One of my friend just told me that: he went to a small shop for an interview. They asked him to do a spreadsheet work there for 2 hours. After it is done, they send him some “homework” to do over the weekend. — no mention of offer whatsoever. As if this is all the interview process. They ask him to send the programs back to them after the weekend. Is it normal or sounds like a ripoff?
I’ve seen this done a few times. Legit and non-legit. I have seen a place do this to literally get free work done, without paying anyone.
’ There is almost always a spreadsheet analysis component to recruiting for any equity research position. I think it unlikely that any firm would use this process to get free labor; that just wouldn’t be worth the employer’s time.
Include a copyright notice on your submission.
just lock it and tell them the password costs a job offer
Errr… sounds pretty sketchy. What sort of company will publish research written by random interviewees?
no they were not publishing anything. that would be messed up. it was more of a valuation analysis / research background freebie
The employer probably just wants to test the candidate’s competencies with modeling and spreadsheets. This is pretty normal. I’ve had to do case studies and stock presentations for buy-side jobs that I interviewed for, and it’s just part of the process.
What they asked my friend to do was to write some programs. Not a publishable research report.
mar350 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > just lock it and tell them the password costs a > job offer Awesome.
stupid Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What they asked my friend to do was to write some > programs. Not a publishable research report. Why doesn’t your “friend” just ask them?
stupid Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > One of my friend just told me that: he went to a > small shop for an interview. They asked him to do > a spreadsheet work there for 2 hours. After it is > done, they send him some “homework” to do over the > weekend. — no mention of offer whatsoever. As if > this is all the interview process. They ask him to > send the programs back to them after the weekend. > Is it normal or sounds like a ripoff? Do you think it’d be even remotely efficient to farm out work this way? Are you really this incapable of putting yourself in the interviewer’s shoes? I foresee a govt job in your future…
Whether this is getting free work done or not: The interviewee is not working for the interviewer yet. How could they request for work that would take a solid two days?
…because there are other people that are willing to spend weeks, even months or years, to try to attain the job that they want? Maybe your friend is just being a lazy f*ck, no offense, but he has the right to decide whether or not he wants do what he’s being asked. It all depends on how badly he wants the job, right?
stupid Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Whether this is getting free work done or not: > > The interviewee is not working for the interviewer > yet. How could they request for work that would > take a solid two days? What if they come back at you with an offer that you turn down? Then who wasted two days?
I had to do something like this for an investment analyst position at a pension fund. For me, however, it was a one-hour time limit. It was impossible to complete in one hour but I think that was the point. They wanted to see how I would attack an analysis/problem and what I prioritized. This piece of the interview process may seem suspect but put yourself in their shoes. A lot of candidates can talk the talk and have great resumes but nothing demonstrates skill more than a live, hands-on example of original work under real-life time constraints.
It is completely reasonable to ask a job candidate to work through an example during an interview or do “homework” over a day or two. (edit: grammer fail)
For an unemployed, this homework thing is reasonable. However, for an interviewee that is already pretty busy with current job, he might think it is not worth it or simply honestly doesn’t have time for this 2 days’ work.
In times of booming financial markets (eg. 2005-2006), banks struggled to recruit enough qualified candidates, and felt fortunate to be able to hire almost anyone. Over the past 3-4 years however, the situation in financial recruiting has been one of far-more-applicants-than-jobs. In an environment like this, employers are in little hurry to fill roles, and can put applicants through many levels of skill testing challenges.
ASSet_MANagement Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > What if they come back at you with an offer that > you turn down? Then who wasted two days? but if you’re unemployed what else do you have to do with that time???