I had an interview with a YC company last year. I went through -- not exaggerating -- 8 interviews, almost all of which aside from the initial phone screen were an hour or more in length. 2 of them were technical interviews. I had finally gotten to the take home project, naturally a project in Ruby on Rails despite the fact that I haven't written a lick of Ruby in my life. Anyway, I was rejected after this step. To be fair, the take home step was paid, which was nice, but not nearly enough for the time it took me to learn enough Rails to be productive, learn best practices / idiomatic Ruby, and solve the problem they gave me.
Incidentally I've noticed that the Ruby community has this weird thing about insisting on either N years of Ruby experience or requiring interviewees use Ruby during technical interviews or take home projects. Ruby shops were the only places where I've ever been required to use a particular language during an interview. I suppose it's because there's so much magic happening in DSLs like Rails that they assume it'll take too long for even experienced engineers to come up to speed?
Obviously there's risk involved in the hiring process. But I think there's a lot more risk involved in procedurally treating people like garbage.
Anyway, after that ordeal I'm going to insist on being allowed to interview in a language I'm familiar with. They'll judge me on my best work or not at all.
Incidentally I've noticed that the Ruby community has this weird thing about insisting on either N years of Ruby experience or requiring interviewees use Ruby during technical interviews or take home projects. Ruby shops were the only places where I've ever been required to use a particular language during an interview. I suppose it's because there's so much magic happening in DSLs like Rails that they assume it'll take too long for even experienced engineers to come up to speed?
Obviously there's risk involved in the hiring process. But I think there's a lot more risk involved in procedurally treating people like garbage.
Anyway, after that ordeal I'm going to insist on being allowed to interview in a language I'm familiar with. They'll judge me on my best work or not at all.