What you're describing makes me think of something like a whiteboard exercise, less of a take home exercise

Lukewarm take: If hiring managers want people to succeed, they would share as much information upfront as possible. Especially with design tests. Treating applicants equally doesn't have to mean keeping everyone in the dark. Don't you *want* to hire someone?

What made you want to take the chance with those companies despite the fact they were making you do the exercise?

Yeah I never required a take home exercise. IMO if you require a take home exercise you know nothing about design and should not be hiring designers. There is nothing to learn from a take home exercise that you can’t learn from a case study.

Though I have been hired from take home exercises twice.

Plus, tasks on the real existing product with ask to improve it shouldn’t be allowed without pay. That’s some bs scam that’s going on currently.

As a former hiring manager… you do want people to succeed and the amount depends on how deep into the process you are. I used design ‘exercises’ as a way to see how you work and how you think. I wasn’t necessarily looking for a specific end result.

I've pushed back using experience as reasoning but then they'll just say "it gives an unbiased/even playing field" so 🤷🏻‍♀️

People make odd choices out of "fairness" that don't quite add up

Agree! And then if you see cv and portfolio of designer that has like 10+ years of experience, what that additional task is supposed to show you?

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