This strategy seems like it would effectively choose the best candidates out of the pool labeled "desperate people".
It mostly categorically excludes anyone who has market desirability and doesn't have to put up with it.
I suppose it could work in parts of the country/world where the supply of engineers vastly exceeds the number of jobs, but it likely fails spectacularly in anything resembling a tech hub.
This strikes me as the stronger/more extreme version of take-home interview projects, which while being good at filtering for quality, also simultaneously selects only for people who are willing/forced to put up with it.
I suppose if your strategy is "hire the best of the desperates", this works for you.
That is the same idea behind take-home tests. "Code this App. It should be 5 hours worth of work. Get back to use when you are done".
I asked a friend who hires for his start-up why they do it. And their answer was exactly what you suggested -- to find desperate people and it also requires minimum investment of their time to start with. The rationale is because in the end they'd have to invest a significant amount of their time during the delivery crunch, that ends up selecting for that trait pretty well.
He spoke as a friend, and will probably never say or admit it in public to the outside. But yeah it is something that happens. I imagine they are not the only ones who came up with that realization.
Yep, I interviewed with a small startup in the ABQ/Denver area and they asked if I could build a project over the week with their platform. "You know, don't spend more than 8 hours or so on it, you can just do it over a weekend and then maybe take some notes on any bad documentation or ideas you have"...
Luckily I had many other interviews to go to, I didn't waste my time on their project. I'm sure a lot of people in Albuquerque would have though.
It mostly categorically excludes anyone who has market desirability and doesn't have to put up with it.
I suppose it could work in parts of the country/world where the supply of engineers vastly exceeds the number of jobs, but it likely fails spectacularly in anything resembling a tech hub.
This strikes me as the stronger/more extreme version of take-home interview projects, which while being good at filtering for quality, also simultaneously selects only for people who are willing/forced to put up with it.
I suppose if your strategy is "hire the best of the desperates", this works for you.