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Comment by brazzy | Hacker News Reader

as soon as you ask me to spend a week--even a day--on some audition project, forget it.

Note that he proposes the audition project to be "a regular consulting gig with an hourly rate", spent on-site doing real work.

You don't have time to earn money doing real work? Then why are you applying?

And even for a "truly good" professional who has his pick of a dozen offers, I could see this as a good idea, since they have just as much reason to be interested in the company's "real" work environment than the company has to be interested in their "real" work performance.

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You don't have time to earn money doing real work? Then why are you applying?

False dichotomy. I'm already earning money doing real work. I'm not applying so that you can cut into my family time. I'm applying because I want work that's more interesting or more money or who knows what. If you really want to know, ask, instead of assuming ;)

EDIT: Clarifying the "more interesting work" expression.

I'm applying because I want work that's more interesting or more money or who knows what.

Apart from the money, such a "audition project" could help you a great deal in deciding whether this company actually meets your expectations.

You're of course right in that it will be difficult to do it like that for someone who already has a fulltime job.

For many people, their current job might not allow this (this is true especially for those who are on visas). Also, many people might not want their current employers to know about their job search, and using a week of their vacation time for an audition project with uncertain reward, is just not practical for them.

I think the audition project is a good idea for people who don't have restrictions like the above, but should not be used to reject those for whom it doesn't make sense.

My only real qualm with this is whether to bill them my consulting rate or to put up with something well below the salary I would expect for ongoing stuff.

But if it's short and interesting, it usually falls into "I don't care" and stays there.

You may all ready have a job and they do tend to get a bit upset if you take a week off to work for another company.

Indeed, at many companies this kind of moonlighting is expressly forbidden.

Certainly breaks a number of UK employment laws and is Gross misconduct.

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