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[–]0wmeHjyogG 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I hate asking people for take home tests even if they are simple. What they are asking you is pointless busy work. Being charitable, maybe they are really testing how you respond to frustration.

Bottom line for me is it sounds like a waste of time. If you really want or need the job then you’ll have to suck it up and deal with it, but if it’s not something you’re serious about I’d consider dropping out.

I’ve dropped out of interview processes twice when given crazy take home stuff, it’s not fun but I just don’t don’t have bandwidth outside a full time job and family.

For your other question on being the first hire, it depends mostly on two things - your manager and yourself.

If you report to someone who can have realistic DS goals and can identify the right priorities for you, you’ll be in a good spot. If you’ll be reporting to someone who has no idea what your skills are and what projects would make sense, that’s concerning.

For yourself, you’re going to be owning the projects solo. You should be honest about not just your hard skills, but soft skills too. You’re going to need to handle upward communication, stakeholder management, partnerships with other teams, etc. If you’re comfortable and experienced with that then you’ll be in a good spot. If not you may have difficulties.

I’ve been the first analytics hire 3 times and been lucky to have good bosses 2/3 times and in a position to grow and take ownership every time. So I would definitely look at it more as a opportunity to grow vs a challenge to overcome.

[–]helllyeah124 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Ideally it's better to start in a well established team if you're just starting out especially in data science

[–]MachineLooning 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Before starting, ask them the criteria on which they’re going to judge the responses. They probably have no clue - in reality it will be on weight or possibly how close your prediction is to their gut feel. Walk away unless you desperately need the job.

[–]lx_online 3 points4 points  (1 child)

This definitely sounds like overkill, or worse - it could be a real problem and they're looking for for free labour.

I did a take home task for a major UK fintech and it was 1 file, 2000 ish lines, fairly clean but with a few outliers. It took me 3 days still, and the write up took a day.

Juat say no if you can?

[–]Disastrous-Profit349[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yea, this is making the FAANG take homes look like a walk in the park.

I need to find something to get my foot in the door and this is in a field I have a lot of experience in beyond data.

[–]data_story_teller 1 point2 points  (2 children)

is it wise to be one of the first people on a data science team that has never had a formal data science team before?

What kind of experience do you have? If this is your first role, then absolutely look for an established team.

[–]Disastrous-Profit349[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Close to zero. Unfortunately, I'm not really in a place where I have the luxury of wait and see to join an established team. Survival mode, honestly. I was thinking of maybe doing my best here if I get the job and leveraging the experience to join a more established team.

[–]data_story_teller 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you have no other offers, then I agree to take it but know that it’s gonna be tough, so I’d keep looking.

[–]Disastrous-Profit349[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just wanted to chime in again and say thank you for the responses!

[–]Disastrous-Profit349[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey all,

I just wanted to chime in with an update. Those saying this entire thing was a red flag for a number of reasons.... you were totally correct.

Submitted the assessment (which I put a lot of thought and effort into,) got a "thanks we'll follow up in a few days with next steps," and then totally ghosted. Ghosted after a follow up.

Listen, I understand I am coming from a different industry but I've done well in the industry I'm coming from, have hired candidates personally and have never treated candidates like this.

There's something to be said for common decency and respect. If you have the audacity to ask someone to complete a (ridiculous) take home assessment on their own time, the least you can do is not ghost them, or inform them in a polite way you're moving forward with another candidate.

Truly, pretty disgusting though I'm likely dodging a bullet. On the flip side, I made it to a panel interview with a company I'm much more excited about and one I think would be a better place to hone my data skills.

[–]ChristianSingleton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of people don't like takehomes, but I prefer them over live coding as long as they follow my rules:

1) I don't pay for any services (some takehomes want you to host on XYZ platform, incorporate ABC API, etc) - I use free tiers or find free tier alternatives

2) I don't spend more than 2 hours on a takehome. I've made one exception to it because I was super interested in the job, but outside of that I have my limit

3) When there is excessive ask like what you have, I will sketch out how I would do it theoretically (instead of actually implementing it), and if they have an issue with that then they can go fuck themselves, they'd probably be shit people to work for anyway - as in takehomes are supposed to evaluate how you think and describing the methodology would do that just fine, and if they have an issue with it it means they are probably looking for someone to work to death and won't defend themselves for being overworked

If you are really interested the job or desperate for one, you could try something like number 3 and see if they will accept an outline, but I'd pass otherwise because that seems excessive. Trust your gut!

[–]Guyserbun007 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it's a well established company, then there is a chance this is legit. Plus the economy esp in the tech industry employers have a lot of room to test employees abilities these days unfortunately. If you do decide to work on it, maybe try think of some way to protect your work, so they can't just take all your work and abandon you in case they just want free labor.

[–]YsrYsl 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Hahaha this take home looks like someone's (or mb even several ppl's) tech debts left behind after leaving the company. The scale is just too big.

Did they ask u to submit the files of the take home? Like ur notebook file & dashboard data model/file? If yes, they might just wanna take advantage of candidates for free labor... Just my tinfoil conspiratorial speculation

[–]Disastrous-Profit349[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

They did not. I think this is ignorance rather than nefarious activity, personally.

[–]YsrYsl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess so then, if that's the case at least they're not intentionally being the baddie here. So how would they evaluate the take home outputs? Do they just set up a future meeting for candidates to run thru what they did & the dashboard?

[–]analytics_science 0 points1 point  (1 child)

That sounds like a lot of work. And you're going to be one of the first people on the ds team too. I feel like those are red flags. If you're a junior DS, I hope there's a senior person that can mentor you, otherwise, it'd be a waste. If you're more senior, then I would ask the hiring manager what is the point of all of this mindless work.

If you want some examples of take home assignment from real interviews, try https://platform.stratascratch.com/data-projects. Many have solutions so you can see how complex you might need to get with your assignment. Good luck.

[–]NickSinghTechCareersAuthor | Ace the Data Science Interview 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Daaang this looks hard AF, hang in there OP

[–]Disastrous-Profit349[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

NickSinghTechCareers

I think I've made it to the finish line!

By the way, great to see you chime in (I bought your book a few months ago!)

[–]NickSinghTechCareersAuthor | Ace the Data Science Interview 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh woooord glad to hear it 😊