Three interviews. That was the warm-up. Then the company dropped the real ask: a 15-to-20-hour project — essentially a complete marketing strategy with competitive analysis — before they'd even schedule the next two interview rounds. The candidate did the math. Five total rounds, a project that would pay a junior consultant four figures, and no guarantee beyond a maybe. She withdrew, posting on r/recruitinghell: "This isn't Squid Game."
The project brief, she later shared, was indistinguishable from a paid consulting engagement. Industry-standard deliverables. No anonymisation. No indication it would be reviewed in any form other than as a work product the company could use. The post triggered a wave of comments from candidates who'd been asked for campaign plans, codebases, and architectural diagrams — all dressed up as "assessments" — and then rejected with no feedback.
Reddit's verdict was unanimous: if your take-home looks like something a client would pay for, it is something a client should pay for. Asking a candidate to do it for free and then scheduling two more interviews on the back end is not diligence. It is procurement with extra steps.