Job Seekers Drowning in Ridiculous Assignments
15 posts across 7 communities in the last 30 days; 47% from r/recruitinghell.
“1-2 hours is too much you have to pick and choose. [re: I'm so tired of answering stupid questions when submitting job applications]”
“This should be something you do on your own though. If you can't handle it on your own how are you going to handle the job itself?”
“Bud, hate to break it to you but this is part of the job now. Sometimes I need to generate interactive wireframes to play with concepts before I bring them to design and engineering. Also this not touching production code. My ass can barely sql so I’m would never do anything…”
Candidates are expressing frustration with increasingly complex and time-consuming take-home assignments during the hiring process. These assignments often involve unfamiliar software, extensive documentation, and video presentations, consuming significant time and effort without fair compensation. This is creating a negative candidate experience and deterring potential applicants.
SOURCES (60)
“The job I recently lost absolutely stank of the CFO sitting at his computer trying to follow what he learned in business school while our customers were screaming for the opposite. Pointless contracts, locking small business customers into commitments they didn’t know they were making…”
“Lmao this is like asking a doctor to do a surgery as a home take assignment. Utterly ridiculous industry. [re: Am I losing it, or is this pre-call take-home assignment completely unhinged?]”
“Oh, and it requires your webcam on the ENTIRE session, for some weird reason, this is just for a social media analyst role, not at the damn CIA or something submitted by /u/blyrryface44 [link] [comments]”
“1-2 hours is too much you have to pick and choose. [re: I'm so tired of answering stupid questions when submitting job applications]”
“The “40 hours garunteed” part is huge, because some places say full-time and then drip-feed tasks.”
“Workday is evil and companies who use them for job applications are just as evil.”
“I’ve done a few of these and they are all so ridiculous. No pay? I thought they might offer something but No. Crap.”
“They shouldn’t hire any of those people; if they were actually successful in their side hustle they wouldn’t need this job. And they’ll be distracted because they have another private business.”
“This should be something you do on your own though. If you can't handle it on your own how are you going to handle the job itself?”
“Provide options, then prioritize the persona and outcome that you want. You should also have metrics that you'll measure to show success. Once you start there, the rest of the items will fall into place. How I read the coverage they're asking for: * Product solution (info + E2E workflow) * Persona (info + incentives) * GTM and Risks (compliance, scale, etc)”
“All I’m gonna say is they are horrible all the way around , that job didn’t last too long submitted by /u/Michigansfinestt [link] [comments]”
“Bud, hate to break it to you but this is part of the job now. Sometimes I need to generate interactive wireframes to play with concepts before I bring them to design and engineering. Also this not touching production code. My ass can barely sql so I’m would never do anything that dumb lol”
“I'm complaining abt the usefulness of take home assignments in the current market not AI. I like AI”
“AI was used for formatting but the observations and insights are true to my experience. Have a look at my history if u r still sus”
“I have not applied during the most recent "we're all on LLMs now" of the last 9 months, but I did quite a few take homes in 2024. Of all of them, there were often designed "tricks" of the data you were supposed to catch, which I think is LLM bread and butter to catch and find. So hopefully those are over with. Then, interestingly, many cases that I failed, I learned either in the interview process or later that those bounded problems were actually not intended to be bound”
“I don’t have to know what you do. I’m telling you two hours per resume is too much but you do you boo.”
“Yeah I’ve had several take home assignments that paid me 200-400 for completing them. If this is a similar situation then I don’t see a problem.”
“It's not difficult to learn, it's difficult to endure to use it. Everyone lie about using Jira and it always ultimately devolves into one of those shit tool everyone hate with passion.”
“it's like those teachers who assign 5 hours of homework acting like their class is the only one you're taking”
“At least the other two times I had an email from the company saying to expect a first-round test. This one's blind pretty much.”
“Oh same! Has happened to me 3+ times now, so even if u take hours of ur life to complete this difficult assessment, there’s still a (high) chance no one will review ur application further.”
Illegal? That seems a bit strong. How about just saying no?
“No more than 2 stages should be allowed. And no 'homework task' either. Unemployed labour. I got to stage fucking 3 and then they said prepare a full presentation on what you'd do in the first 90 days to get yourself familiar with the technology stack. (cyber sec job) Either make it illegal or force companies to pay candidates for their time. You waste my time, I'll wasted their time by not showing up. This is hell. submitted by /u/cybrzone_ [link] [comments]”
“No no, they wanted line by line critical path submitted. Before they could "Do their job" which at that point I was so stunned I didn't even know what to say. If all of that is done... what is your job..exactly?”
RUN!!!!!!!!! Heavy workload not enough pay and very micromanaged
“Yeah, I'm getting confused by their response. If that is to be your responsibility, wtf is the point of the BA?”
“I don't normally double tap on a thread but in this case it might also be worth reminding that there's all sorts of different BA. Thinking that they are only useful for requirements can be leaving a bit of value on the table. Now some of them are only good for that and probably not even very good for that and so that's all you can use them for but if you get one that is professional and experienced you can normally apply them to a whole bunch of tasks on a project BTW I just organise”
“If i understand why thursday matters, I can handle the next scheduling problem without asking you.”
“I wish I could, it's a very small company. They are so bad, they have lost more than 60% of staff since last year.”
“It's not THAT bad, but definitely the process is completely out of touch with reality. At lest some companies have been replacing take-home exercises with live discussions, which helps weed out the LLM abusers. I'm also seeing companies move more into an on-site last round situation, where they ask you to come anything between 1h to half a day to meet with different team members. Here I need to alert people for a huge red flag: if they say they are doing a "workshop" with "”
the whole "do free work for us" interview style needs to die already
“Because then corporate would know they aren't working, and are instead studying for their classes which is a no no for Underpaid Job Position #480234.”
“8 stages for a content manager role? Are you kidding me? Imagine doing the trial half day and still not getting the job. submitted by /u/AGreaterCall [link] [comments]”
“I had one company giving me only 24 hours (Tuesday to Wednesday) for a take-home assignment which included a PRD, presentation and a vibe-coded solution.”
“Case study doesn’t feel like a red flag. Timing expectation for you to complete it over the long weekend is though.”
“They're getting really sloppy with these job ads. Or they really do just want to pay in experience. submitted by /u/PretzelPrize [link] [comments]”
The word tantrum is so overused. Both of you are doing too much
“Countless weekends of mine have been ruined doing free work for recruiters who didn't even have the decency to send a rejection email. We need to riot”
““Salesforce Accredited Agentforce 360 for Public Sector Professional” is just getting ridiculous. Do they get paid per word or something? submitted by /u/takahe [link] [comments]”
Have you ever worked in a professional environment before?