Tabs vs spaces is a little bit of an exaggeration. But it was a number of jobs where they dont tell you what it is they are looking for and you just are ment to glean it by reading tea leaves or some such.

One that stands out was an interview with Octopus and they tell me "solve this problem" and i write legitimate code that solves all cases of the problem and fully unit tested and they send an email saying "sorry we were looking for code in a more functional programming style. We are not continuing with this application". I was mad... If they just told me that i would have written it like that.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I get why it's necessary but outside of programming jobs are there other job applications that require you to do actual work? I'm not a programmer, have done dozens of job interviews and have never done work outside the interview outside of preparing the job application.

I've done tests at the interview (excel, and a written maths test for one a long time ago) and I've done psychometric tests but nothing is quite the same as having to build an entire project with a high chance of getting rejected.

[–] MadPsyentist@lemmy.nz 3 points 6 days ago

Unsure. I have really only seen it in programming. I dont think accountants get told "here balance these books before we proceed with the rest of the interview" designers and architects maybe asked to show a portfolio of work though.