I’m a product designer and I applied for this company. I had the first chat with the recruiter and she was walking me through the hiring process. She causally mentioned I’d had to redesign their whole landing page, JUST a one week project so they get a better impression of my skills.
I said absolutely not. I’m happy to do a hypothetical design challenge of a few hours max, but I’m not working for free. I’m also glad to share how much I charge by the hour and they pay me for the work, otherwise we end the hiring process here because this is a huge red flag.
Needless to say they didn’t want to pay and we finished the hiring process there.
I’m experienced enough to say no and see the bullshit. However there’s a lot of young designers who will think this is normal in our industry – it’s not and it shouldn’t be. Don’t work for free.