Applied for position online. Their HR recruiter followed up with me about a month later to schedule a phone interview with the hiring manager. After the phone interview the hiring manager asked if I would do a case study.
She had reviewed 30 candidates and case studies prior to mine. The hiring manager wouldn't tell me the salary range for the position until I completed the case study. (I found out later the salary was about 20% below average salary's for the position in the area).
The case study was to create a project to solve a lost luggage. I spent about 16 hours over the weekend to create a 15 page project identifying issues and proposing solution; including user stories and acceptance criteria.
After submitting the case study, their HR recruiter said they wanted to move forward with the me but wanted me to complete a root cause analysis first.
I spent another 5 hours creating a root cause analysis.
After all that work, I never heard back from anyone. I emailed twice over the next 4 weeks asking for an update and they never replied.
Even a simple "thanks but we decided to go with someone else" would have been appreciated, but no reply at all is very unprofessional, especially after receiving a full defined project and asking me to complete a root cause.