Instead of resumes and endless interviews, candidates could fork a company’s repo (or a prepared test repo), fix a bug or add a small feature, and get hired based on real contribution.
Has anyone tried this? What are the challenges, and would companies actually hire this way? Curious to hear thoughts from both founders and engineers
"Do some free work for us and we'll think about if we want to pay you for more" is a dystopian way of hiring that expects the job market to provide a perfect fit with no investment by the company.
I would wage salary suffers somewhere that is focusing on this type of recruitment, because it's focusing on the non-growth side of the problem. Focus your energy where you can build yourself and others up to find success, especially in hiring.
You might as also opt out of any company telling you to do a take-home challenge or even a mindless leetcode puzzle that you have to solve for free as a wasted proof of work to the employer to hire you for.
Pull request + bounties are much better since you get paid when you solve the issue and comma.ai does this where regular contributors are easily identified, paid and have the chance to be hired.
Many if not most self-respecting professionals do opt out of this kind of process, and this is why companies who use these hiring techniques struggle with the talent they attract.
The first place to look when you aren't getting an incredible, stand-out candidate or two is "who said no to us because of our first impressions online and during initial contacts?"
Teams who reflect on this and think harder than "let's not pay them to work and see if they can do the job" will attract better applicants.
[0] comma.ai/bounties