on race or gender. It also allows them to gather data after the employee gets established and succeeds or fails.

Also in the mid 90s, you actually had to be smart to work in this field. There was no stack overflow or reddit to search. And CS programs were nascent.

Companies certainly have taken it too far, but I don't blame them for some usage of standard tests.

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raincole 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I honestly don't know what's so wrong about taking a test for a job, unless the job already requires some kind of certifications/licenses. I, personally, wish that my doctors and lawyers have passed some tests.

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steveBK123 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

More often than not the test is at best tangentially related to the role.

At worst it’s the biggest hardos on the team writing a bunch of brain teasers and gotchas as a hazing ritual.

	▲	sgerenser 35 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Hey, one day the fate of the company is going to hinge on getting an accurate estimate of how many ping pong balls can fit into a 747, and they'll be glad that they asked the right brainteasers.

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aleph_minus_one 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> I honestly don't know what's so wrong about taking a test for a job, unless the job already requires some kind of certifications/licenses.

You already have a degree from some university, and you already worked in software development for quite some time. So it's very annoying to do some test over and over again for every job application.

	▲	raincole 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> You already have a degree from some university, and you already worked in software development for quite some time Yep. Now substitute doctors/lawyers/accountants/civil engineers into the equation and see how you feel about it. Surely they don't take a test for every client, but I'd consider the interview process more like a "workaround" for the lack of standardized tests for software engineers instead of the lack of respect.

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gilrain 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Excellent choice! No amount of money feels as good as claiming the respect you deserve.

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xyzsparetimexyz 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Haha owned