Don’t Work for Free: How to Spot Red Flag Interview Assignments

You've been diligently applying to jobs here and there.

You've resisted the doom-and-gloom-scarcity-mindset-inner thoughts tempting you to slap that "Apply Now" button on LinkedIn.

And you've put the time into:

✔️ Strengthening your professional network
✔️ Optimizing your LinkedIn
✔️ And carefully curating your resume to sing your praises in the best way for each job.

Simply put: you've done everything right.

And now...finally, your strategic and targeted approach is paying off. After landing a couple interviews with a company you're excited about, they've asked you to submit an assignment as the penultimate step of the interview process.

👏🏽 [hold for applause] 👏🏽

"It's just a quick assignment to test your skills." says the Recruiter.

"No biggie." You think.

Except instead of excitement at this second-to-last opportunity to show them how great you are at your job — and let's be honest, how lucky they'd be to have you 😏 — your anxiety spikes, a pit forms in your stomach, and...is that dread that's just overtaken you?

Because that "quick assignment," the Recruiter nonchalantly brushed over? It's pretty major. We're talking the hours-long, weekend-ending, no-brunch-for-you-on-Sunday kind of major.

And you can't exactly put your finger on it, but it feels more like free work vs. a way to simply measure your aptitude.

Yep...that's dread, all right.

I'm Tessa.

And I spent over a decade in the recruiting space—doing everything from hiring employees to designing equitable and efficient interview processes to avoid this very scenario. Now, I spend my time as a professional Career Consultant helping job seekers like you tackle this wild (occasionally AI-infested) world of job applications, interviews, and career strategy.

So, I've got you.

And in this moment, what you're feeling is valid.

Interviewing as a whole can be messy, discombobulated, imbalanced, stressful, and (sometimes), a bit unhinged. So the confusion around interview assignments is more than understandable.

Here's the TLDR:

• Are interview assignments "normal"? Yes.

• Do companies overstep when it comes to interview assignments? Also yes.

But it can definitely be tough to spot the signs of typical behavior vs. when your time and expertise are being taken advantage of and disrespected.

Don't worry—there's no earthly reason why you should know the differences between 🔴red, 🟠orange, and 🟢green flag interview assignment behavior.

That's what you have me for.

So let's get into it...