I had an extremely disappointing experience with Surge Global’s interview process. After being given a complex take home assignment that involved both manual and automation testing, I dedicated an entire weekend to completing it, including learning Playwright from scratch to meet the automation requirement. After submission, I heard nothing for over two weeks. I had to follow up myself just to get a response. When they finally replied, the feedback was abrupt, harsh, and lacking any recognition of the working solution I submitted. The critique listed several expectations (like Page Object Model, parameterization, etc.) that were never clearly stated in the original assignment instructions. They also completely ignored the comprehensive manual testing documentation I provided. It felt like the effort candidates put in was neither respected nor valued. Asking candidates to do unpaid, time consuming assignments and then providing cold, checklist style rejections without proper communication or constructive feedback reflects poorly on the company’s culture and hiring ethics. Companies that claim to value professionalism should lead by example. Surge Global failed to demonstrate that in my experience.