Sure, the presentation requirement is worth discussion, but what about the appalling tone of the email itself? It's a laundry list of ways they hold you in contempt.
Prepare for interruptions. Manage your time wisely. Prepare perfectly and be perfect.
I'll never be able to reconcile this industry's complaints about engineer shortages with the way so many companies talk to us like we're shit on their shoes.
Where you see condescension I see a recruiter being genuinely helpful by clearly laying out expectations for what will happen during the presentation and how it will go. Some of that stuff might seem obvious for some people, but my experience is that if you don't provide info like that, then you'll get people that show up completely unprepared, presenting the wrong info, unable to handle questions from the audience, etc. And I think letting that happen to someone is doing a bigger disservice to the candidate than possibly offending their ego by giving them too many directions.
The task is bigger than I would personally consider doing unpaid, and I think that is the problem being identified here. It's an assessment of Public Speaking skills that don't immediately seem to be related to the job - I'd judge the company harshly for this.
But, if I had agreed to do this (if it was a paid, professional task), I would find the setting out of expectations extremely useful and appreciate it.
I want to know what to expect, so I can prepare for it, i.e. spend less time preparing for the unknown elements.
That email was normal to me for small audience talks. Also, as a professor, I encourage students to ask questions during lecture (my class sizes are small enough so that it works fine).
You get paid to lecture and educate. This was somebody who was asked to do a free presentation (for a job where presentations are likely a secondary responsibility) after making it through two rounds of interviews
I'm an NYC-based full-stack hacker with 5 years experience from start-ups to Google.
My specialty is in backends, building websites, and developer tools (testing, internal tools, continuous integration, you name it). I also love consulting on existing projects if you need an informed perspective. But you know how it is -- in the end, I do whatever needs doing.
Currently, since I work on the side, I'm seeking projects on the order of 10 hours/week or less.
To sum up, I build high-quality solutions and I care most about communication, craft, and professionalism.
Java, Python, PHP, Hadoop, Scheme, HTML and CSS, testing and build systems, big data, tools, robustness, and problem-solving.
Prepare for interruptions. Manage your time wisely. Prepare perfectly and be perfect.
I'll never be able to reconcile this industry's complaints about engineer shortages with the way so many companies talk to us like we're shit on their shoes.