I think the take-home project can be successful, but not as most companies implement it.
A basic rule of courtesy is that a company shouldn't ask the candidate to invest more time in the process than they are willing to invest.
Most companies will spend an hour or half an hour talking to you on the phone and then give you a project that takes at least 8 hours to do. That's a ridiculous ask. It assumes that the candidate already knows they want to work for your company and is willing to invest that much time to get the job.
They forget that an interview is a 2-way street. The candidate is also deciding if the company is the right fit for them, and being asked to invest a ton of your own time when the company doesn't seem willing to invest theirs is a huge turn off.
There are a lot of advantages to a take-away task - such as being able to write actual code with a computer on your own stack as opposed to just writing on a white board (which some people have problems doing).
However, this type of ask should only come after both the company and the individual have already invested significant and equal amounts of time - enough time for the candidate to be sure (or fairly confident) the company is a place they'd like to work. This means the take-away may only be useful after the on-site, or possibly right before it but after a few rounds where the candidate gets to understand the company better.
A basic rule of courtesy is that a company shouldn't ask the candidate to invest more time in the process than they are willing to invest.
Most companies will spend an hour or half an hour talking to you on the phone and then give you a project that takes at least 8 hours to do. That's a ridiculous ask. It assumes that the candidate already knows they want to work for your company and is willing to invest that much time to get the job.
They forget that an interview is a 2-way street. The candidate is also deciding if the company is the right fit for them, and being asked to invest a ton of your own time when the company doesn't seem willing to invest theirs is a huge turn off.
There are a lot of advantages to a take-away task - such as being able to write actual code with a computer on your own stack as opposed to just writing on a white board (which some people have problems doing).
However, this type of ask should only come after both the company and the individual have already invested significant and equal amounts of time - enough time for the candidate to be sure (or fairly confident) the company is a place they'd like to work. This means the take-away may only be useful after the on-site, or possibly right before it but after a few rounds where the candidate gets to understand the company better.