From a perspective of one once desperate for a job, the take-home test resonates the most.
Market and approach to finding a job in IT sector seems to be somewhat different in Russia compared to US, even regarding remote work for non-resident employers, so don't be surprised if something would seem atypical. I'll omit most of the stuff that's not too relevant.
I put an CV on a job site, had few calls, but they were clearly not what I did want. Over the course of about 5 months, I've applied for 3 positions that I could be applicable to - I've never had any experience with web - and that were remote.
On all three I've done take-home tests. The last one took about one week, most of that just thinking, with maybe two evenings of actual coding. They accepted me, and strangely, told me do make a web app, despite no mentions of that in the job description. Luckily, half a year later, I've been offered an non-web, "mainline" position in team.
The one before that didn't go as well. Due to misunderstanging, I've implemented a much more complex solution, and did a mistake in the implementation. Though it was indeed faster than expected solution, after fixing errors.
The first one is what burned me. There were two tests, one done in two hours, and another one was "serious". It used some clearly real data - I had to download it from some US buerau, took a month of 3-4 hours of coding everyday for POC implementation, and not much less than that for a more formalised one, where rule set for matching data entries had to be indexed by 4-D array (not sure if I'm correctly using terminology). I haven't got answer for either version, and only got one a week after an reminding email, when I've asked for some clarification. They've told me they decided to drop the vacancy and not hire someone. Still I don't know whether they just wanted someone to do a task for free, or that it had to be done in a fundamentally different way.
Given that what I'm currently doing isn't market relevant, most likely I won't be any less desperate when looking for a next job.
Market and approach to finding a job in IT sector seems to be somewhat different in Russia compared to US, even regarding remote work for non-resident employers, so don't be surprised if something would seem atypical. I'll omit most of the stuff that's not too relevant.
I put an CV on a job site, had few calls, but they were clearly not what I did want. Over the course of about 5 months, I've applied for 3 positions that I could be applicable to - I've never had any experience with web - and that were remote.
On all three I've done take-home tests. The last one took about one week, most of that just thinking, with maybe two evenings of actual coding. They accepted me, and strangely, told me do make a web app, despite no mentions of that in the job description. Luckily, half a year later, I've been offered an non-web, "mainline" position in team.
The one before that didn't go as well. Due to misunderstanging, I've implemented a much more complex solution, and did a mistake in the implementation. Though it was indeed faster than expected solution, after fixing errors.
The first one is what burned me. There were two tests, one done in two hours, and another one was "serious". It used some clearly real data - I had to download it from some US buerau, took a month of 3-4 hours of coding everyday for POC implementation, and not much less than that for a more formalised one, where rule set for matching data entries had to be indexed by 4-D array (not sure if I'm correctly using terminology). I haven't got answer for either version, and only got one a week after an reminding email, when I've asked for some clarification. They've told me they decided to drop the vacancy and not hire someone. Still I don't know whether they just wanted someone to do a task for free, or that it had to be done in a fundamentally different way.
Given that what I'm currently doing isn't market relevant, most likely I won't be any less desperate when looking for a next job.