An assignment as a part of the recruitment process

I think this one is an even bigger fraud than phishing by consultants.


Today I received a call from a company for a Java/JEE opening.
As a part of the process they wanted me to write an application for them. This application would have taken 5-6 days of my time. I am very very sure it was a fraud.


How and where should I report this matter so that many unsuspecting candidates get saved?

Anybody else faced the same ?
Anybody completed an assignment ?

nshar1 wrote: Anybody else faced the same ?
Anybody completed an assignment ?

I did face such situation, when I came here. But, it was after first interview, interviewing person, given me certain task , and ask me to complete, but it was not fishing, I've been to their office, he did given me his card, and it was his true effort to judge my skills.
But, I didn't completed it, as I got better offer next day.

While my job search, many times I needed to complete the tests.

My wife got an assignment in java j2ee, they said it can be completed in 2 hours, but she was complaining that it would take a week.

She completed and sent it, but she has got no reply.

Heres what this assignment looked like:

Your task is to create a simple address book web site with three pages.

Your solution must:

· Implement all of the requirements below

· Work with Firefox 2

· Work with Tomcat 6 with JDK 5

· Have a default page set up under the context path /addressbook

You may use any framework you wish as long as the logic is written in Java.

Deliverables are:

· A single JAR containing source artefacts called 'src.jar'

· A single WAR ready for deployment called 'addressbook.war'

· Your CV

We will review the code and successful candidates will be invited to an interview. You may be questioned about design and implementation decisions during their interview.

Good luck!

Requirements

You must create a simple address book with three separate pages.

The first page should allow the user to input up to 50 names and phone numbers at a time.

· The user can input between one and fifty name/numbers at a time.

· Assume that there will never be more than 300 names/numbers in total.

· Each name must be unique and have only one phone number.

· Both the name and the phone number must not be blank.

· The names and phone numbers should be stored in memory. No further persistence is required.

· Names should be validated to be only letters and blanks.

· Phone numbers should be validated to contain only numbers, with an optional + prefix and possibly one pair of brackets with at least one number in them. The phone number must start either with a + or a 0 - if it starts with a +, it cannot be followed by a 0.

These examples are valid phone numbers:

· 02012345567

· +443739182931

· +440(03)203739182

These examples are not valid phone numbers:

· 1322282828 (does not start with a 0 or +)

· 020-10391-20201 (has non-numeric characters)

· +01029818 (starts with + followed by 0)

· +44(0)202839 (4)3932 - more than one pair of brackets

The second page should list all stored numbers and names, sorted alphabetically.

The third page should allow a user to search the address book by phone number (exact number, not substrings) and also by full name or part of a name (case insensitive). It should display all matching names and related phone numbers for the search criteria.

Do let me know if you have any questions on this and I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Who the hell expects this code to be done in 2 hours.. all crap..

But I wont say that its fraud. Sometime it is just our interpretation re completeness. I have been asked few times and have done couple of them.

There are not going to make any money with this simple address site stuff...Can they?

It is not about them making money buddy... when we know the requirement can't be done in a couple of hours it is not good taking up the task. Even if we manage to do it... look at how lame the design would go and i do not think it is going to be fool proof. If they are expecting this assignment for a valid reson timeframe is no way favourable. It looks like waste of two hours for me.. Hey guys this is just my opinion.. not hard coded rule... Please do not take me wrong...

At client's office, I wrote one assignment.
The assignment was worded like SOA architecture etc...

I created table, wrote stored procedure, web service, ASP.NET application and windows application in 1 hr event though it thought they wont like it.

I got the job.

Similar assignment but bit tough at other company...but rejected.

Few other assignments from home which I did not bother to do or even reply.

You will learn something by doing it.

Its your choice what you want. If you don't do, someone else.
After all there are plenty of fish

some companies ask us to send code example of previous companies where we have worked or some ask us to write these kind of programs.
I got a call from a Gaming company and they asked me to write football class and many other question.
Once i got a call from some consultant and he send me 3 question and asked me that if i am able to do it in half hr, he will like to talk to me. and i was able to schedule an interview.

Some times i have spent half a day to write something and still not interview. Its really a pain but part of process.

netacct wrote:But I wont say that its fraud. Sometime it is just our interpretation re completeness. I have been asked few times and have done couple of them.

There are not going to make any money with this simple address site stuff...Can they?

This could become such an easy business model. ..Don't hire any architects,developers etc......misuse desparate unsuspecting job seekers and get the work done by them.

Choose the best developers...Use 20 such developers...discard the work of 10 of them and retain the work of 10 of them. If each developer performs 5 days' work,the business is in effect saving 50 days of effort, which is almost equivalent to paying GBP 20000 to a contractor.



Netacct - Don't you see ..these are full fledged specs which could form the part of any application. These things need few days of effort - they can no way be completed in a couple of hours. In this assignment, no doubt has been left regarding completeness.


When a large organization implements such testing processes it is called innovation. But when a small unknown organization tries this then there is every reason to believe that there could be a fraud.

It is my recommendation to all forum members here to not attempt any assignment especially sitting at home and without meeting anybody from the business.

Even if these people were genuine what is the use of testing by giving an assignment in an unmonitored environment, anybody can do the assignment on anybody's behalf.
And then there is no guarantee for the candidate that even after some great work and spending a week of effort they would land a job.



My Advice - think twice before going thru a non-standard recruitment process lest somebody should make a fool of you.

Remember the quote "First time you fool me, shame on you. Second time you fool me,shame on me".


Regards,
NShar1

Fortunately/Unfortunately I have too much experience in giving interviews in UK in last 6 months and got quite a few offer.

Roughly, I gave around 25 interview and got around 10 offers.
Dealt with many agencies.

Agency/Consultant can be fake but the assignment are generally not.

I have gone through your assignment and I can do it in roughly two hours but in ASP.NET/.Net as I do not know much Java/Tomcat...May not be 100% perfect. They just see how you approach the solution.

My previous comment:
--------------------------
You will learn something by doing it.
Its your choice what you want to do.
If you don't do, someone else. After all there are plenty of fish.

netacct wrote:Fortunately/Unfortunately I have too much experience in giving interviews in UK in last 6 months and got quite a few offer.

Roughly, I gave around 25 interview and got around 10 offers.
Dealt with many agencies.

Agency/Consultant can be fake but the assignment are generally not.

I have gone through your assignment and I can do it in roughly two hours but in ASP.NET/.Net as I do not know much Java/Tomcat...May not be 100% perfect. They just see how you approach the solution.

My previous comment:
--------------------------
You will learn something by doing it.
Its your choice what you want to do.
If you don't do, someone else. After all there are plenty of fish.

In two hours the quality will stink.

As for your comment:

netacct wrote: You will learn something by doing it .

there are many better ways of learning things.

Please don't sell your skills for free.

As for your comment:

netacct wrote: If you don't do, someone else. After all there are plenty of fish .

What makes you think the candidate is the loser here. I say the organization,if genuine(which I am sure it is not), is the bigger looser. No hardcore professional, who values his time, would like to waste too much time on a small unknown organization. In summary,they are missing out on hardcore professionals.

nshar1 wrote:Heres what this assignment looked like:

Your task is to create a simple address book web site with three pages.

Snipped huge task!

The second page should list all stored numbers and names, sorted alphabetically.

The third page should allow a user to search the address book by phone number (exact number, not substrings) and also by full name or part of a name (case insensitive). It should display all matching names and related phone numbers for the search criteria.

Do let me know if you have any questions on this and I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

At our place, this would need seven pre-design meetings, scope discussions, implementation timeline drawing up, six releases into CVS before it sort-of worked but crashed a lot, then immediately superseded with planning for version 2, the projection being to have a fully working solution by version 10 with a view to go-live sometime late 2015.