In this short, Halloween bonus episode, I talk about a very scary technical screening process I learned about just a couple of days ago.  I explain why the screening process is scary from the perspective of both the candidate, and the hiring manager.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, The Tiny DevOps Guy.

Jonathan Hall: Hello, and welcome to a special bonus scary episode of the Tiny DevOps Podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Hall.

For many days, I've been wishing for a scary topic to discuss on a Halloween episode of Tiny DevOps. When I received what is probably the scariest job application interview process I have ever seen and I'm going to share it with you.

Ostensibly, this is the technical screening phase of an interview process. In this case, it was for a DevOps engineer role, although I believe that the company uses the same process for all their technical roles, whether it be software engineer or anything else like that. They do use an online testing platform, I won't mention the name of the platform, or the name of the company that does this, I don't want to get anybody in trouble.

If you created this, and you're watching, take this to heart, and hopefully change it. If you're watching the video, I'm going to show you some of the document; it was a three-page PDF document that was sent to me that I want to share. I'll be reading the highlights the most interesting or scary parts. Let's just dive in and see what we have here.

The document starts out innocently enough, we are excited to move forward to the next round of interview process, which is some tests. Every candidate does these tests are expected to et cetera. In order to provide a secure testing environment, your test area must meet the following requirements. This is where it starts to get a little bit interesting.

The first couple ones aren't bad. Sufficient lighting makes sense. Quiet-free from any activity other than testing. You don't want your children running around in the background, I guess you shouldn't do this from a café you should be able to concentrate, make sense. It must also be clutter-free and contain only the approved equipment described in this guide. It's a little bit strange. I mean, who really cares if your desk is cluttered, right? But okay, we'll go with it. During your tests, you must be in compliance with the testing process. Okay, sure, and follow instructions of the proctor, makes sense.

You'll be asked for photo identification before the test start. That's not bad, I guess. You don't want somebody to someone else to do the test for you. You don't want to hire some test taker, I guess. We move on down the list a little farther, it starts to get a little bit more interesting. The proctor watches you take the test online using webcams and screen-sharing technology. You will be sharing your test screen with a proctor through Zoom during the tests.

It seems a little bit heavy-handed to me. Why do you care? Why would anybody want to watch your screen while you're taking a test? They're not going to watch your screen while you're doing your job, I hope. If they are you shouldn't work there. It's a little bit strange. Then it says you'll be asked to show your task manager to the proctor through screenshare to make sure there are no background applications running on your computer. This is where the red flags and the bells really started to go up in my head.

First, many people don't have a task manager at their disposal. If you're not using Windows, then that's irrelevant to you. I use a Linux desktop, so this wouldn't even work for me. If you use Mac, it doesn't work either. All this ignoring the fact that it actually explicitly says, "Mac is supported later on," but whatever.

Further, if you're smart enough, you can easily run a background application that won't show up in a task manager. It's not that difficult. You can google how to do it, you can learn to put almost any program in the background, it doesn't show up in the Task Manager. You also could easily open up a fake task manager if you want to do this. This doesn't solve any problem anyway and the problem we're trying to solve is a non-problem, kind of ridiculous but let's keep going. Let's not dwell too long on this one.

You'll only be allowed to use your personal computer not a work computer. I have no idea why this would be relevant, or why it's mentioned but it's in there. Then goes on to say in more detail, "The following is not permitted during your test. You're not allowed to access personal belongings, materials, or devices." That means your mobile phone or a notebook, "external monitors, projector screens, recording devices, or other electronic devices other than your computer are not permitted in the testing area."

I don't exactly understand that either. The point is they don't want you to have a second device that you're reading answers off of but the way it goes into saying that is awkward. No other individuals are allowed in the testing area. That's so someone can't pass you answers. That doesn't seem reasonable to me either. Especially if you're working from home and you share a living room with someone else.

Then really weird one: eating, drinking, and smoking are not permitted. Why would you care if I have a glass of water on my desk while I'm taking a test or some chips or whatever, headphones, or a piece that blocks any portion of the face are not permitted, leaving the testing area is not permitted. So, I can't even go to the bathroom during this test? Come on.

Turn off your camera. Turning off your camera anytime during the test session is not permitted. They really want to watch you closely. Failure to comply with the program agreement or proctor instructions or the testing environment requirements may result in suspension of the tests. Wow. That's really the meat of it. Beyond there, it just goes into the consequences for violating any of the above rules, which include basically that you won't get the job or you may not get the job or depending on the quote, severity of the violation and these tests are expected to take 60 to 120 minutes. It's not an unreasonable amount of time necessarily to not go to the bathroom, but it's just overbearing.

It does go into the technical requirements, you're expected to have Windows 10, Windows 8.1, for Mac OS 10 point 13 or above. Explicitly allows Mac OS but then also requires you to open your task manager. I think that's a little bit strange, obviously. Don't take the test.

These are just overly strongly worded. It says don't use a VPN, I'm sure that's just for technical reasons is not because they expect you to be cheating over VPN. It requires a minimum display resolution of 1024 by 768, in 16-bit color. That's easily met today, but it's still a strange thing to put in your list of requirements and then it says you need the newest versions of Microsoft Edge, Safari, Chrome, or Firefox internet connection, obviously.

The strange one on this list is that it says tethering to a mobile hotspot is explicitly prohibited. What the hell? Who cares if you're using a mobile hotspot or not and what difference could it possibly make in the security or accuracy of the test? It's just nonsense.

That's enough of this ridiculous document. Maybe you can talk a little bit about why I think it's so ridiculous. I think some of the things are obvious why it's ridiculous. Obviously, the biggest problem with this test is the utter lack of faith it puts in a candidate. If I'm applying for a job, and the hiring manager or the recruiter has this little faith in me, I don't want to work at that company. If you don't trust me enough to take a test, honestly, then you don't trust me enough to work honestly.

That's the big, big red flag there, I just would run away from a company immediately that offered, that asked me to go through this process. There's absolutely no way I would do this unless I was desperate for to pay my bills. Of course, if you're in that situation, if you need any job, you can get to pay your bills, then do what you must. Unless you're in dire straits like that, never work for a company that asked you to do this. Never, it's not worth it.

Now, let's move on to the next big problem, which is closely related and that is that this doesn't test anything related to what you'll be doing on the job in the first place. Now, I don't know the content of the tests that would be done because I haven't taken these tests, I just saw this document. Let's assume for a moment that it even is a perfectly valid and reasonable test.

It probably isn't but let's assume that it is. If you're it actually accurately tests, the types of things you'll be doing on the job, your programming, or your engineering skills. Every programmer and every engineer has access to Google, and they have access to personal devices, and I have access to the toilet. All of these things you use regularly on a day-to-day basis when you're working in the capacity of this role.

Building a testing strategy or environment that puts you in this artificial scenario where you don't have access to the internet, or to the toilet for goodness sake, is not an accurate test in the first place. Even if the test by itself was accurate, this process completely invalidates any accuracy that the test might have provided in the first place.

It's completely disrespectful to the job candidate. That's the big, big, big red flag that everybody every job candidate should run away from. If you're the employer, if you're the one building this test, you should also be scared because it's not a valid test. You're not testing people's actual abilities. When you hire an engineer, you want an engineer who can solve your problems.

Do you want an engineer that can solve your problems when the internet isn't working? Maybe that would be nice, but that's not what you're hiring them for. You're hiring somebody who can solve your problems and can build your projects. You want them to use Google to do that; you want them to take notes and to ask friends and ask colleagues, you want those things because that makes the job done better and faster and is what you want. This test is completely 100% invalid from an actual testing capability standpoint. It's also completely disrespectful to the job candidates, so avoid this test. If you ever see a test like this, run away, whether you're the candidate or the employer, this is an absolutely terrible test. It is super scary. Have a happy Halloween.

If you're thinking of hiring your first DevOps engineer soon, and you would like to know how to avoid problems like the one I just described today. You might be interested in my upcoming book, How To Hire Your First DevOps Engineer. Go to jhall.io/hiringbook. There you can subscribe to be notified as the book becomes available to get pre-release information and maybe even some discounts before the book comes out.

This episode is copyright 21 by Jonathan Hall. All rights reserved. Find me online@jhall.io.

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