Every shop I've worked at we have followed what I thought was a standard hiring sequence: 1. solicit resumes 2. phone screen applicants we are interested in 3. in person interview 4. in some shops 2nd in person interview (just w/ CEO for example)

Most places I apply to follow something along these lines. But some shops want to give me a test or ask me to build something after I send in my resume. They usually say "congratulations, you've made it to stage 2 of our hiring process!" But for all I know they are asking every applicant they get a resume from to do the same thing.

This annoys me because it doesn't scale. If I'm applying for a lot of positions I can't spend all my time doing work that potentially can only land me one job. Plus there's no shared dedication to the process. If we do a 45 minute phone screen, that's 45 minutes the company commits to me and 45 minutes I commit to the company in hopes of a potential match.

Do you guys have a policy regarding these sorts of things?