As a senior level engineer who's currently job searching, this trend is really burning me out right now. I'm at the point in my career where I don't want to work for just any random company (I've already worked for NASA and done client work for Young Money, Carrie Underwood, UFC and more). All of the positions I'm applying for are highly competitive. My resume performs well; I get interviews at 70-80% of the companies I apply to. And I usually have 3-4 interviews that go well. Then I get to the final stage, unpaid take home projects that last anywhere from a few hours to a week. Many of those go well too; I get feedback from companies saying they're really impressed by my work and that they'll talk to their team and get back to me with an offer. And then a few days later I get an email saying that they think I'm a really talented candidate but that they're moving forward with someone else. Over the last month, I've been working 50 hour weeks, unpaid, on code that's looked at once and then never seen again. It's really demotivating and exhausting.
I think there are a couple of solutions to this;
1) Instead of unpaid sample projects, companies could offer paid trial periods where you work on real problems and get paid, with the option to continue as a full time employee after the trial.
2) Instead of doing tens of sample projects or exercises, one for each company you apply to, you could be evaluated one time by a third party and that evaluation could substitute for technical interviews done by the companies themselves. It would save companies the cost of evaluating candidates projects, and it would save candidates the cost of proving themselves time and time again. The evaluation could potentially be handled by different entities; tech recruiters, certification bodies, or standardized tests. This may be what companies like HackerRank are attempting, but they don't really seem to follow through with job offers.
As it is, I'm trying to find a solution to my own job search. If anyone has any recommendations on how to find a job without burning out, I'd love to hear them.
I think there are a couple of solutions to this; 1) Instead of unpaid sample projects, companies could offer paid trial periods where you work on real problems and get paid, with the option to continue as a full time employee after the trial. 2) Instead of doing tens of sample projects or exercises, one for each company you apply to, you could be evaluated one time by a third party and that evaluation could substitute for technical interviews done by the companies themselves. It would save companies the cost of evaluating candidates projects, and it would save candidates the cost of proving themselves time and time again. The evaluation could potentially be handled by different entities; tech recruiters, certification bodies, or standardized tests. This may be what companies like HackerRank are attempting, but they don't really seem to follow through with job offers.
As it is, I'm trying to find a solution to my own job search. If anyone has any recommendations on how to find a job without burning out, I'd love to hear them.