Back in 2022 when I was looking for my next role, one of the companies I was exploring assigned a take-home design exercise during the interview process, and I…

Why take-home design exercises aren&#39;t good for you. 👇 | Peter Lewis posted on the topic | LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peterlewisdesign_jobhunting-productdesign-hiring-activity-7130553421752913921-0I-E?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

If they insisted (without payment) I’d see it as a red flag

Hope you land this! 💪🏽 If you do end up joining this team, you can help push for steering away from these take-homes!

They were open to the feedback, and ended up saying they wanted to stick with it for consistency with other candidates who had already gone through it, but offered to compensate me for the time.

Thanks Larissa, this was from a while ago tho

How did the company take this? And what if a fresh designer bring up this concern? Would the hiring team be impressed or bothered? 🤔 How to proceed if the team is bothered and insisted on the challenge? I guess it’s a semi red flag then?

Peter I‘d love to read the article you mentioned in your response, might sharing the link here? :)

If we all banded together— we could end this practice. 🤷🏻‍♂️

One of the arguments I hear for these tests is "we need to treat every candidate the exact same way" but that's more of an argument not to do one than anything lol

Paid would be great, I ended up proposing that to this company

Here ya go! https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peterlewisdesign_jobhunting-productdesign-hiring-activity-7130553421752913921-0I-E?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

This is the best response, well balanced and to the point. I wonder why this type of content never touches LinkedIn.

and in case if it’s a paid take-home design exercise? you still prefer to go without it? in the last stage of the interviews for my current position i was offered to do a paid task and was given a week to do so

There are still the concerns about context and such but that could be worked out with the hiring manager if paid

When I was looking for my next role, one of the companies I was exploring assigned a take-home design exercise during the interview process, and I had to figure out how to proceed. 

Here's what I explained to them (+ a proposal)—if this is you, feel free to steal it! 👇

Take home exercises are savage. Especially for people with kids and/or full time jobs.

This type of post-interview exercises is becoming more and more common even in comms and content-production jobs. And I 100% agree with your position, it’s unpaid labour in an unrealistic scenario judged by people with unrealistic expectations.

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