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Antiwork

“Assessments” aka Free Labour

I've had it with the assessments, tests, or any exercises that companies force upon you during the hiring process. A bit of background : I'm in Europe, and I work in HR, mostly in recruitment. It's not what I want to do, but it pays the bills and I'm good at it. All I want is to make enough money to support my family until I can get some personal projects off the ground and quit this field. I've had two interviews for this European company. They want to create an office in my country and were looking for someone to head the recruitment there. Great, that's what I do. Pay seemed well and remote work was a non issue. Before the third interview, they ask for an “assessment” (their words, not mine) consisting of one page of questions, sourcing, etc. Yes, it was basically consulting work for free. Took…


I've had it with the assessments, tests, or any exercises that companies force upon you during the hiring process.

A bit of background : I'm in Europe, and I work in HR, mostly in recruitment. It's not what I want to do, but it pays the bills and I'm good at it. All I want is to make enough money to support my family until I can get some personal projects off the ground and quit this field.

I've had two interviews for this European company. They want to create an office in my country and were looking for someone to head the recruitment there. Great, that's what I do. Pay seemed well and remote work was a non issue.

Before the third interview, they ask for an “assessment” (their words, not mine) consisting of one page of questions, sourcing, etc. Yes, it was basically consulting work for free. Took me five hours to complete. I had sworn never to do such a thing because it's free labor and I never want any of the people I hire to do this. But for some reason, I said yes.

Third interview rolls in, and I spend an hour explaining my four pages document to HR. I tried to be comprehensive and detailed.

Well, the following day at 8pm I received a generic email saying they were sorry but they weren't going to consider my profile anymore. No explanation, no feedback. Nothing. The person I interviewed with just took my document and didn't ask me anything.

I feel stupid, cheated and upset. I knew this was a possibility but I liked the job and the company. I could have used the money to pay the bills. But hey, there's always something else out there, I guess.

Anyway, just needed to rant. Thank you for indulging me.

Have a great evening, everyone.

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