Pro tip for anyone hiring engineers for remote positions:
Tell the applicant that there “might be” an in person technical assessment, even if you know the process will be 100% remote.
The amount of fake candidates at the moment is insane. The only thing that makes fake candidates self-select out is knowing there’s the possibility that they will be required to be somewhere in person.
Another trick I’ve used is saying “Oh, you live in Flint Michigan?? We happen to have an employee 20 minutes away, would you be open to meeting them?” And then suddenly they drop out of the interview process.
There are a lot of foreign scammers exploiting the WFH trend in the US to the point where it drowns out real candidates. It’s really bad.
In this field, unless you're hiring a junior engineer, you can have a reasonable expectation that a potential candidate will fly out for an interview even if it's a 100% remote job.
If they refuse, well, there's a chance it's just because they can't afford to. The chance is far greater, though, that you dodged a bullet.
Because you can't possibly mean you think candidates are going to fly out for an interview at their own expense.
Traditionally (i.e. pre-Covid) flying out a senior candidate was the standard signal that both sides were taking the process seriously. And for competitive hires, the quality of the hotel and the restaurants they were taken to and the seniority of the people who joined for dinner were all very important indicators.
I've been working remote since 2009 but I kinda miss the old ways.
I maybe once misinterpreted this. I was flattered to be having dinner with the well-regarded co-founder and two other highly-ranked people, but I thought the nice hotel and the fancy restaurant was just their everyday extravagant lifestyle.
Despite being obviously unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the affluent lifestyle conventions, I did get the offer. Had I known that the nice restaurant and VIPs might be specifically to say that they valued me, I would've been more likely to accept the offer.
If the interviewer _expected_ that I would pay for a cross-country (or cross-border) flight myself, that would cast a shadow on the opportunity for me.
Cat boarding is pricey. I couldn't afford it right now, even for a very short trip. I doubt any job would offer to pick up the tab.
For finding my first job I had to pay for a few trips myself (flights and hotel).
There is no world where I would take an interview that I had to fly out and stay at a hotel on my own dime. That would 100% sound like some sort of scam job to me.
Fly out and hotel yes, on own dime, no.
Obviously that’s a financial burden to the company, but minimal compared to the long term costs to the company of an employee.
But positions that I'm applying to? I'm senior enough now that if I can't negotiate a paid-travel interview, clearly I either don't care enough and should cross that opportunity off my list, or it's tempting enough that I don't care.
I would withdraw from the process immediately if I encountered a company so cheap
Wait, is this another norm that corporate America broke in the last couple of decades? Do people now expect to pay to fly to interviews? When did this happen?
But it’s implied that the company would pay for all travel.
The “gotcha” is that the company would also see the departing airport, which exposes foreign candidates posing as US citizens.
i haven't done an interview in a while, it's kinda crazy all the things people are pulling now for interviews on both sides. the process feels really broken.
Is it that they are applying to places where you don’t pair program?
At a large company it is possible for this entire process to draw out for 3-6 months, and you collecting >$100K in in that period.
Also, there's the "fake it till you make it" thinking.
I see plenty of people with poor technical skills claiming to be senior. They seem to be real enough though.
Right now my approach has been focused less on proving my skills, and more on proving I'm a real person. Hah.
