I get many emails from recruiters but ignore them because I simply don't know what to expect from interviews - not really interested in being asked to solve someones' pet algorithm on a white board. I wish there was a list of companies who do project based interviews where they ask you to work on a small but challenging project related to the actual work you'll be doing, and then bring you to an interview to present it and defend it in front of your potential future colleagues.
I'm genuinely curious why engineers would prefer to work on a project for an interview? To be tasked by multiple companies (presumably by as many as you are applying to) to spend 4-8 hours doing unpaid work on a project which is probably inane and most off all - completely useless for everyone involved.
If I've got 8 hours to spend I'd much rather contribute it to something that someone else will actually benefit from.
Because as much as spending 4 hours doing unpaid work may seem to suck. (Which let's face it, I do at least 8 hours of unpaid development a week on side projects.) It's a better and more accurate test of your abilities than doing what can only be compared to that of a trivia based game show.
Option A) Spend anywhere from 2 to 12 hours interviewing for a position with little to no break. While being asked to solve problems, that may very well actually be unsolvable, under the pressure of rotating team of people. And for bonus if you suffer from any sort of test taking anxiety in school you'll get to feel the blood drain from your prefrontal cortex, as your fight or flight instincts kick just enough to make sure that doing high cognitive work like programming is next to impossible.
Option B) Spend a few hours solving a hopefully interesting programming challenge at home where you're probably not wearing pants.
Yah, I've been interviewing a little lately, and while I understand the need to see if the person can code, white-boarding isn't really it. I've been doing this long enough that i've been the guy on the other end of the table more often than not.
Anyway, over the past couple years I've steadily moved into the take home test camp. These can be tweaked such that its apparent if someone tried to google an answer and use it.
But that said, I'm not sure I want to be implementing a "challenging" project for a job that I might never get. How much time do you think someone should be expected to put into a project for a job they might not get. How about if they are interviewing at a half dozen places?
