It was an internship for a full-stack developer role. I was given two days - today is the final day, and I did not even start with the project as I was too stressed to complete the task, worrying about designing and modelling the database part, and because I have a really vague idea about system design. The skill requirements for the project are NextJS and MERN stack - which makes little sense. It said nothing about state management library, so I was also really confused about that.
Here are the requirement of the task project:
- make use of NextJS
- create a LinkedIn clone, without the feeds
- must have shareable short-link profile
- should be SEO-optimized
- should provide API for creating and editing profile
- should make use of good UI practices
- explain the reasoning behind the system design decisions
- explain the steps required to run this application
- use of ChatGPT was allowed
- share this on GitHub
I think that I was being fooled - that I was being made to work on a project for free, and that this test is very unreasonable and a big red-flag into the startup’s WLB. Just wanted feedback on whether I was being unreasonable?
Edit: Here’s what the listing says:
Are you a passionate Full Stack Development intern looking for an exhilarating opportunity? Look no further! <company-name>, an innovative company, is seeking a talented intern with expertise in Node.js, JavaScript, ReactJS, HTML, CSS, MongoDB, and Next.js. Join our fast-paced team and gain invaluable experience in a dynamic work environment.
Selected intern’s day-to-day responsibilities include:
- Collaborate with the development team to design and implement user-friendly web applications using cutting-edge technologies
- Develop and maintain scalable backend systems using Node.js and MongoDB to ensure efficient data management and retrieval
- Create visually stunning and responsive frontend interfaces utilizing ReactJS, HTML, and CSS to deliver an exceptional user experience
- Conduct thorough testing and debugging to ensure optimum performance and seamless functionality across different platforms
- Assist in optimizing website performance by analyzing and refining code, and implementing best practices
- Contribute to the development of RESTful APIs, integrating with third-party services to enhance application capabilities
- Stay updated with the latest industry trends and emerging technologies, sharing insights and participating in team discussions to drive innovation
If you have a hunger for knowledge, a strong work ethic, and a desire to make a meaningful impact, apply now to become a part of the <company-name> team. Ready to revolutionize the world of web development? We can’t wait to meet you!
I think that I was being fooled - that I was being made to work on a project for free
Yep. Sounds like a scam to get free work.
create a LinkedIn clone, without the feeds
Stopped reading there because that’s absolute insanity to ask as an ‘application test’, no matter what your level is. If they ask you for more than a few short programming challenges it’s a scam. I like to provide a bit of unoptimized code and ask the applicant to refactor it, added bonus: I learned a trick or two from some of our applicants.
My rule of thumb: if it takes me more than an hour to complete their tests, they should be paying me.
I thought it was going to be something like creating a profile page with a bit of reactiveness. But there’s no way this is 2 days of work for an intern with little to no experience. Every bullet point after that made it crazier.
Fuck people like this
I was applying to do video editing for a consulting firm and the test they wanted me to do was absolutely absurd. Graphic design work, animation, photoshop, all independent of an actual 60 second video edit. The job also expected the candidate to handle producing and editing their in-house weekly podcast.
I had like 48 hours to do the video edit, animations, and photo edits. I just turned in the video edit (showing I can do photoshop as well in it) and said “graphic animation is well outside the scope of an already broad job. If that is a requirement, then you should probably look for another candidate.“ I did not get a call back, and honestly? I can’t imagine they found it easy to find somebody who is an experienced video editor, camera operator, audio producer, photo editor, and animator, all in one package, who is willing to do all of those things as one person. That’s just too much, especially for the salary they were expecting to provide. Basically a “full stack” artist lmao
I would like to take this time to point out that I am a professional shooter and editor, both for video and audio production, with over a decade of experience on commercials, Hollywood sets, live national productions, and more. I can also write (I believe to be) quality copy. I feel like I bring plenty to the table to warrant a hire like that lol
Lol, asking for literally months of work as a job interview. GTFO with that.
Might be much for an internship, but they aren’t asking for months of work.
When they ask for LinkedIn clone without feeds, it’s pretty clear they just mean the ability to create, edit, and share a profile. They basically say as much in further bullet points. That’s straight up CRUD(minus delete). This is pretty much backed up by them wanting NextJS and MongoDB.
The next key requirement that sounds like it would take a lot of time is the SEO part of it. That doesn’t make sense at first glance, but since they specify that one must use NextJS, it becomes more clear what they meant. NextJS offers feature specific for SEO score like SSR and component streaming. So they want them to implement something regarding that.
The rest are just what you should do with any take home, follow best practices and provide a readme detailing why you made what decisions. If you chose something over another option mention it because that tells whoever looking at it that you at least thought of it.
Overall, may be too much for an intern, but they probably don’t expect them to finish it. Just list what they would do to complete it in the readme and leave it at that.
Even if you’re right, I would never work for a company demanding this much for merely the interview process. Especially at the junior level. It speaks to their [shitty] culture, which sounds like it is absolute garbage.
They’re getting you to do the job for them lol, that’s the kind of thing a whole internship should be based on, not an interview
I also think that the task is unreasonable, but at the same time I can’t imagine that this is of any use to the company. What are they going to do with a “LinkedIn clone” made in two days that they don’t even have the IP rights to?
Use it for identity theft. The “employer” here is probably just a scamming company.
It’s possible that it was a “see how you react to an impossible task” test, perhaps? I don’t like it.
Ah yes, the Kobayashi Maru test. It’s important to see how every
Starfleet officerprogrammer reacts in the face ofa no-win scenarioa manager in Sales who just promised the client a fully functional site in 48 hours, on a Friday at 4:30PM.
Could be used to scam people, or they can select the best one from submissions and use that to work from for a different product. I’m not sure, I don’t really know what they gain by asking someone to make it at all.
That would be wildly unreasonable even for a senior role.
Yeah, I’ve been a professional programmer for a while now. I wouldn’t do this. I’d laugh and walk away.
Could make AI write a horrible half-baked solution and submit that, so they have to spend time reviewing it.
Yes that’s unreasonable.
create a LinkedIn clone, without the feeds
Wut?!
should be SEO-optimized
The fuck does that even mean in terms of a social media app, where the content is 100% user generated?
should provide API for creating and editing profile
The fuck?
explain the reasoning behind the system design decisions
Considering the complexity of the task that explanation would need to be the length of the bible.
Yeah, no. I’d want a six figure sum upfront for that level of work.
The task wasn’t ‘pretty unreasonable’, it was outright fucking insane, and was probably set by a manager who should never be in charge of a software project. They might as well have asked you to build a Windows clone from scratch.
create a LinkedIn clone,
Lol what? Just create a whole-ass social media site. They are trying to farm out work from applicants.
Manager: “pffft how hard can it be? It should only take what, a couple hours??”
It’s one thing to ask for a high level design graph… asking for a functioning… this… is nuts. They’re using you.
Sounds unreasonable.
A Twitter clone would be one thing (you need like two DB tables with four basic mutations, and the UI needs to serve create account, login, profile and timeline). I don’t know what a LinkedIn clone without feeds is.
Two days though is ridiculously short.
Edit: this also assumes the UI is very minimal and unpolished, just using a skeleton CSS layout and very basic divs
You should never do more than two hours of work for free. If a company legitimately needs a week long project to evaluate candidates they should hire them as contractors at market rate for that period.
Any job asking for more than two hours of your time before paying you is scamming you.
Pretty sure the company was just meaning a LinkedIn clone to “just” be a basic profile upload. Which is probably not that much more than your Twitter clone, just a few extra DB tables.
Still sounds unreasonable for an intern for sure. But I’m sure a few desperate or skilled people would be able to get something meeting the rough requirements.
Yeah, seems like they’re trying to get you to do their work for them. And if not, their expectations are completely off the chart compared to where they should be. As much as it sucks, I’d say let this one go. You dont want to work for a place with red flags like this.
Lmao That’s fucking insane.
They want you to build them their cash cow linked in competitor for free and without ever hiring you. Some dipshit manager figures they can glom together a bunch of the answers and have a working website lol.
I’m just a hobbyist. What do I know. But it would take me a few months to do this, easily. And it would be a pale, buggy, shitty vague approximation of LinkedIn at best …Wtaf
PS: if they were smart (but evil) they would’ve decomposed the problem and had each candidate work on a small part of it and then integrated it lol
One of the other applicants has to make a LinkedIn clone, but just the feeds lol
Agreed unreasonable, however if you are interested in building something like that make sure you self host it and have control over login and accounts so that they can’t just freeboot it off of you.
PM me if you’re in need of hosting resources. I have some temp space on my cluster I could give you.
https://engineering.linkedin.com/30/building-linkedin-opensocial-container
That could be a good spring board for a similar project you could build for your resume for other companies
Note: I am not suggesting you complete this project for that company within 2 days
That could be a good spring board for a similar project you could build for your resume for other companies
I’m planning to work over this project, but I’ll add this as my personal project instead. I have withdrawn my application. Too bad I had my hopes high on getting a job.
You’re going to get a job if you stick with it. Keep building projects and add them to your resume. Once you have enough stuff built you can point to it as proof of work.
Trust me, you dodged a bullet. That place would’ve likely kept you for less than a year to avoid having to pay out unemployment.
Maybe it’s just me but I’m happy when an intern knows how to write a for loop.
I’m happy if they can walk me through a problem conceptually and not make a horrible mess of a query.
Pff what luxury! I’m happy if they can tell the frontend from the backend.
I don’t think they’re trying to get free work out of you - I can’t see how the end result would be useful to them, really.
That being said, the project is absolutely unreasonable. If you had more time, that’s kind of just a “fuck you” to you schedule and life, and this short is impossible to make any real progress on.
