A distributed startup wants a full day of unpaid work before interviewing; is that normal or a reason to decline?
2 Answers
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A full-day trial sounds like diligence, but it’s usually free labor unless tightly limited. Decline or renegotiate if the work resembles real company deliverables.
- Ask for a paid trial, or a 1-2 hour skills exercise using fictional or sanitized material.
- Confirm who owns the output and whether it will be used commercially.Example: reviewing a mock customer dataset is reasonable; building their live reporting dashboard is not. Reply asking for a paid, scoped alternative before scheduling the interview.
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If the task is required before any interview, I’d treat that sequence as the main concern. A serious employer can assess fit in a conversation before asking for significant work; a full unpaid day shifts the hiring cost onto candidates.
I would decline unless they offer a paid assessment or replace it with a short, hypothetical exercise. The simple test: could they use the result in their product, operations, or client work? If yes, it should be paid. Have they explained why an interview cannot come first?
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