The assignment was straightforward: develop a communications plan for the firm's new social media management service. The candidate, applying for a marketing role at a mid-sized agency, delivered a five-page launch strategy. The hiring team was effusive. The work was "exactly what we were looking for." They talked next steps.
Then the tone shifted. The recruiter emailed that the role "no longer had a budget." The candidate, polite and professional, thanked them and quietly revoked the company's access to the shared document.
Three days later, the firm called back — now agitated. The document was gone. They had scheduled a team meeting to roll out the plan the following month and hadn't saved a copy. They needed access restored immediately.
The candidate's reply was simple: $100 an hour to license the work.
The post drew 4,000 upvotes on Reddit's r/jobsearchhell. Commenters called the firm's admission "wild" — they'd admitted the plan was valuable enough to build a meeting around, but not valuable enough to pay the person who wrote it. One observer noted the broader pattern: "This was a scam. At least you were smart enough to keep control of the output; most people just email over the documents."