I had a really lovely initial chat with a couple people that I thought went really well. High salary, very transparent with it from the get go, seemed really positive. I then got told I had got through to the second stage of the process, in which I got given a task that would have taken me more than one full working day to complete to a high standard. I questioned this in which the recruiter clearly got flustered and gave me a bunch of non-answers to the questions I asked. I withdrew myself from the process because I fundamentally disagree with working that much for free when I was interviewing for a mid-level position in which I shouldn’t have to prove myself that much that I’m capable. Turns out a few weeks later the ‘scenario’ I was given was for a client they had just won, and they very likely would have taken my *full* press plan (including press release, targets, written pitches) and used it as their own had I not got the job. Disgraceful. I’m not against completing a small task (a couple hours, give or take) but not when it’s obvious the work is going to be used. Glad I trusted my gut on this one.

3 stages The first they’re extremely friendly and very personable. Second they’re still very friendly and ask you to prepare a vigorous task (that they definitely use in their proposals when outreaching to new talent). Third is still very casual, you’ll sit with department heads to discuss your task and they’ll probe ever so slightly. Then you will either receive an offer (via department head) or a decline (via recruiter)