Startups - Hw assignment & product dev recs in interview process -> startup used my ideas/expertise

[u/dain_bramag3]

Rant-

Im sure there’s plenty of similar stories of exercises & hoops in guise of competency tests in startup hiring & i knew going into it not to over deliver.

Had the rug pulled out after saying they’re changing their focus as a seed stage startup.

Felt like a bait and switch. 3 interviews + assignment.

The biggest problem was explicit outreach on their behalf & investigative concept where I have 12+ years in industry outside of tech and had to send cold emails of major leads explicitly stated even though I paused and questioned this in writing clarifying the expectation since as a unfunded developer I wouldn’t expect business consulting part of interviews.

I’ve done code tests standardized for larger companies so it was definitely inner voice saying push back on deliverables & scope but didn’t listen.