Test task - long, interesting, but ineffective

Not so long ago I had the opportunity to be invited for an interview at the recruitment agency for the project manager vacancy. In no case do I want to throw a shadow on such organizations, but in my case it was very difficult to communicate on the phone in detail. In short, it was a project to develop a mobile application for mobile devices.

It was assumed that the candidate should not only have competence directly in the field of IT project management, but also thoroughly understand the low-level nuances of development for Android. I managed to dissuade a pretty recruiter from this by showing that I had sufficient knowledge in the subject area. And here I am at the interview.

And what's there?

As it turned out, the position is uncommon, so another girl spoke with me - the coordinator of the staff selection group. Regardless of my gentlemanhood, I got the first word. I told about my professional experience, achievements, some failures. Then came the turn to learn about the vacancy.

So, the project manager for creating a killer product in the field of mobile advertising. It is necessary to put together practically from scratch a team of developers, to which then marketers, advertisers, accounts, etc. will join. Prospects - the general director of the resulting company, a share in profits, cookies, and other nishtyaki.
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Where does the money come from?

The investor is the founder and owner of 2 holdings (one about finance, another about IT and startups, while the second is funded by the first), the second also includes the personnel agency where the conversation takes place. Googling after the interview showed that, apparently, the money (or even the darkness of the money) really is, and everything that has been said may well be close to the truth.

In general, I asked questions - everything looked very tasty. The only thing that seemed strange was that, despite the darkness of money mentioned above, the coordinator of the staff selection group, in my opinion, paid undue attention to the amount of monthly compensation I requested. They agreed that it does not accept decisions of this kind, and after successfully completing the test task, at a meeting with an investor, it will be possible to discuss these points.

Let's get your test case here.

Before, having got acquainted with the test task, to agree to it, I clarified whether it is realistic to have the desired amount as a salary. On assurances of the coordinator of the recruitment group, it turned out that yes, it is real.

As a test, it was proposed to make a presentation covering 9 points. I will not publish these items for understandable reasons, the point is to analyze the mobile advertising market: past products, history, prospects; and propose an idea for a product that will be in the subject. All about all the week.

In the subject, so in the subject

During the week I pored over creating the presentation. It was difficult, but interesting. In total, I spent about 16 hours on it. I finished and sent. It took a little more than a week to get a final response from the recruitment agency, during which time we called up several times to clarify, basically, the points on salary expectations. My position was exactly the one that was mutually accepted at the interview - in substantive communication with the investor at the second stage, I am ready to move within a reasonable framework depending on the goals set, existing expectations and tasks to be solved.

And what is the result?

As a result, the presentation of all the decision makers liked the holding very much, but they do not have such salaries, and they can offer me for a trial period, for 3 months, the salary is more than 2 times less than the desired one and exactly 2 times less than the current . And after passing the trial period, it will be slightly increased, up to 80% of the current. Well, yes, I thought so, and said that they were late for about 5 years.

And what is this all about?

Well, firstly, the headline seems to hint at the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others (which is always good), secondly: there is a presentation, in my opinion it turned out to be worthwhile, but there is no adequate feedback, and there is no point, but time and energy on the movement of the gyrus spent. But, perhaps, it will be useful to someone, or there will be a discussion, which can also be useful, it is better and better than lying dead in the magnetized HDD sectors, stupidly increasing the entropy with its appearance.

And here it is - goo.gl/yLJu5 .

Thank you for attention!