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Comment by jcims | Hacker News Reader

I see this a lot but it seems fairly naive to expect. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with refusing to do them, but to get paid? Has anyone in the history of the world been paid for an interview take home project? Curious how it was set up and what the rate was. Did you have to file taxes? Was it 1099?

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I’ve done a trial project which was after an initial (much shorter) code test which was non paid. The trial earned me a couple grand and I got a 1099 alongside my w2 at the end of the years since I was hired full time.

Very cool, thank you.

How long was the trial ? can you do it while being employed elsewhere? it could be forbidden by contract to be employed in two places, and you could simply don't have the time for a full time, short, project

Current place does trials. Typically two weeks long and you get paid the same amount as if you worked there.

And yep, many people do have other jobs. Some take vacation time and others do nights + weekends.

I admit that a short trial is the best way to choose a match both for employees and employers, BUT I don't see it working for most people.

I have a family and personal life, I am not going to try out a few employers until I get the right one.

My employment contract also forbids working in other businesses at the same time, vacation or not.

Yes. I had one company pony up $500. I was blown away.

I have. It was a few hundred bucks. There was a tax form, but I don't recall specifically what it was.

Interesting. USA?

Yep.

Yeah, I agree, the logistics are tough and the comment was really just a proxy for...

A company that must rely on a take home project to get a meaningful assessment of your worthiness and competency for a position is a huge red flag.

Any engineer worth their salt can tell from an on sight interview if a candidate is bullshitting about their past accomplishments.

I got paid as a consultant a lot for short term offsite projects -> then they want to hire you. So the random gigs can sometimes be a take home interview. I liked it because if I didn't enjoy working somewhere I could tell them I was busy with my other projects and we'd end on good terms.

It's pretty common in my experience.

Have never seen it in 25 years of working in the industry. Sounds like it's more common than I thought (who's the naive one lol).

I've mainly seen it with small companies.

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