Take-home exercises for candidates — friend or foe?

Should you ask candidates to do ‘homework’ in an interview process?
Spoiler alert, here at Sqreen, we do. But not all of the time.

Whether you call it a technical test, a coding challenge, a use case or a take-home exercise, many companies rely upon some form of ‘work done outside of the interview room’ to assess candidates.

But is this step absolutely necessary? Do candidates love or hate them? And should you include one in your process?

Why do hiring processes exist?

If we start by taking a step back, let’s look at the why of a hiring process.

At Sqreen our hiring process exists to allow us to gather enough information to enthusiastically decide to work with someone. And, just as importantly, for a candidate to enthusiastically decide if Sqreen is the right place for them.

That’s the why.

What information do we need?

Then we have the what.

At Sqreen when we think about hiring we ask ourselves this:

What information do I need, that I don’t already have in order to make this decision?

We then turn this into our assessment grids like this one below for our front end positions:

Yes, our assessment grids are now built into our Applicant Tracking System, Lever, and are fancier!

And also:

What can I tell the candidate about Sqreen, who we are and the way we work that will help them decide to work with us?

We turn this into our Sqreen sell.

How do I get the information I need?

Then we get to the how.

There is no one single way to find out if a candidate can do XYZ. Perhaps recruitment (and life!) would be a lot simpler if there were.

Ideally, to figure out if someone can do something we should give them the opportunity to try, and then observe them while they do it.

Thibaud does his best engineering work with an audience…or not

Hiring processes attempt to re-create work situations in as close as possible to real life conditions. But as we know, interviews aren’t real life. There’s limited context, low product knowledge and an added element of pressure. Job interviews tend to favour those who perform well off-the-cuff and penalise unnecessarily those who don’t.

And so, to compensate for this interview-reality gap we sometimes turn to a take-home exercise.

In defense of the take-home exercise

Take-home exercises can be very useful for demonstrating skills that require thought, analysis or could benefit from a draft round followed by a polished version.

They also allow candidates to choose the playing field, to complete the exercise in a comfortable environment, at the time of day they prefer and to use their own tools.

An example of a comfortable environment :)

The limitations of the take-home exercise

Take home exercises can unfairly penalise those who are currently employed, and those with family or a multitude of other commitments.

Also, a candidate’s timeline and tolerance for multiple steps in a hiring process can play a big part in deciding to include a take-home exercise or not. For example, if we meet a candidate who is already at offer stage with two other companies we might need to accelerate our process significantly.

So… do you use technical tests at Sqreen?

The short answer is yes.

We try to mitigate the negative side effects by time-boxing the exercise to two hours (vs. something that takes an entire weekend day). We also assess our candidate’s willingness to complete a technical test upfront. Reactions can range from “Sure I love them!” To: “I’ve done six this week so NOPE.”

We’re also intentional and transparent about what we’re looking for in a take-home test, so candidates can allocate time and energy accordingly.

The long answer is, if there is another way to get the information we are seeking in the take-home test, or if insisting on this step means losing a candidate, then we skip it.

Consistency

But hang on, what do you mean you don’t have the same process for every candidate? How is that fair or objective or moving you towards diversity?

I find that sometimes a rigid adherence to a process for the sake of a process let’s us forget the ‘why’ behind it. The technical test is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

If we can get the information from another source (a recent Github project, a strong recommendation from a trusted source etc.) then we can confidently move ahead without the take-home test. The assessment grid remains the same, the competencies we test for are consistent — only the ‘how’ changes.

Fellow recruiters, do you use take-home exercises? Why or why not? Candidates, do you love or hate them?

If you like the way we do things at Sqreen, feel free to get in touch!