React Technology is a fast-growing app development company based in Cape Town, South Africa with clients on 5 continents. We are proud to be one of the few established Meteor development agencies on the continent.
Recently we have had issues finding talented Meteor developers. And the only way we know you have skills is to test you. So, if you are looking for a Meteor developer position where you can build awesome things and improve your skills, apply to take our very challenging 2.5 hour Meteor coding test. If you do the best out of everyone, youâll get the job!
The test will work as follows: At an agreed-upon time, youâll receive a PDF outlining a basic app you must build. You will have 2 hours and 30 mins to build the app. Once youâve finished, you must push the app to a repo weâll set up for you. This is a test of your skill and coding speed. Once weâve reviewed the code, we may offer you a job.
If you are accepted to do the test, we will let you know and will send you details on the job. Remember, applying to take the test does not guarantee youâll be accepted to take it. Nor does taking the test guarantee youâll get the job. Note that we are looking for junior-to-mid Meteor developers.
Also, if anyone has any questions, reply here and Iâll get back to you ASAP
Hi @jacquesbl - while I can appreciate your attempt at trying something a bit different with regards to recruiting for your company, I can assure you that competitions like this RARELY reveal good developer position candidates.
Letâs step back for a sec and ask what youâre really looking for in a good developer? Is it their ability to cram out a hacked/copied/pasted POC, in the shortest amount of time possible, to show that they can cut just about every corner, to get things done in an unreasonable amount of time, and provide customers with a garbled codebase that canât be understood by anyone (including the original developer) in a week, much less maintained without a complete re-write? Probably not, but thatâs pretty much what this type of test based approach will achieve. As you mentioned, it can be hard to find good developers, but itâs not impossible. Instead of using a test based approach like this, you might want to consider hiring devs that seems like good candidates, to have them work on small projects or parts of small projects, to see how they work out. If they donât work out, pay them (this is the important part - it will do wonders for your companyâs reputation), shake hands, and wish them all the best. If they do work out, great! I think youâll find that this type of hiring / trying out process will work much better for both the potential candidates and yourself, since youâll be able to see how they perform in real world coding scenarios. I can assure you that out of the many so called âgoodâ developers Iâve had the privilege of working with, not one of them would work with a company that used this type of hiring tactic (unless they really just didnât care about the potential job, which means they wouldnât care about helping you deliver either).
One final thing - you should do a little more in your post to assure developers that youâre not just farming out real contract work, to have it worked on for free, then using that work and not hiring any devs (I know it sounds farfetched but itâs a practice that happens more than it should these days âŚ).
I donât like the vibe of âwinning a jobâ either, but eh, I donât think a 2.5 h challenge is so bad. They get to look at the code after all and not just the surface results. You could probably tell how familiar someone is with the ecosystem, common practices and such. A skilled persons hack-job will look different from a beginners. The key point is that theyâre only looking for junior-mid developers.
Thank you for taking the time to write such detailed feedback.
While I understand your reasoning, I have several valid reasons for trying to recruit the way I am. I have hired several different Meteor developers over the last few months with no success. The prime reason for them not working out is a lack of skill and ability to deliver on a tight schedule.
My 2.5 hour test (if you want to take a look at it without taking the test - I can send it to you) is extremely challenging (Note: The test is set up to be just challenging enough for a very good junior or average mid-level Meteor dev to finish it in 2 hours). Although it is challenging, I am able to complete it in under 1.5 hours. And the code I output is perfectly neat and maintainable (albeit without comments). This is because of my 3+ yearsâ experience working with Meteor. While doing the test I never have to look things up and know exactly what to do if an error pops up, etc.
So by having someone take this test I am assessing how well-versed they are with Meteor, and how efficient they will be. And I am not just taking a look at the end-product, I am reading through all the code and looking at if they are disciplined enough to write neat and maintainable code, even under tremendous pressure. Itâs finding out which developers are the best, not the most skilled. I am looking for people who not only know Meteor but can solve problems and work under time pressure.
Also, although I understand having a developer work on a few projects on a contract basis makes sense to see how they work out, there are so many developers out there applying for a job, even if I make a shortlist, there is not enough time to delegate work to all of them and assess them. The best is therefore to test them under time pressure with a sample project.
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I had no idea people used this technique to farm out work for free. I can assure you that I am not doing so, as the app I want them to build has almost no practical use. Once again, if you want me to send it through to you, just to take a look, Iâd be happy to
Just to clarify, people are not âwinning this jobâ. It is not a competition. We are a serious company looking to hire developers. Once the developers have completed the tests, formal interviews will be performed with the front-runners. This is just like a normal hiring process, but with a skill test added on.
does anyone actually write code like this? I mean, normally i push out a POC. then, i iterate. generally, it is about v4 or v5 before it looks good and is usable. maybe that is just me.
So when I âwinâ this job I get the pleasure to work under time pressure, and no mention whatâs in it for me.
Sounds like my dream job, when can I get started?
Why none? Everyone who wants to find an employee does. But some seek for partners for their startups and so cannot guarantee a fair salary until everything is set.
I can assure you that I am not doing so, as the app I want them to build has almost no practical use. Once again, if you want me to send it through to you, just to take a look, Iâd be happy to 
