Company wants to do multiple interview rounds and fly me out before offer, I said no
Posted by slapstick_software@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 115 comments
I am a senior level developer with 7 years of experience, I have worked in my last role for 4 years and have started applying for a new job recently. I had a recruiter reach out to me to do a zoom call, and he told me more about what the rest of the process would be.
To get an offer, which is 150-200k for CRUD work, they want me to do a:
3 hr take home
1 technical interview
1 CEO interview
and then they want to fly me out to do some sort of onsite system design interview before I would even get an offer
I just sent them an email to let them know that I am not going to be doing all that. It's my first time doing senior level interviews, is this normal to want to fly me out before even getting an offer? Am I right for saying no?
I don't really know what more they need to know about me after that many rounds of interviews and still want to fly me out, is just seems like a waste of my time and energy if at the end I don't get the offer.
Btw they aren't FAANG they are literally just some later stage startup company
Alkyen@reddit
you think anybody flies you out and spends hours with you if they don't care? As far as I am concerned, this is a very green flag for the company. They will potentially spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on you, better make sure you're the right fit. And they are spending just as much resources into this as you. If you've ever been the one hiring people - the last thing you want to do is do interviews with people that won't get the job, it's such a waste of time and resources.
you're free to do your thing of course, but for me I'd like the company more if they did that compared to if they gave me an offer after 1 short interview. If I get an offer after 1 simple online interview it means the bar of entry is much lower and those people will be my colleagues. To each their own
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
I don't have an issue with multiple rounds of interviews, I understand that its a big investment on their part, and I am totally fine with them doing what they have to do. It would be different if it was for faang or an in person job. There is also another guy in the comments here that actually interviewed with the company in question, and he did make it to the onsite and didn't get an offer. He now feels like it was a big waste of time. You aren't guaranteed anything, and I just think its a big ask when there are other companies who won't make me fly to them.
Alkyen@reddit
I know how it feels to put a lot of effort and not get what you wanted but my point is that they are also doing the effort and they want to hire you, nobody is doing this for fun, they just have a higher bar for accepting people.
My point is that this is a bigger risk and bigger reward as they apply a much more rigorous filter to all their candidates. This means I will have better colleagues. At least for me the pay is usually enough anyway, I care more about what we're building, how we are building it and with whom I'm building it. Doing onsite interview will give me a better chance to get to know the people and the environment and let me decide if I'd like working there. You seem to have different values and that's fair but at least for me just geting some good offer on paper is not enough at all, the people I will work are much more important but a 10-20% pay difference won't make or break my lifestyle.
Also personal hot take but if you're not rejecting more offers than you are accepting you're doing something wrong IMO
Wide-Pop6050@reddit
I mean its not unusual for a senior role to want to meet someone in person. Especially now with the risks of deepfakes etc. It's definitely annoying, but I wouldn't act like its something crazy.
BrownBearPDX@reddit
1) In this market you’re a fool not to follow through on every serious interview.
2) with a process as thorough as this, you can rest assure that at least they’re serious about finding the right person which sounds pretty good to me.
3) frankly I think you’re a bit overconfident if you think you’re a shoe in to get an offer. You may be good, but there’s a lot of good people out there and you’re not the only one who’s gonna be in interviewing for this. Stick that overconfidence somewhere where you can’t reach it anymore because it’s gonna kill you. Humility in job searching goes a long way.
belkh@reddit
unfortunately more companies are now looking for in person interviews because deepfakes have been getting good
futuresman179@reddit
What’s the point of a deep fake in an interview? What can it do?
belkh@reddit
people not living where they claim to be, or being who they claim to be.
this includes people outside the region you can hire in, faking their history or nationality etc.
the most reported on example is north korean state actors
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
That is wild, this is my first time hearing about this. It's just awful that normal candidates are are being punished because there are bad people who are ruining it for everyone else. There has to be some other way to prove that we are real and not cheating.
GoodishCoder@reddit
North Korea has been doing this to funnel additional money to the regime there.
belkh@reddit
there is, but also another reason that others mentioned in other replies is AI assisted interviewing, where you can't really stop this effectively when they get good at it
speculator100k@reddit
It can be someone else taking the interview. Person A wants the job, but isn't very skilled. Person B is good at doing interviews and good at the job, but can earn more money by doing interviews for pay. Person A pays person B to do the interview in their place.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
That makes a lot of sense when you put it that way, there has got to be some way to prevent people from doing that. It's not fair to everyone else who isnt doing that.
1AMA-CAT-AMA@reddit
Flying people out is their solution to this. Is it the best solution? Idk. Is it the ideal solution idk. Is it a solution? Yea.
timelessblur@reddit
get a job, collect a nice paycheck for a few months. I sadlly know a guy who has been fired from a few places for poor performace and does subpar but just the PIP process he could get his signing bonus, and normally at least 6 months of pay. I even suspected when I had him as a co worker he was farming his work out to some cheat over seas contractor. Even more so looking back at some of his actions in how he did things it just looked weird and I believe he doubled down on it after the fact.
Signning bonuses company demand money back and he has a lawyer basically tell them no and sue him. To the companies not worth the legal fees to collect it so he keeps them. It is pretty sad but he makes pretty penny, talks a good game and has gotten lucky on some stock bets and got lucky on NFCs when they were hot. Unethical as all get out and shaddy AF.
oogaboogaloowho@reddit
Get a job and collect a paycheck...
BlackhawkBolly@reddit
In person interviews benefit everybody involved
ProfBeaker@reddit
Except for the significant investment of time for the applicant. It's not easy for everybody to drop their life for 1-3 days to go do an interview, particularly if they're already working.
Imagine if the interviewers had to fly to see each applicant. They would probably not be as psyched on it.
cbusmatty@reddit
The only companies I know who go to this level it’s basically a formality. They aren’t flying out 7 people, it’s usually the person they want to hire, they just want to make sure you are who you say you are
timelessblur@reddit
If done right it should only be 1 day. Worse case it is a flight out the night before and you fly back end the evening. Again worse case. Even when remote and all video final round interviews I still would need to take a day off to do them as it just would eat up to much of hte day to schedule work around them and just the exhaustion from doing them I tend to want ot b e done after them.
BlackhawkBolly@reddit
Well of course the balance is not even, they are the one offering the job. The benefits still vastly outweigh the negatives if people truly want to return to a more sane hiring environment
sittingonac0rnflake@reddit
As someone who’s neurodivergent, I really wish I agreed 🥹
Foreseerx@reddit
Could you expand on that? I'm curious what you think on this, because I do agree in-person interviews are much better, but want to hear your thoughts.
CheetosTorciditos@reddit
Not if the position is remote
rcls0053@reddit
Then just do all the interviewing in one sitting, the f is this 3 hour home work and other bs.
liquidpele@reddit
I mean, that makes sense but not just doing all the interviews in one day is what’s ridiculous.
Icy_Cartographer5466@reddit
They probably have a lot of people fail the technical screen, that’s kinda the purpose of it
liquidpele@reddit
I assumed that’s what the take home was. If that’s not their screen then it serves no purpose.
zeke780@reddit
Its this, deepfakes + ai support in interview.
GlobalCurry@reddit
I had an in person interview a few weeks ago where the hiring manager out right told me that they started doing in person interviews because he had 3 back to back deep fake interviews.
retchthegrate@reddit
flying out for an in-person interview used to be pretty normal and a sign the company was interested in you enough to go through the expense and effort.
GoodishCoder@reddit
Flying people out for interviews and doing a system design interview for seniors is pretty standard. It's not common at all to hire a senior after a single conversation.
On top of that a large portion of software development is going to be CRUD work.
The only part of the process that would have made it a hard pass for me is the take home.
lokaaarrr@reddit
Fairly normal. Bad Sr hires are very disruptive, and interpersonal skills are important .
CheetosTorciditos@reddit
This is a serious disadvantage for neurodivergent people
jigmepalmo@reddit
You can be neurodivergent and have interpersonal skills. So many people with ADHD, autism, and other ways of thinking find themselves in programming and I really like working with most of them.
CheetosTorciditos@reddit
But many others don't. I should have said "many" though before. The no assholes test makes sense, but making it a tech/systems design interview all in one increases the disadvantage for this subset of neurodivergent people
Goducks91@reddit
No it's not normal to fly an engineer out.
lokaaarrr@reddit
I have had to combine several fly-outs (a couple times) to avoid making multiple round trips in consecutive weeks.
And as an interviewer, the final rounds for Sr people were almost always in person (there were exceptions for like people in Australia who did not want to fly that far).
Goducks91@reddit
I would be very suprised if I applied for a remote role and they wanted me to fly out for an interview. I guess I'm wrong though since I'm being downvoted pretty heavily lol
lokaaarrr@reddit
Did it say remote? Also, for a leadership IC role I would expect to interview in person
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
The position would be remote and stay remote, I shouldve specified that
lokaaarrr@reddit
Also, people could mean different things by senior
NGTTwo@reddit
15 years ago, maybe. Certainly not since COVID.
HelloWorld779@reddit
It absolutely is. Covid kind of disrupted it, but on-sites were always pretty common, and many companies have started doing them again.
ozziegt@reddit
It used to be standard before covid.
Goducks91@reddit
Yeah that's fair because there was a lot less remote work. If you are applying for an in person role in a different state then sure flying you out would be normal.
taznado@reddit
There are no bad hires. There are terrible hiring managers and interviewers.
JuliusCeaserBoneHead@reddit
Cmon now, we hired a principal who spent their first 3 months fucking off to do whatever they want. They came from a social media platform that is at frontier of technology.
Since his leaving, management has not filled his position. It’s been 2 years. So not only was he not helpful during his time, he’s managed to fuck the rest of us even more
liquidpele@reddit
The latter certainly creates the former, but even myself have been for hiring a candidate that turned out to be a giant turd. People are complicated.
Leopatto@reddit
Boy stfu.
nomoreplsthx@reddit
Flying you out is generally seen as a compliment not a burden. Yes, part of this is AI making it so remote interviews are less safe.
But the bigger thing is that flying you out is a signal they are very serious about your candidacy. People only fly you out if they expect to hire you, since it's so expensive.
rwilcox@reddit
In my experience it used to be common practice, a decade ago. Then everything switched to online.
Now on-site interviews are an easy way to make sure you’re not cheating (with AI feeding you answers, or Joe interviewing but Amit showing up)
stedmangraham@reddit
Buddy I would hire Apu over Homer any day of the week. Did we watch the same show?
rwilcox@reddit
Ohhhhhhh: Apu interviewing but HOMER showing up.
That’s much better!!
_hypnoCode@reddit
Apu has a PhD in Computer Science.
iamgrzegorz@reddit
It’s not very common, but also it’s not very unusual. I know companies that used to fly candidates for the full interview loop, as it helped them to imagine how it would be to work with the candidate, and the candidate could see the office, the city etc before relocating.
Also take home + 3 interviews is not that much, I mean sure it’s a serious time investment, but I’ve talked to a number of US companies that had 2 individual interviews + then a loop of 4 interviews.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
I would be fine with multiple rounds, I think thats fair. I just draw the line at flying for smaller companies, if it was FAANG then this would be a different conversation, but I just think its a big ask especially when I hate flying on planes in general.
potatolicious@reddit
Increasingly normal. There is an absolute tsunami of LLM cheating in interviews and more companies are insisting on an in-person sanity check as a guard against that.
Fully remote interview loops were a blip. It used to be all interviews would be on-site, then we moved to more remote interviews (especially of course during Covid), and now we're back to more in-person because of rampant cheating.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
I can understand that, I haven't really heard of that issue before with the deepfakes till now because that wasn't a thing last time I was applying for jobs. I just really don't want to spend all that time and then not get an offer. There has to be some way they can tell that I am real besides seeing me in person.
potatolicious@reddit
Yeah, it does kind of suck, but I think the way to frame this is that: 6-7 years ago you would've had to fly out and meet them in-person anyway. In fact you probably would've had to do the entire set of interviews in-person.
So we're just going back to a fairly recent level of annoyance.
Not reliably. This is a super active topic in recruiting circles and nobody has a good solution. The level of cheating is off the charts, and the interviewers also don't necessarily want to meet you in person (they themselves probably live far from the office and would much rather do this in sweatpants!)... but yet.
djlamar7@reddit
In the before times (pre-covid) every interview after the screen stage was physical on-site, and if you weren't in the same location as the job, they would fly you out and pay for your hotel for two nights. Usually they'd reimburse food or just give you a debit card with a couple hundred bucks on it too.
It seems odd to me that such a large portion of commenters here don't remember this since it's experienced devs, but I guess the before times are a while back now (eg OP with seven years of experience perhaps never had to fly out or interview in person if the job they've had since ~2019 was an intern conversion hire).
Personally, for any type of design interview, I strongly prefer in person anyway. It's helpful to be able to outline / note / diagram things on a whiteboard, and although virtual versions of that exist, they're not as frictionless as just writing and drawing with a marker. For remote design interviews I resort to typing an outline in the shared text pad and it's still a pain in the ass. I'm glad companies are starting to go back to in person interviews even if their actual motivation is to stop AI cheating.
funkengruven@reddit
I would have done it. Free trip!
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
that's fair, I don't want a free trip right now, its just too much time
funkengruven@reddit
Makes sense, yeah. Good luck on the job hunt!
kevin074@reddit
the only odd thing to me is why ceo interview virtually but technical is in person lol
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
There is two technicals, then CEO and then another onsite technical interview. The in person just sounds like its going to be a grill fest and that sounds like a nightmare to me.
Kriemhilt@reddit
It might also just be a sanity check that you can still function without an LLM feeding you answers just out of shot, and that you're not just awful to be around.
If we flip this, how many hires have you made at a similar level to yourself? How comfortable are you hiring someone you never met, when you can't see what's on the adjacent screen / who's behind the camera feeding answers etc. etc.
nsxwolf@reddit
It’s at least a signal that you’re being taken very seriously. They’re not flying out 100 candidates for this interview, unless this is literally Amazon a decade ago.
metaphorm@reddit
if the job itself is on-site and you would have to relocate, then flying out for an on-site interview is maybe reasonable (but dubious, because you'd have to take time off, so it's a big ask).
if the job itself is remote, the on-site interview is unreasonable.
the rest of the process seems pretty standard. people get all kinds of emotional about take home tests, but I think a 3 hour time box is within acceptable bounds. just make sure they commit to actually discussing the submission with you on a call.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
The job is remote and will always be remote, but that was what I was thinking too. I don't actually mind the take home test or any of the rounds, I just am drawing the line at traveling.
bluewater_1993@reddit
This is perfectly fine, they have an applicant in the process who will do the fly out. This just wasn’t the job for you, there will be other opportunities.
BestDogPetter@reddit
I just made the mistake of going through this exact process, to the point I wonder if it's the same company. I passed with flying colors all the way to being flown out and then the tech lead I talked to didn't like me for some reason, so no offer, massive waste of time.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
is it solace?
BestDogPetter@reddit
Yep
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
Wow, guess I dodged a bullet then
BestDogPetter@reddit
Definitely, the rest of the process seemed good, but the guy I flew out to talked to was a bad interviewer and my flight got rescheduled for early the morning of the interview, so just an awful experience to end on
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
I am sorry, that is exactly what I am afraid of. It just seems like a big ask from a smaller company. I would likely be interviewing with the same person you did.
Low_Satisfaction_819@reddit
Look, unless you're a hotshot dev with multiple competing offers, this is what you should expect.
In this economy if you're making 200k USD you ought to be stoked. I am an engineering manager and we put candidates through more than that.
Here's the honest truth. As a company, we give 3 hour takehomes and tell you to stop after that and submit what you have. The candidates that spend more time on it and give polished solutions get put to the top of the queue - they've shown us they're serious and want the job, the one's who don't get passed on.
You're competing against everyone else. If you're doing the bare minimum or expect this to be a fair world, expect to be passed over for someone who does more than the bare minimum / is willing to go the extra mile - tech is highly competitive and that's why it pays so damn well.
TLDR; Compared to most jobs, you're paid exceptionally well - get off your high horse.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
My high horse? Because I don't want to fly to another state across the country first? That's minimum a week of free work on my part with no guarantee for a job at the end of that. I am not desperate for a job right now. I dont mind the multiple rounds, and if it was FAANG that would be one thing but to me it just seems insane to do all that when I am also having to do that for other companies too.
p1-o2@reddit
You are correct. Employers and their sycophants have lost touch with reality.
dips15@reddit
It comes down to how badly do you want the job? If you have better opportunities then by all means turn it down.
martiantheory@reddit
It's pretty normal for people to fly you out for a senior level job. I got a job in Silicon Valley in 2015 and we did six rounds and I got an offer that's pretty much exactly what you just mentioned. They paid for my stay rented me a really nice car, gave me a stipend, and I got a tour of Google's campus while I was there (I didn't interview with Google, but they just happen to be nearby and my recruiter thought it would be cool). I did two technical interviews while I was there, two tech interviews before that, and my highest interview was with the VP of engineering. At the same time, I interview at another place in Las Vegas Vegas and they flew me out for the third interview. At that time, I looked at it as a privilege to be flown out, though. It wasn't a crazy bidding war, but I did get a little bit more money because I was able to say that I was getting flown out to California next week as well, so I'd have to wait to give the answer after I finish all my interviews.
I would never judge you for your own preferences, so I don't think you're wrong for saying no. But I don't think this is a new thing. Most of my career it worked this way for that level of money (I'm not saying it's tons of money, I'm just saying that when you get to 200k, people expect you to put in a little more effort, and they expect to meet you face-to-face).
I'm surprised that anybody's doing this in this environment though. I'm currently unemployed and looking for jobs (maybe I'd be a good fit for that company lmaoo)... the difference between now and when I got that treatment, is I feel like senior software developers aren't as rare as they were 10 years ago. In my 15+ years, I never sent out more than two or three resumes and I just chose the best offer most of the time. Now, I've sent out 50 applications, and no interviews.
My advice to you would be to accept offers like that, but probably only if you have a desire to work at that company. If you're kind of neutral on it, I totally understand not wanting to go through the trouble.
The only other thing I would say is that if you've been at your job for 4 years, the job market is very different than it was 4 years ago. I have tons of friends who are looking for jobs as well, and one of them spent 10 months looking. He got another 200k, yes, but the process sucked. If you're still employed, you probably got some wiggle room to be picky, but in my honest opinion, I would prefer a job that wants me to fly out (the 3 hour take-home test would definitely give me pause, but if I wanted to work at that company, I'd do it)...
Just my two cents
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
That's good feedback, thank you. I am still early in the process so I really want to try to avoid flying anywhere if possible at this time. I can understand why companies would want us to do that but it's just a big ask and potentially huge waste of time if it doesnt work out.
martiantheory@reddit
Totally. The main time I was flown out it was for a FAANG company. I was super motivated to get that job. Being honest, I probably wouldn't have flown out for the job in Vegas if I wasn't already going to California. I can definitely understand being a little picky about that.
I will say, if you find a job with some name recognition, or a place you actually wanna work… prepare for them to put you through several rounds and fly you out. Usually when people fly you out, they just wanna make sure you didn't cheat... not saying that those in person interviews are any easier, but as long as you're as sharp as you were with your initial interviews, getting flown out is basically your pre-orientation lol.
For a startup that you're not excited to work at tho… I don't think there's anything wrong with passing on it lol...
good luck with everything and I hope you find a great job that gives you a big bag of money and benefits
ponsgroyper@reddit
The more qualified people who say no to that the less sense it will make for them. If I am employed at a good job and I’m good at what I do then I’m not gonna do all that either. The person who is willing to do that is either unemployed or unqualified. Eventually, they’ll crunch the numbers on that equation stop.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
Exactly, we all have to have our lines in the sand and this is mine. I am even okay with take homes or round robin type interviews, but I am not flying out unless it's Google.
Altruistic-Bat-9070@reddit
Sorry the is only 4 interview rounds right? That isn't that unusual in my experience and I don't know why you would say no as long as they are paying for flights etc.
I don't really like the take home but other than that I don't really know why you wouldn't go for something like this.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
I would rather have more rounds of interviews than fly, the position is remote, its just a huge time commitment on my part for them to still not give me an offer. The office I'd have to fly to is across the country from me, and I don't enjoy flying.
TheOwlHypothesis@reddit
For some perspective I just had 6 and 8 rounds at two different places before getting offers and both. Neither wanted me to fly out but this isn't that wild in my opinion.
I told myself I could easily be a person who refuses to do coding problems, or system design rounds. But I stuck with it anyway and I'm negotiating multiple offers at the moment.
You're the other side of the coin who decided to draw the line at travel. That's fine, but understand what you're trading off. You're right that there are plenty that won't ask you to travel for the interview, but you also just killed an opportunity lol.
Did you at least ask if travel was mandatory?
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
Travel was mandatory unfortunately, I would rather do multiple rounds then fly anywhere. I also don't really like planes in general so the whole thing just sounds like a nightmare to me.
SlapNuts007@reddit
This isn't at all unusual, and all you've accomplished is turning down an interview process in one of the worst engineering job markets since the Great Recession. It's your choice not to proceed, but if you're 7 years in, I wouldn't be turning things like this down unless you've got lots of other options.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
I am not desperate right now, and the company I work for now didn't need me to travel to them in order to get a job there. I could understand for higher level developers but seniors and below just seems excessive to me especially when I have done all the other rounds already.
_vec_@reddit
The thing is that for smaller startups a senior developer is a higher up position. Even if what you're spending most of your time on is basic CRUD work you're going to have a lot more freedom and a lot more responsibility to identify which basic CRUD work the business needs. It's very different than working on a several hundred person enterprise team, even if the salary and org chart doesn't show it.
The one other thing I haven't seen anyone else point out yet is that if they're flying you out then they've basically already decided to offer you the job. It's a last sanity check on a decision they've more or less already made. It might be a bit excessive but it's also pretty low risk for you.
wmichben@reddit
Now imagine doing this interview process 20 times while trying to get a job in this developer economy. No thanks! I think these elaborate interview processes are absurd and have only gotten worse. I am envious of people with different career types because most don't have to go through anything like this.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
I think about it all that time, engineers make good money but these interviews are terrible. I wish there was some other way because I hate this.
SolarNachoes@reddit
Higher ups like to meet in person.
AI is screwing up the interview process in a major way now.
lambda-lord-2026@reddit
You really have no understanding of how bad the job market for devs is right now. This isn't a flex. It's ignorance.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
How am I flexing? I have other interviews going on too, I can't just drop everything for some no name company after already giving them hours of my time and energy. That's minimum 24-48 of just travel time alone for a company I have never heard of.
Politex99@reddit
Unless it's final round and it's some big comapany sich as Valve, Anthropic or Nvidia, I'd say no as well.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
That's what I am thinking too, this company is still pretty small but apparently growing quickly. I just think its a lot to ask when I've never even heard of this company.
Bicykwow@reddit
Flying candidates out for an onsite has been normal practice for my entire career (2 decades).
lardsack@reddit
never had to do an onsight for the 2 remote positions i worked, but they were lower experience positions and during/directly after covid.
Sad-Salt24@reddit
At your level, it’s reasonable to push back and ask to consolidate steps or confirm you’re a final candidate before investing that time. It’s less about refusing the process and more about protecting your time and setting expectations like a senior.
myusernameis___@reddit
Just went through this, almost the exact same, except I took the train a few hours away. I did not get the job and it was a meh interview, they were a bit frazzled from the week and I was the very last interview. One of the people left like half way through, not a good sign. I got a free travel, hotel and dinner out of it, but it was a waste of time. If you are guaging whether it's worth your time, it depend on how competitive it is. They mentioned I was one of several so I should have known, since I have a ton of experience, but lacked the specific skill they were looking for. I don't know how this would help, but just happened this past weekend.
slapstick_software@reddit (OP)
That does help me, I can understand why companies do it but from an applicant stand point, it's definitely time we could've spent prepping or interviewing else where.
nus07@reddit
I mean apart from the 3 hour take home everything else seems fairly normal to me. Companies stopped flying candidates out for final rounds when Covid started but with increasing use of AI to cheat or manipulate interviews it sounds reasonable. Only red flag is take home which is a no for me.
HelloWorld779@reddit
3hr take home + a CEO interview prior to the final round are both pretty crazy.
On-sites, honestly pretty normal for tech companies.
vinny_twoshoes@reddit
i'd do it if i really needed or wanted the job (and i have in the past). i think you're fine saying no to that kind of thing though, it's really asking a lot.
MulberryExisting5007@reddit
It used to be standard that you would fly someone out to be interviewed.
morswinb@reddit
Multiple rounds are standard.
Take home is actually good in my opinion, provided it is reasonable length, job related, and allows you to keep your skills sharp, test a new framework or package for example.
Fly over is a tricky part.
It tests if you are real, and available. If you can't get a few days break, for whatever valid reasons, you are unlikely to put in a few overtime days if needed.
I would not mind if it was my job search, since if they pay for your ticket that means they are already likely to give you an offer.
Temporary-Air-3178@reddit
Looks normal besides the take home, even fewer rounds than faang. If it were me I would just check out the take home and if it's annoying and/or takes more than 1 or 2 hours then I would just close out of it and withdraw my application. But that's coming from someone who prefers Leetcode to take homes.
arbitrarion@reddit
Pre-COVID, very normal. Now, still pretty normal.
CaptainCactus124@reddit
It’s not normal. I try to bat for jobs that at min pay 200k. I was looking for a job in march and got 2 offers and neither wanted me to fly out or do a 3 hour take home. Job I took wasn’t a good fit so left after 3 weeks. Looking again and currently I’m interviewing for 4 places and of the ones that disclosed their entire process, none of them do this.
CanIhazCooKIenOw@reddit
Not usual but happens. You don’t have to think too much about it, you are not interested but I’m sure there’s 100s of applicants that are.
dabup@reddit
Yeah I'd say no too. After that many rounds THEN flying out there? Unless I really needed the job I'd do it.