After speaking with an internal recruiter that thought I'd be a good fit, I was asked to provide a "work sample". What was asked for was a very in depth strategy for on boarding new team members, project delivery strategies, ideal team structure, effective communication strategies, and more. I provided the request via a link that I control - I was rejected although I can tell the document was never viewed. I think it's a red flag for a company to even ask for such a thing and I've learned a valuable lesson in the process - any company that puts up barriers to recruitment is not in touch with the current marketplace. I also think it's very disrespectful to ask people to invest time in something that you won't look at.

I was contacted by this company for a role as an engineering manager. After an initial chat with a recruiter from their side, I was asked to prepare a sample work on some aspects of growing their engineering team. I did my best to complete the work and send it through the same day, despite having a busy day and therefore going into late evening. It is really disappointing that after spending time to prepare the document and submitting it there was no acknowledgement nor a thank you for the effort. I told myself to wait and see if they were going to contact me at all. After a week, though, I decided to contact them, anyway, to ask whether they had received my document. It was only after asking that they replied saying they decided not to proceed with my application and they had move forward with another candidate. I think the right behaviour is to thank immediately any candidate that has dedicated time and effort, that they could have spent with their family instead, instead of ignoring them completely. Please start respecting candidates who apply for your jobs before even thinking of growing your team. Other company are so much ahead in this area.