That essentially makes hiring a serial process for the candidate. All you are selecting for is people who really really want to work for you.
I see software as a form of literacy. How do people hire writers?
Another thing I have realized, all the jobs valued php and bit SQL more as basic knowledge for web dev than any nodeJS/MongoDB even if it's just front end, they want some back end understanding. Had some nodeJS things that generated all the front end via express , including chat module and sign up/log in flow, but either it was overlooked or not valued, any 5 minute to do list or crud with anything front end JS seemed more important. I suppose few dare to touch the node ecosystem and nosql databases.
And the most recent one asked me if I can do their front end in react(really overkill, no need), told them I'll do it in vanilla JS, but nope, he insisted on react and that was the end of the story. Was for a MVP and would be the sole dev for a while.
I have found in general that speaking to hr is not useful, if you get past that and a senior dev (not a manager or product owner) interviews me, it would be a good experience.
On top of that, taking on paid outside work in the same field could also be contrary to the candidate's contract with their existing employer[*].
[*] This no doubt depends on the employer and the jurisdiction.
The vast majority of people spend way more than that.
I think tech companies are forgetting that firing people is an option.
That said I’ve also seen companies pay contractors a month’s severance for no reason whatsoever too. A lot of places don’t seem to understand what they’re doing.
I pretty much refuse coding exercises for contract work since it's so easy to get rid of me if you don't like it, and anyway as a contractor you get paid per hour so they should pay me for it. But sometimes there comes a place you really want to work for and they happen to have the coding exercise...
Life is not just about work.
Really really wanting to work there is a good start. If they can also finish the tasks in a competent way it would seem they are perfect candidates. What is the problem?
That's great. And if I apply to one of those I really need to expect that.
Now the company can be in this great position by being a world leading engineering organisation that is growing exponentially. Google, Facebook et al a few years back perhaps.
But alternatively, any $RANDOMCOMPANY can think it is in this position not by attracting the best applicants globally, but by only hiring 3 people a year. The company still will get more high quality applicants than it can hire, so it needs to whittle down.
But from the applicant side, applying to Google looks very different than applying to $RANDOMCOMPANY and they will drop in preference order.
Taken to its logical extreme, each candidate will choose one company only to apply to based on the existing job pool and their expectations of getting the job. That seems silly.