Anastasia Zherebetskaya, Senior HR Recruiter, believes that it is test tasks that can be the key to new opportunities for candidates in their job search. That is why the specialist advises to complete them and even gives relevant arguments why it is important. But what do IT professionals say about this?
Anastasia Zherebetskaya, Senior HR Recruiter, believes that it is test tasks that can be the key to new opportunities for candidates in their job search. That is why the specialist advises to complete them and even gives relevant arguments why it is important. But what do IT professionals say about this?
The recruiter noted why she considers tests important for both the company and the candidate. In particular:
However, Anastasia Zherebetskaya emphasizes that the test task must be fair:
She also emphasizes that you definitely shouldn’t write a test task for a check mark, or just dump it on ChatGPT and think that it will suddenly be OK.
«Well, it won’t be OK, and you’ll ruin your reputation in the company. It’s better to refuse if you’re not ready or don’t want to, and come back when you’re in the resource,» she adds.
In addition, Anastasia supports paid testing, if the project budget allows. «It’s a really great and motivating practice for the candidate!» she says.
Not so long ago I had an interview with a company that also required the completion of a technical test task. So it took (and this is only an approximate time) more than 2 weeks of painstaking work. In the end, they refused me because they found that I had duplicated interfaces in several places and in the graphical part of the apk I had made a view form for myself not as recommended by the MS.
Seriously!??? The technical task is to develop a library, without ui but with all unit tests. That is, the refusal is formal. I took on the test only to not lose skills and to supplement my portfolio.
So, summary: never do a test assignment if the company doesn’t agree to life coding. Or better yet, don’t do a test assignment at all unless you want to add something to your development portfolio, because most often these are companies that throw you away.
There are different «tests». But when I get a «test our site, this is a test task», I refuse, understanding that the company just wants free ad-hoc or smoke testing. And for me, if the TK is more than 4 hours, then it is an indicator of the company.
The + described for the candidate are not them, but an attempt to justify the time spent. The test is the last measure of assessment when there are doubts after all the stages of the interview. The doubts are not in the person, but between several candidates. If your technical specialist can evaluate and take responsibility for the decision without the test, that’s cool. But quite often it is some kind of transitional stage somewhere between the recruiter and the technical specialist, to weed out three dozen other specialists. And it’s very so-so.
I accept the test assignment as a necessity (and sometimes there’s something to add to the portfolio after the test), but how about a test week? Free, of course.
There’s nothing as scary about testing as the lack of feedback.
I usually do it if the product/project is really interesting and I wouldn’t mind joining it if I received an offer. If it’s some kind of hassle, I refuse, even if they pay.
And I agree, testing is a cool way to show off your technical skills, and if you document it and add diagrams/schemes, you can show yourself very well.
