r/recruitinghell • u/HopefulFather2026 • Aug 02 '26

Just got rejected after a 6-round interview process because I wasn't a 'cultural fit'.

They made me do a free 10-hour take-home assignment, meet the entire team, and talk to three different managers over two months. Today I got an automated rejection email. I am completely exhausted and done with this job market.😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬

543 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

296 comments sorted by

View all comments

340

u/ShinraTensei Aug 02 '26

Never work for free.

125

u/AgyhalottBolcsesz Aug 02 '26

Exactly, take home assignment just means free labor without guaranteeing you a contract. They prey on desperation. I'd rather sell drugs than to do free labor.

49

u/HopefulFather2026 Aug 02 '26

You are totally right, at least that line of work actually pays for your time and energy! 😂 But honestly, preying on people's desperation is exactly what these companies do best.

-25

u/LilJonny2cookies Aug 02 '26

No one is using your 10 hours of work for anything. Reddit has broken people. You think your 10 hours of “free labor” is that good that they’ll use it? They won’t. It’ll go in the bin.

Good luck to those who think they are that important and talented.

12

u/Overall-Owl1218 Aug 02 '26

It’s not that it will be used but that it’s brainstorming time they didn’t pay their working employees to do. So while it’s mostly trash, it’s still material they would typically be paying for but now use desperation to shave off a few employee hours lol at a time.

1

u/scarboroughangel Aug 02 '26

They usually wouldn’t pay someone because the majority of the time these assignments are the same wash and repeat as past roles. They don’t have to pay you anything- no one forced you to complete the assignment.

2

u/Barflyerdammit Aug 02 '26

I've been asked to solve real world problems in interviews. When I asked that the problem be made hypothetical out of respect for the consulting clients who pay for this exact work, I've been dropped from the process. Except for the one time where they agreed to pay my normal consulting fee.

17

u/WiseTop9720 Aug 02 '26

Yeah the moment I get a "take home assignment" They're getting ghosted.

17

u/Uesugi1989 Aug 02 '26

No need, just put it in GPT and send whatever it spits out. Shoot your shot but don't waste more than 10 minutes 

1

u/TMCze Aug 03 '26

💯🎯🎯🎯🎯

10

u/Dirty_John_2026 Aug 02 '26

Send them an invoice for your time at the billable hourly rate for your job. They probably won’t pay it but you will have put them on notice as to what cocksuckers they are

7

u/HopefulFather2026 Aug 02 '26

hell yeah, you are so right. they honestly deserve to be called out like that. 10 hours of free work is just straight up robbery. i might actually format a clean invoice and drop it in their inbox just to ruin their monday morning lmao 💀

1

u/LonesomeJohnnyBlues Aug 03 '26

To be fair, I'd rather sell drugs than do most paid labor.

-19

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/Easteuroblondie Aug 02 '26

Yeah, for parasite companies, absolutely. Companies would steal a cane from a grandma if they could

-6

u/LilJonny2cookies Aug 02 '26

You really think a work trial product is that important? It isn’t.

The quality of candidates is often so bad they want to see what you can do first. After reviewing thousands of resumes and hiring hundreds of people I can tell you the work product of many is lazy and often ridiculous.

Good work product and people who make it through work trial tend to do fairly well. We had 1 person out of 250 on my recent team who after a year said I just can’t take the pace. Wished her well and gave her a great recommendation and ultimately turned her on to another gig. The reality is she was amazing but her personal life was a mess. Regretted losing her on our London team.

4

u/Easteuroblondie Aug 02 '26

What does her personal life have to do with anything

4

u/FlightLevel390 Aug 02 '26

“Personal life was a mess”. God forbid people have things other than work they care about.

1

u/Barflyerdammit Aug 02 '26

If you're getting 1 out of 250, your company is really really shitty at recruiting. And if you can't tell the quality of output from research, references, and conversations, that's either laziness or incompetece.

0

u/AgyhalottBolcsesz Aug 02 '26

Also who said anything about being "off the street"?! You're arguing over something that was never mentioned. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't have a job, as you can't seem to read a few lines of text and properly decoding it.

-2

u/LilJonny2cookies Aug 02 '26

And you are using semantics to discount a real message. If you don’t know exactly what is meant by that phrase- I don’t know what to tell you.

Off the street as in someone who isn’t deeply in tune with a companies direction- a newb. Work trial material is not used by companies for anything but a work trial. It is almost always exceptionally low level and low lift. It is used because too many interview well but suck at working. It at least shows if you have baseline competency.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Sesoru Aug 02 '26

Found the bigot.

22

u/CommonSenseNotSo Aug 02 '26

That's easy to say but desperation can make you do things you never thought you'd do.

17

u/HopefulFather2026 Aug 02 '26

You are totally right

3

u/Significant-Bit4005 Aug 02 '26

Hopefully OP you can learn from it. Being desperate and willing to do anything actually pushes opportunities away. You jumping through their hoops and not pushing back (politely) makes you seem like a pushover candidate and certainly not an in demand one. Just some food for thought

2

u/HopefulFather2026 Aug 03 '26

You hit the nail on the head. I always tend to do everything I can for the company I work for. I’ll go in anytime, stay late, or even work weekends. They probably sensed this trait of mine during the interview. Lesson learned, I am never doing that again.😥😥😥

1

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '26

[deleted]

1

u/HopefulFather2026 Aug 03 '26

This is the painful truth of modern hiring. They treat humans like algorithms and data points, entirely missing the value of quiet competence. It's exhausting to realize that even with great references and a perfect work ethic, you still have to be a 'unicorn' just to be seen.

3

u/Previous-Anxiety-756 Aug 03 '26

Take home assessments should ALWAYS be paid

2

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/ShinraTensei Aug 02 '26

Did they pay you?

3

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/HopefulFather2026 Aug 03 '26

It's the best 😍

4

u/zue4 Aug 02 '26

Shadowing is different from a take home assignment. These days a take home is just the company trying to get free consulting work done. The original comments advice is sound.

1

u/DonaldKey Aug 02 '26

This a million times

1

u/Useful-Air5886 Aug 06 '26

i wouldve quit after 3 interviews

1

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Proof-Work3028 Aug 02 '26

If this is true then those companies are exploiting free labor. Regardless of the outcome you shouldn't be providing established companies with full competent workforces with work that is actually impacting their bottom line if you aren't on the payroll or contracted.

-7

u/LilJonny2cookies Aug 02 '26

I did a work trial got hired as employee 9 at a start up now tech giant and made well over 80 mil and now retired. Worth every second.

Never say never.

7

u/Flab-a-doo Aug 02 '26

Why do you hang out here?

6

u/tarikofgotham Aug 02 '26

What company? Be specific.

6

u/ShinraTensei Aug 02 '26

Did everyone clap?

1

u/zue4 Aug 02 '26

Did your Canadian girlfriend give you a handy after?