I applied over the weekend and a coordinator reached out to me on Wednesday. Standard initial message, they are excited that you applied, etc. What was very odd to me was the fact that they ask you to complete an assignment as the first step before even getting on the phone. Based on the questions, it seemed to me like they wanted me to work for free. I had to live source on LinkedIn for current roles... Candidate experience is what will make it or break it for a lot of people. It would have been great to get a phone call at least to talk about the assignment... If I can't get a human interaction from the start I can only imagine what it'd be to work there. It seemed like an odd practice as I have only done assignments for companies by the time I got to the third or fourth round. These would be onsite, with the manager... Real time... I don't see the value added to a candidate who gets questions that can easily be copied and pasted answers from a website or an interview schedule from interviews they've had in the past. I was on the fence and wanted to withdraw but I thought eh, why not, I could submit the assignment and see their thought process and possibly understand why they do it this way?What they asked wasn't hard. So I send my assignment, which I had an actual recruiter review before submitting - and they say sorry we are moving on.. no feedback on the assignment whatsoever, but you're welcome! I sourced for you, for free. Am I upset that I didn't get the job? Nope. Is their practice upsetting? Yes. You should give a candidate the time of day before making them do work for you. It seems as though they are trying to improve their own systems by fishing for 'mock' assignments. And did I mention their initial email has a very messy format? You don't need 3-4 spaces between paragraphs. To each their own I guess. Companies need to treat people like people. Get on the phone with them, get a feel for what they are looking for make sure values are aligned and then possibly send a task for them to do. Leaves a bad impression. I am actively interviewing and this is the first unpleasant experience I've had.