job interview assignment reddit

What Every Job Seeker Should Know About Work Assignments During the Interview Process

You’re progressing well through an interview process, and you think you’re close to landing that coveted offer, when the employer says, “One more thing—we have a little homework for you.”

This tactic is used by a lot of companies (especially startups), and with good reason: The hiring manager gets a firsthand look at your approach, creativity, quality, turn-around speed, and communication and presentation style and can gauge how serious you are about the position.

If you really want that job, your instinct will likely be to put your best foot forward and provide the most fabulous project the employer has ever seen. But there’s something else to consider: You may end up putting in many hours of work, creating an awesome deliverable—and at the end of it all, still not getting the job. There’s even a chance that the company will take the ideas you labored over for its own benefit, and you’re left not only without an offer, but without compensation for all that hard work.

It’s happened to me: Once, at the end of a second round interview, a hiring manager asked me for a list of quick-hit ideas on increasing user engagement for his consumer website. I spent almost half a day coming up with a list of 10 great ideas, including many examples from other sites. After I proudly sent over my recommendations, I didn’t hear from the company for over two weeks. When I finally got a response, he thanked me for all my hard work and said that the company decided not to pursue the position at this time due to “internal matters.”

Who knows if this really was the case; but to my surprise, I noticed a handful of my ideas were actually implemented within the next few months on their site. Maybe these were ideas already in motion and my assignment only confirmed what was planned, but I couldn’t help but feel that I had been somewhat “used” and regretted putting so much time and effort into this homework.

While there are times you may want to go to the moon and back for a job , it’s also important to be careful how you approach these homework assignments—especially if you’re investing your time into applying to multiple jobs. Here are some tips on how to handle this tricky situation.

1. Understand General Goals and Expectations

First, it’s important to get a sense of how this assignment will factor into the overall evaluation of your candidacy. Is this the final hurdle before the job offer? (It should be.) How will this be weighed with other elements of your interview? (You should get some positive reinforcement that the company’s very interested and just wants to get a sense of how you work.) How long will the assignment take? (Being asked to spend more than 2-3 hours on an assignment before getting hired is bordering on disrespect.)

Don’t be afraid to ask questions like, “Can you help me understand how this assignment will be evaluated?” “Are you looking more for big-picture ideas, or a detailed look at my recommendations?” “Roughly how much time do you recommend I put into this assignment?” It’ll help you understand what the company is looking for and how much time you’re willing to put forth.

2. Ask for Data

Next, remember that you have every right to ask for information that’ll help you better tackle the assignment and not start from scratch (if you were hired, that’s what you’d obviously do , right?). So, put some onus on the company to provide relevant data. For example, if the company is asking for your ideas on potential partners, ask questions that’ll point you in the right direction, like, “Who are your current partners?” “What types of partners are you currently pursuing?” “What are the key metrics that define a successful partnership?”

And if the company doesn’t provide any more information? Do your best, but also make sure you express where you’ve made assumptions based on lack of information—e.g., “Without knowing what your current metrics for successful partnerships are, I’ve made suggestions for partners that will boost both brand awareness and website traffic. Obviously, if the company has different goals, I would be able to adjust these recommendations.”

And then don’t worry—if the hiring manager doesn’t offer it, he or she will understand that you’re operating under lack of information and history.

3. Outline Main Points, Only Tease the Details

More often than not, the primary reason companies dole out homework is to get a better sense of your thought process, as well as how you structure and convey your thoughts and ideas. There’s not necessarily a “right” answer, nor is there a need to get way down in the weeds.

So, don’t stress about providing a ton of information—just outline the main points (bullets and numbered lists usually work well). You can tease out more details as you’re talking through your assignment in the interview without having to write down your specific plans and fully fleshed out ideas. Remember: You don’t want the hiring manager to have the blueprints for your fabulous ideas—you want him or her to hire you so that you can be the one implement them!

4. If You’re Worried, Get an NDA in Place

Depending on the type of job function and level you’re interviewing for, it may not be a bad idea to request a non-disclosure agreement. If there is any confidential information you do not want shared widely, your assignment involves using data from your current employer, or you just have a nagging concern that the company may steal your best ideas, take a precaution and get a simple mutual NDA executed (many template NDA forms are available online for download). Don’t make it too legally formal—the company may get turned off by this move—just let the hiring manager know you just want to make sure things stay confidential and you’d be more comfortable providing details with a simple NDA in place. If he or she refuses to sign, this may be another warning flag.

Knocking a homework assignment out of the park can be an amazing chance to show you’re the best candidate of the bunch, but you never want to get in a situation where you’re wasting your time or being used for free labor. Follow these guidelines, and you’ll be able to present a great deliverable while making sure you’re spending your time and effort the right way.

Photo of man working courtesy of Shutterstock .

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Job interviews are a nightmare — and only getting worse

Employers are constantly finding new hoops for candidates to jump through.

by Emily Stewart

In late 2022, Jessica found herself in a predicament that will sound familiar to many job seekers: slogging through an extended interview process with seemingly no end in sight.

She was up for a job as a fundraiser at a major social services organization in New York. Across the span of two months, she took part in six separate interviews with nine people total, multiple of whom she met more than once. She’d pulled one of her first all-nighters in years putting together a dummy presentation on a hypothetical corporate partnership for interview No. 4, which entailed what she describes as a 15-minute “monologue” from her on the matter followed by a 45-minute Q&A with a panel. It wasn’t until the final interview that she got a real one-on-one sit-down with the person who would be her boss.

“Every time I thought, ‘Okay, this is the final hump,’ there was another thing,” said Jessica, which is a pseudonym. Vox granted her anonymity in order to protect her privacy and keep her out of hot water with her current employer. “It just gets really mentally exhausting, and it’s hard to manage your work schedule because obviously you don’t want your employer to know you’re interviewing.”

Job-seeking can be a real exercise in immersive futility. It often feels like you’re tossing your resume into the abyss and praying to the recruitment gods for a response. If and when you get that response, the landscape doesn’t always get easier. Companies are seemingly coming up with new, higher, and harder hoops to jump through at every turn. That translates to endless rounds of interviews, various arbitrary tests, and complex exercises and presentations that entail hours of work and prep. There can be good reasons for firms to do this — they really want to make sure they get the right person, and they’re trying to reduce biases — but it’s hard not to feel like it can just be too much.

“There’s no reason why 10 years ago we were able to hire people on two interviews and now it’s taking 20 rounds of interviews,” said Maddie Machado, a career strategist who has previously worked as a recruiter at companies such as LinkedIn, Meta, and Microsoft. “It’s kind of like dating. When you go on a first date, you need a second date. You don’t need 20 dates to know if you like somebody.”

Companies are seemingly coming up with new, higher, and harder hoops to jump through at every turn

Jessica describes her recent marathon interview process as basically having a “second job.” As for the actual job in question, she didn’t end up getting it. A week after her last interview, Jessica followed up with the recruiter and learned the organization was moving forward with another candidate. “They probably wanted to go with the other person all along but wanted me as a backup,” she said.

If you do not have a terrible interview story, sincerely, congrats

If you’ve ever looked for a job, chances are you’ve had some sort of a “what in the world is going on” moment. For Brad, a consultant in Pennsylvania who asked to withhold his last name, that moment came when he went through a series of interviews for a project management position in 2016. All of them went well — until he reached the CEO, who spent a significant portion of their nearly hour-long conversation dwelling on Brad’s somewhat low high school GPA, which the company had requested along with his college GPA and SAT scores. “I had to justify why my high school grade point average wasn’t top of the class,” he said. “I was offended.”

He’d graduated from high school some 30 years prior and had 25 years of work experience. When the company’s recruiter later called him to suggest he spend more time talking to the CEO, he said he wasn’t interested. “I had the luxury of not needing the job,” he said. “You’ve got to like who you work for.”

Reporting for this story, I heard anecdotes about hiring processes that ranged from irksome to hellish.

One recent graduate described having to take a series of intelligence tests, go through two interviews, and provide five references — all of whom were asked to complete a 15-minute questionnaire — for an entry-level position at a nonprofit he was told he didn’t get two months later. One woman’s job offer was contingent on her getting a reference from her current manager, who wasn’t aware she was on the hunt for a job.

“My interviewing experiences have been worse than dating, with the ghosting and non-responses”

Another man was told to start looking for apartments across the country after being flown out for a final interview, only to follow up a couple of weeks later and learn that the recruiter simply forget to tell him he hadn’t gotten the job. “My interviewing experiences have been worse than dating, with the ghosting and non-responses,” he said.

Among friends and colleagues, swapping interview horror stories can turn into a sort of sport. One of my former coworkers was asked to build out an entire content strategy for a popular financial newsletter and work with the team in the office. She was unemployed and scared, so she felt like she had no choice but to sign a waiver agreeing for her work to be used for free — work that was apparently good enough to be sent out to their readers but not to land her a position with the company. Looking at the company’s Glassdoor reviews, it’s obvious she’s not the only one who’s been subject to this sort of treatment.

“So many employers get away with this,” Machado said. “They get away with making people go through all these hoops because … candidates have absolutely no protection.”

The difference between okay and over-the-top isn’t always so obvious

What counts as a fair ask from a potential employer isn’t always clear-cut. It can depend on the industry, the job level, and the purpose.

“There’s a fine line between appropriate and inappropriate,” said Sondra Levitt, a leadership and career coach with Korn Ferry, an organizational consulting firm. For example, it might make perfect sense for a company to ask a candidate, especially at the executive level, to do some sort of presentation about their vision and what they want to accomplish. Where it gets hairy is when the company asks a candidate to create, produce, and submit a full-blown marketing campaign, which happened to one of Levitt’s clients recently. “The candidate felt like they were just trying to get free information and free work through the interview process,” Levitt said.

There’s no denying that over the years, in many instances, the hiring process has gotten harder and more convoluted. A 2022 survey from hiring software company Greenhouse found that 60 percent of job seekers were “unimpressed by time-consuming recruitment processes.” There’s no concrete explanation as to why many employers have been so insistent on making the hiring process so hard — it’s likely an amalgamation of factors.

Companies are afraid to make the wrong decision. Hiring is expensive and onboarding is time-consuming, so they really want to get it right. The pandemic and current economic conditions may be exacerbating employers’ anxiety even more. Levitt said she thinks many firms feel like they “jumped too fast” to make hires amid the great resignation or great reshuffle , as for much of 2021 and 2022 workers hopped jobs in droves. The pendulum is swinging the other way now, with managers being extra careful to do their due diligence, especially as the economy looks rocky .

Becca Carnahan, the founder of Next Chapter Careers, said that companies may see multiple interviews and tests as a way to make the hiring process fairer. “It can reduce bias in the hiring process when you’re actually looking at a candidate’s abilities rather than their past accomplishments,” she said. She added that technology has likely also played a role in making the hiring process more complex. “These Zoom interviews are a lot easier than bringing candidates into the office,” she said.

Jessica, the nonprofit fundraiser, speculated that in her case, tech and remote work made it possible for her potential employer to drag things out longer. Before the pandemic, she would have probably had to go to the office one day for a string of interviews, the firm recognizing she couldn’t just disappear at random from her current job for weeks on end. But with her simply clicking a Zoom link, the company was able to sprinkle interviews across multiple weeks.

Machado believes that the increasingly long maze of recruitment and interviewing is driven, in part, by pride and by companies competing against each other to be considered the most elite places to work, especially in the tech world. “You want to be the most challenging interview. If you can get past the Facebook interview, you can get past anything,” she said. The caveat is that the best interviewers are not always the best people for the job, and a difficult interview process does not guarantee the candidate won’t quit. “There’s too much emphasis on screening people out and not on screening people in.”

Perhaps the simplest answer to why companies make it so hard is that they can.

In 2005, it took two interviews for Stacey Aldstadt, an environmental lawyer, to get her job as general manager of the city of San Bernardino’s municipal water department, from which she retired in 2017. While there, she oversaw 300 employees and a $120 million budget. In late 2020, she decided to apply for a job at a cannabis company looking to expand to California. She was subjected to a seven-interview, eight-week hiring process that culminated in an impersonal rejection email without explanation. Aldstadt has hired people in the past, and this seemed incredibly excessive. “I would never do that to someone,” she said. “Not in a million years.”

Candidates can push back, but leverage is limited

If and when candidates feel like the employer is overdoing it in an interview process, the options are a little limited. To a certain extent, you kind of just have to go with it or walk away. But there are ways to navigate.

It’s helpful to ask questions to ascertain expectations around interview assignments — figure out why they’re relevant and how they’ll be evaluated, and get assurances that the work remains proprietary. You can also try to decipher if there are alternatives, such as providing samples of previous work, or asking for compensation , though the answer might be no. At the outset of the hiring process, it’s also a good idea to ask exactly what it’s going to entail — how many interviews, with whom, on what timeline — and hold the company or recruiters to it.

“If a company is not communicating effectively with a candidate, if they are super opaque about the process and the timing, that’s where it gets really, really icky, and it can leave a candidate just feeling so confused,” Carnahan said.

“You’re definitely interviewing the company as much as you’re being interviewed”

Candidates should also set some boundaries, which are different for everyone. Machado generally recommends the job seekers she works with do no more than four rounds of interviews. And if they’re asked to do a presentation or take-home assignment, it’s time to evaluate whether it’s a place they really want to work. Sometimes, candidates worry the potential employer will use their work. It might be more often the case that they don’t look at all. “They’re making people do these assignments, and then no one checks it,” Machado said.

It’s important to remember that if a company’s hiring process feels off, working there might feel off, too. An employer having to reschedule multiple interviews because the interviewers are swamped at work might be a sign that things aren’t great, internally. “You’re definitely interviewing the company as much as you’re being interviewed, so stay attuned to what you are hearing and seeing,” Levitt said. “What’s your gut telling you about this company? About this job? About the organization?”

Companies should take note that being a complete pain to deal with in recruiting is not great for their reputations, either. They can stall so much or put candidates through such a rigamarole by the time they put out an offer, the candidate’s just over it. More broadly, while job seekers may not have a lot of options to fight back, they can talk to others about their experiences, and they definitely do.

Jessica says knowing what she knows now, she still probably would have applied for the fundraising job. Still, she wishes the organization hadn’t checked her references as a last and apparently unnecessary step. “It was a little weird for someone to be like, ‘Oh what happened to this? Did you get that offer letter?’ and you’re like, ‘Oh, actually, I didn’t get the job.’”

We live in a world that’s constantly trying to sucker us and trick us, where we’re always surrounded by scams big and small. It can feel impossible to navigate. Every two weeks, join Emily Stewart to look at all the little ways our economic systems control and manipulate the average person. Welcome to The Big Squeeze .

Sign up to get this column in your inbox .

Have ideas for a future column or thoughts on this one? Email [email protected] .

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5 Examples of Take-Home Tasks for Different Roles

Assigning take-home tasks when hiring is much like marmite, coriander, or Hawaiian pizza. Your candidates will either love it or hate it.

The ‘love it’ camp likely welcomes the opportunity to showcase their skills and appreciate the time to think it through versus answering questions on the spot in an interview.

However, the ‘hate it’ group sees it as doing work for free, might already have portfolios of work that give a much fairer picture of their experience level, and resent the infringement on their personal time (regardless of how this might be their dream job).

What we can learn from this dichotomy is that while a take-home assignment is not right for every role, it’s still worth it for some. To figure out if it’s a fit for the role you’re hiring for, let’s look at five good examples of take-home tasks that your candidates will (hopefully) love.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

A take-home assignment is an important part of the interview process that focuses on candidates crafting and completing real-world tasks .

Incorporating a take-home assignment will give your organization better insight and skill observation over candidates. However, job seekers may see take-home tests as time-consuming, exploitative, or manipulative.

The perfect take-home assignment should be structured around providing the candidate with clarity about the role, respecting their time, and ensuring consistent testing criteria.

Toggl Hire introduced homework tasks in our skills assessment library! It’s never been easier to raise the quality of your hires with reliable proof of competence.

What are take-home tasks?

A take-home assignment is given to candidates during the interview process to complete in their own time and shows the hiring manager how the job seeker is able to complete a task.

These assignments generally consist of coding tests for developers , presentations for upper-level management, and campaigns for marketers. They’re given to candidates after the first interview round. The success will determine if the candidate makes it to the second round.

Pros and cons of a take-home assignment

Obviously, there are pros and cons to using a take-home assignment, right? Of course! So let’s go over the big ones.

• Skill observation : It allows the hiring company to understand the candidate’s skills in action and their thought process.

• Insight : The take-home interview assignment will allow the candidate to have a better understanding of the position, break any key assumptions, and what the company expects of them.

• Supplemental information : If done early in the interview process, an interview assignment allows the candidate’s skills to do the talking as opposed to the hiring manager only relying on the resume.

• Less pressure : Because a Q&A interview can be a pressure cooker, the take-home assignment makes the interviewing candidate feel more at ease.

• Time-consuming : A hiring team may claim the assignment will only take several hours to prepare and complete, but any interview assignment over more than an hour is cutting into the candidate’s personal time and current job.

• Ethical concerns and lost earnings : Asking a candidate to complete an unpaid work assignment can be seen as unethical and equivalent to unpaid labor. Some companies may even go so far as to steal the ideas of the candidate, use them, and not give credit or compensate the candidate.

• Limited personal evaluation : While the interview take-home assignment can assess a candidate’s skill set, it may not capture important aspects such as personality and behavior.

How to structure a take-home task

Creating a take-home assignment that strikes the perfect balance of helpful but not exploitative can be tricky. Regardless of what kind of take-home task or homework assignment you’re creating for hiring, it’s crucial for hiring managers to approach their creation with careful thought and attention.

Your hiring team will need to consider all of the following:

What are the common mistakes?

It’s normal to make mistakes, and learning from them can help you hire better, faster, and more fair.

So, let’s explore common blunders to steer clear of when designing and implementing a take-home assignment during the interview process, ensuring fairness and an effective evaluation process that respects candidates’ time and effort.

• Appropriate Task Alignment : Avoid assigning tasks that aren’t directly relevant to the role.

• Reasonable Task Length : Create a take-home assignment that can be completed within a reasonable timeframe.

• Providing Sufficient Context : Avoid requesting candidates to answer or solve company-specific problems without providing adequate information.

• Ethical Treatment of Work Requests : Refrain from asking candidates to produce work for free that the company may later exploit, such as writing a blog post for publication.

• Timely Introduction of Tasks : Including a take-home assignment as an early screening requirement can discourage candidates. Do this after their first interview.

• Constructive Feedback : Don’t miss the opportunity to provide candidates with constructive feedback on their completed tasks.

• Balancing Mandatory and Optional Tasks : Avoid making the take-home assignment mandatory for all applicants, as circumstances may prevent some candidates from completing it.

• Conduct post-assignment interviews : Once you have received a few tasks back from candidates, we highly recommend that you schedule a take-home assignment interview to better understand any pain points the job seeker may have had.

5 thorough examples of great take-home assignments

Now that you better understand the how , the when , and the why of take-home assignments, we’ll show you five examples. The example take-home assignments will cover tasks for:

• Developer – fixing a broken site
• Product manager – redesigning a feature
• Marketing lead – creating a marketing campaign
• Designer – redesigning the onboarding flow
• Customer success executive – running a mock QBR

Example #1: Take-home task for a developer role

This challenge is geared towards a mid-level developer who can identify and fix errors and optimize the code of an eCommerce website. The goal here is to see how well the candidates understand debugging techniques, approach problem-solving, and how they will communicate with the rest of their team.

Task: Fixing a Broken E-commerce Site

Introduction

Your mission is to debug the broken e-commerce site, fix errors, and ensure it runs smoothly. Customers are unable to place orders due to the significant increase in errors.

Requirements

• Identify and fix all of the errors on the site.
• Ensure that customers can place orders without any problems.
• Optimize the site to improve its performance.
• Document your approach and explain your reasoning behind your changes.

Instructions

• Clone the repository from the following Github URL: https://github.com/debugging-challenge/e-commerce-site.git .
• Install all the dependencies by running npm install .
• Start the development server by running npm start .
• Debug and fix all errors.
• Document your approach and explain your reasoning in a README file.

Your submission will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Identification and fixing of all errors
• Site optimization
• Completeness of documentation and reasoning
• Code cleanliness and adherence to best practices
• Clarity and organization of documentation
• Submit your code as a ZIP file.
• Include the README file that explains your approach and reasoning.
• Send the ZIP file to the hiring manager by email.

Example #2: Challenge for a product manager

Our next example focuses on testing product manager candidates on how they approach problem-solving, communicate with customers, and conduct user research while implementing open-ended questions.

In a sense, how well they’ll actually do their jobs in a product management role. This assignment is bound to produce better product management interviews for your organization.

Task: Redesigning Filma’s Collaboration Features

You are the Product Manager for collaboration features at Filma, a leading collaborative design platform. Recent feedback from customers has shown that they are not happy with how collaboration features work on the site. Your mission in this product management task is to redesign the collaboration features to better meet customer needs and preferences.

• Review the problem statement and develop a list of open-ended questions to better understand the issue.
• Conduct user research to validate assumptions and identify pain points and user needs.
• Develop a new design for collaboration features.
• Prioritize features and functionality based on customer needs and business goals.
• Outline the implementation plan.
• Document your approach and explain your reasoning.
• Review the problem statement and develop a list of open-ended questions to better understand the issue and customer needs.
• Conduct (mock) user research to validate assumptions and identify pain points and user needs. Schedule a call with a team member to role-play a customer interview. Include data points such as user feedback, user behaviour, and competitor analysis in your research.
• Develop a new design for collaboration features. Identify the key features and functionality of the new design, and prioritize them based on customer needs and business goals.
• Outline the implementation plan. Include a timeline, resources required, and technical feasibility.
• Document your approach and explain your reasoning in a presentation or document.
• Quality of open-ended questions and user research.
• Soundness of the new design and prioritization of features and functionality.
• Clarity and feasibility of the product management implementation plan.
• Completeness of documentation and reasoning.
• Clarity and organization of presentation or document.
• Submit your open-ended questions, presentation, or document as a PDF or PowerPoint file.
• Send the file to the hiring manager by email.

Example #3: Testing marketing managers

Let’s now explore an exciting marketing challenge that aims to find a candidate who can skillfully design an innovative user acquisition growth loop. This task involves leveraging valuable market research insights to craft a robust strategy that showcases a deep understanding of growth concepts.

Task: Designing a User Acquisition Growth Loop

You are the Marketing Lead at a Product-Led Growth (PLG) company that provides a collaboration tool for remote teams. Your team has conducted market research to identify target customer segments. Your mission is to design a new user acquisition growth loop based on the insights gained.

• Review the market research insights provided by your team.
• Design a new user acquisition growth loop, with a structured approach, based on the insights gained.
• Identify metrics to measure the effectiveness of the growth loop.
• Review the market research insights provided by your team. Use the insights to identify areas where a new user acquisition growth loop can be designed.
• Design a new user acquisition growth loop based on the insights gained. The growth loop should identify key stages, such as awareness, interest, and activation, and prioritize them based on customer needs and business goals.
• Identify metrics to measure the effectiveness of the growth loop. The metrics should be tied to the key stages of the growth loop and should be used to track progress and optimize the loop over time.
• Soundness of the new user acquisition growth loop and prioritization of key stages
• Creativity and effectiveness of the growth loop design
• Identification and feasibility of metrics to measure the effectiveness of the growth loop
• Clarity and organization of presentation or document
• Submit your presentation or document as a PDF or PowerPoint file.

Example #4: Take-home test for designers

This challenge is centered around an intriguing product design assessment designed to narrow down a candidate who excels in analyzing user recording sessions and crafting an improved onboarding flow design.

Task: Redesigning the Onboarding Flow Introduction

You are a Product Designer at a web-based Product-Led Growth (PLG) company that provides a collaboration tool for remote teams. Your team has recorded user sessions for the past 3 months to help identify areas of improvement for the onboarding flow. Your mission is to redesign the onboarding flow to improve user engagement and activation based on the insights gathered.

• Analyze the user recording sessions to identify user needs and preferences.
• Develop a new design for the onboarding flow.
• Prioritize design features based on user needs and business goals.
• Ensure that the design aligns with the company’s minimalist, intuitive design philosophy.
• Analyze the user recording sessions to identify user needs and preferences. Use the insights gathered to identify areas for improvement in the onboarding flow.
• Develop a new design for the onboarding flow. Identify the key stages of the flow, and prioritize them based on user needs and business goals. Ensure that the design aligns with the company’s minimalist, intuitive design philosophy.
• Prioritize design features based on user needs and business goals. Identify the most important design features that will enhance user engagement and activation.
• Quality of analysis of user recording sessions and identification of user needs and preferences
• The soundness of the new onboarding flow design and prioritization of key stages
• Alignment with the company’s minimalist, intuitive design philosophy
• Creativity and effectiveness of the prioritized design features

Example #5: Testing customer succes

Our final challenge example focuses on a customer success assignment. The perfect candidate will showcase their expertise in defining success metrics for a simulated account, devising impactful tactics to drive feature adoption and enhance metrics, and effectively presenting their approach and results in a mock Quarterly Business Review (QBR) presentation.

Task: Driving Feature Adoption and Improving Metrics

You are a Customer Success Manager at a PLG company that provides a project management tool for remote teams. Your mission is to work with a mock account to define success metrics, develop tactics to drive feature adoption and improve metrics for Q2, culminating in a mock QBR presentation.

• Define success metrics for the mock account.
• Develop tactics to drive feature adoption and improve metrics.
• Document your approach and results in a mock QBR presentation.
• Define success metrics for the mock account. Assume that the mock account is a remote team of 20 people that uses your project management tool for all their projects. Assume that they have been using the tool for 6 months, and that they have expressed interest in increasing feature adoption and improving metrics related to on-time delivery, collaboration, and budget management. Use your own assumptions to define success metrics that measure the impact of the product on their business.
• Develop tactics to drive feature adoption and improve metrics. Use the success metrics to identify the actions needed to increase feature adoption and improve metrics, and assign responsibilities to your team. Use customer success best practices, such as regular check-ins and training sessions, to ensure that the tactics are on track and that the mock account is engaged and satisfied.
• Document your approach and results in a mock QBR presentation. Create a deck that’s less than 10 slides, with consistent title and object placement, fonts, font colors, and different ways of visualizing insights. Use the mock QBR presentation to realign on the mock account’s goals, review their performance, present the tactics and their impact on the success metrics, and recommend the next steps to improve product performance next quarter.
• Quality of success metrics defined for the mock account.
• Soundness of the tactics to drive feature adoption and improve metrics.
• Collaborative execution of the tactics with your team.
• Clarity, organization, and persuasiveness of the mock QBR presentation.
• Submit your mock QBR presentation as a PDF or PowerPoint file.

Try a Homework Assignment by Toggl Hire

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Toggl Hire’s homework assessments are highly flexible, allowing for either integration with other assessments or standalone use. Create your free account now to explore a few examples!

Juste loves investigating through writing. A copywriter by trade, she spent the last ten years in startups, telling stories and building marketing teams. She works at Toggl Hire and writes about how businesses can recruit really great people.

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Why Take-Home Assignments are the Biggest Mistake for Hiring Managers

There’s no “right” way to hire.

Some companies are comfortable having a 30-minute conversation and pulling the trigger, while others might want a couple of steps and additional interviewers involved in the process to ensure they’re getting multiple opinions on who to hire. 

And while some employers make it a point to stay on top of the latest industry trends like the ones found in our 2023 Salary Guide , others fall short and — time and time again — make the same mistakes.

Why the take-home assignment interview is a big mistake

Different interview processes work for different companies. But there is one interview mistake I’ve seen across various industries — for both contract and full-time hires — that creates a major bottleneck in the interview process, and that is the take-home assignment .

Take-home assignments can be called something different depending on what the role is.

• For a marketing position, it might be a case study .
• For a software development position, it might be a coding test .
• For a client-facing role, it might be a presentation .

Regardless of the name, the outcome is often the same: candidates you were excited about drop out of the interview process, and you find yourself back at square one again and again. 

From my experience in staffing, I strongly advise my clients against incorporating a take-home assignment into their interview process. 

Why You Shouldn’t Assign a Take-Home Assignment

No one likes to do take-home assignments for free..

When asking candidates to do an assignment during the interview process, it’s often the work that they will be doing once they get hired, so it’s essentially asking them to work for free.

For candidates, time is money, and it’s time that can be spent working for their clients who are paying them. 

This interview mistake doesn’t respect people’s personal time.

Imagine you’re working 9-5 and looking for a new job. You also have two kids who need to be picked up from school, fed, bathed, and put to bed every night.

You are so overloaded in your job that you sometimes have to work after hours. When would you have the time to also fit in doing an assignment that can take anywhere from 2-10 hours?

Candidates often cannot prioritize doing additional work because it will take time away from something else they need to get done. The longer it will take a candidate to find the time to complete the take-home assignment, the more likely their interest in the job opportunity will wane. 

Other companies aren’t making this interview mistake.

As much as you want to vet candidates for the right skill level, it’s important to be competitive with how other companies are hiring, so you don’t lose out on top talent.

Creatives often get hired based on their portfolios—without an interview. Developers get hired off of a single Zoom interview.

Higher-level roles get hired after multiple rounds of interviews, which function as conversations with various stakeholders at a company, without being asked to do homework for an interview other than preparing.

If you ask a candidate to do an assignment before engaging them in the next step of an interview process, they might say they are happy to do it, but the truth is they will usually wait to start it until completing any other interviews they have lined up in hopes of getting a decision from another employer sooner.

This interview mistake fails to filter out people who aren’t serious about the role.

Many companies think these assignments will show how much a candidate wants to work at their company.

I strongly caution against this logic. The post-COVID job market is more competitive than ever, as companies with once-traditional mindsets around employees working onsite have adapted to now offer fully remote roles.

This means that candidates now have access to nationwide job opportunities and are getting job offers faster than ever before.

If seeing how serious someone is about a role at your specific company is important to you, gauging how much they researched the company before the interview is a great way to find that out.

Hiring Managers Should Avoid the Take-Home Assignment

Making the common interview mistake of requiring a take-home assignment most often results in the assignment not getting completed and the candidate pursuing a different employment opportunity that doesn’t require an additional assignment. 

It’s understandable that a hiring manager would want to test a person’s skill before offering them a job. The good news is that there are ways to do this that don’t involve asking a candidate to do extra work.

Ways to Avoid Making this Interview Mistake

Ask to see sample work from potential candidates..

Copywriters and designers have portfolios, developers have GitHubs, and high-level individuals can often pull sample proposals and plans they’ve put together in the past to exhibit their work.

If you have questions about how much they did themselves, what went into the decisions they made, or other related questions, the interview is the perfect place to dive in and find out. 

Ask your job candidate to do a test in real-time on the interview.

Some hiring managers prefer not to do this because candidates might feel “put on the spot” and not perform their best.

However, I can’t think of a single employer I have worked with who didn’t care equally about the candidate getting to the right answer, as they did about how they got to the right answer and what that showed about their thought process.

Doing a test or exercise together, and being able to speak with the candidate during it, is a great way to understand their logic.

Ask your job candidate scenario-based questions.

If you have a concern about how a candidate would handle a situation—whether it’s technical, about communication, or how they work with a team—ask specific, pointed questions to find out your answers. 

Requesting references is a great way to avoid this interview mistake.

It is completely acceptable to extend an offer pending reference checks so you’re able to get background information from someone who worked with this person before and can vouch for the candidate’s expertise.

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The Final Word On Take-Home Assignments for Hiring Managers

Hiring is a gamble. It’s normal to have a degree of trepidation about extending an offer to someone without a guarantee that they’ll be able to perform at the level you expect. But the best way to see if someone can do the job is to trust your gut and give them the chance to prove you right. 

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• Contact Mondo today for all your hiring needs
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19 steps to ace any job interview and stand out

Acing a job interview requires preparation, punctuality, and authenticity. Research the company, understand the job role, and be ready to showcase your skills and experiences. During the interview, be personable, honest, and show interest and passion. After the interview, follow up with a thank-you note and address any pending questions.

Ashley McCann

Content contributor with experience in HR technology topics.

A new job can unlock a whole world of possibilities, but the pressure to favorably present your skills, experience, and your ability to make a good first impression can make any job search an intimidating endeavor.

Although the interview process can be daunting, preparation is the key to building your confidence and proving that you’re the best candidate. Learn how to ace an interview with 19 steps that will help you stand out and succeed.

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Table of contents

Before the interview.

1. Research the company 2. Reread the job description 3. Prepare for the typical job interview questions 4. Get your backstory right 5. Prepare smart questions in advance 6. Is your interview remote? Check your equipment and find a quiet place 7. Practice your job interview

The day of the interview

8. Be on time 9. Bring resumes, reference letters and your notepad 10. Dress well 11. Relax, you came prepared

During the interview

12. Smile and be nice 13. Be honest 14. Show interest and passion 15. Demonstrate your expertise 16. Take notes

After the interview

17. Follow up to say thank you 18. Deal with any take-home assignment in a timely manner 19. Follow up on eventual questions that were asked during the interview

1. Research the company

Educating yourself on the company you’re interviewing for serves two important purposes. First, it helps ensure that the company’s mission and culture align with your own interests, career goals, and values. Second, the ability to authentically incorporate this knowledge into an interview shows that you are thoughtful, well-prepared, and truly interested in becoming a member of their team.

Prepare yourself by reading the website thoroughly, following their social media feeds, checking any interesting or relevant results on Google, searching reviews on GlassDoor, and reviewing the LinkedIn profiles of anyone participating in the interview. Take notes to help you formulate questions that demonstrate a genuine interest in the company and what they do.

2. Reread the job description

Take the time to read the job description again carefully prior to your interview. Make a list of the skills, experience, or qualifications you have that prove that you’re a viable candidate, using specific examples or quantifiable metrics as often as possible.

Also, pay attention to the specific adjectives used when they describe the type of candidate they’re seeking in the job listing ; look for opportunities to include those words (or synonyms) into your interview answers or relay anecdotes that exhibit those qualities when you’re asked behavioral questions.

3. Prepare for the typical job interview questions

The number-one way to learn how to ace an interview is to come prepared with strong answers to interview questions . While you won’t know exactly what will be asked, you can increase your odds of doing well by researching common job interview questions and coming up with 50- to 100-word answers. Be prepared to answer questions like:

• Why should we hire you?
• What’s your biggest weakness?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• If I call your current/previous employer, what would he/she say about you?
• Tell me about a challenge you overcame

4. Get your backstory right

Despite being the most knowledgeable party about your own work history, there’s something about being asked to summarize your experience at the beginning of a call that can cause your thoughts to come to a screeching halt.

Take some time before the interview to write down a short outline that sums up your professional life, making sure to highlight any positions or experience that seem particularly relevant to the job. Then practice saying it out loud in a way that feels friendly, natural, and confident — it’s important that you don’t sound like you’re reading or reciting from a list.

5. Prepare smart questions in advance

Remember how you reviewed the job description and researched the company? That particular prep work is about to help prove that you’re interested in this specific position for this exact company — not just someone who stumbled in on a random and indiscriminate job hunt.

At some point during the interview, you’ll most likely be invited to ask your own questions and this is an opportunity that you shouldn’t pass up. Demonstrate that you’re eager to learn, interested in the position and the company, and have a general understanding of what they need and what they do through a series of thoughtful questions. Consider questions like:

• What would a typical day in this position look like?
• What challenges could this position help solve?
• Can you share some examples of the types of projects this position would work on?
• What metrics or KPIs would help quantify the success of this role?
• Are there any specific products or goals that the company is currently focused on?

6. Is your interview remote? Check your equipment and find a quiet place

Phone or video interviews often precede in-person interviews lately. Although everyone is familiar with the frustration of technical difficulties, a bad connection, dim lighting, or a noisy background can distract from the great impression you’re hoping to make.

Ace an interview (even from a distance) with the following remote interview tips:

• Find a clean, uncluttered background.
• Either set up a ring light or face a source of natural light.
• Make sure your webcam is at eye level.
• Try to make sure you’re in a quiet space. If it’s a phone interview, make sure you’re in a spot with good reception.
• Do a practice run with a friend via video to make sure everything goes as planned.

7. Practice your job interview

Confidence is key to crushing an interview. It may feel silly at first, but the best way to work on your interview skills is by rehearsing. Ask a friend or family member to play the role of interviewer or hiring manager and set up a video call or meeting.

Introduce yourself, summarize your work history, answer the questions they ask , and practice asking your own questions.

Work on not only what you say, but also how you say it. Do you sound nervous? What message is your body language conveying?

Are you talking too fast or rambling? Make sure your faux interviewer understands that critical feedback is essential to your success. Ask them open-ended questions about what went well and how you could improve.

8. Be on time

There are a few aspects of the interview process that you have almost complete control over, and one of those is punctuality. Err on the side of being way too early, especially if it’s an in-person interview and traffic could become a factor — you never know when an accident or detour could become an obstacle.

If it’s a remote interview, be fully dressed and set up to test your equipment well before the interview starts.

9. Bring resumes, reference letters and your notepad

Don’t show up to your interview empty-handed. Even if you submitted your resume and reference letters via email, bring printed copies to your in-person interview — your interviewer may not have those items with them, they could get misplaced in an overloaded inbox, or you may want to refer to that information.

Also, bring a notepad and pen. It can help you write down any questions that may pop up during the interview and allows you to take notes to review later.

10. Dress well

Looking good contributes to feeling confident. Make a positive impression while boosting your self-esteem in clothes that are clean, fit well, and are appropriate for an interview setting.

Get honest opinions from friends and family members if you’re unsure about what to wear and try on your clothes and accessories the night before to eliminate the possibility of any last-minute wardrobe malfunctions.

11. Relax, you came prepared

You’ve done your research. You’ve practiced. You’ve come prepared. You’re early and well dressed. And chances are, you’re nervous. That’s normal. Take advantage of your early arrival and draw your shoulders back and down, unclench your jaw, and take several deep breaths.

Consider the fact that feeling nervous and being excited share a lot of the same physiological symptoms. Try to reframe anxiety as optimistic anticipation. Spend a few quiet moments reviewing any notes you’ve taken, remind yourself that you’ve prepared the best you can, and assume an air of confidence. After all, you’re as ready as you’ll ever be!

12. Smile and be nice

No one goes into a job interview with the intent to be unpleasant, but sometimes being nervous makes it hard to act natural. Be the best version of yourself — a prospective employer wants to get to know the real you. Smile, make eye contact, and be personable.

A job interview is a professional occasion with a social slant, so be friendly with the interviewer, laugh if the opportunity arises, and show off your personality, but in a more polished way than you might with friends. Remember that they’re looking to fill a job and to form a relationship with a potential new team member.

13. Be honest

Behavioral interview questions can often feel like a trap. For instance, “Tell me about a time that you received critical feedback,” might seem like a question to evade but the reality is that they’re trying to get an idea about your level of self awareness or ability to handle constructive criticism.

Use prior experiences as a way to show that you’re a good fit for their company culture and provide anecdotes that show that you’re genuine and have good communication skills. Authenticity can help you stand out and ace the interview.

Also, if you don’t have an answer for something, it’s okay to say, “I don’t know off the top of my head, but I will follow up after the interview.” Don’t embellish or give superficial answers.

14. Show interest and passion

Enthusiastic people are interesting. Don’t hesitate to share your curiosity or excitement about a subject or project. If possible, provide examples of how the subject matter is relevant to your personal life or professional experience.

Explaining why something is interesting or important to you can make you more memorable.

15. Demonstrate your expertise

Look for opportunities to insert specific examples of your professional experience and expertise into the conversation. Did you improve a process or solve a problem at your current or previous job? Have you read books, attended conferences, or written blog posts that are relevant to the position?

Be humble but be confident about what you know and how it could benefit their company. Try to tack real-world examples onto as many questions as possible.

16. Take notes

Remember that notebook you brought with you? Be sure to put it to good use. Taking notes shows that you’re interested, that you’re listening, and that you care. As an added bonus, it can help ease the nervous urge to fidget and can give you a moment to think before answering. Write down the names of who you’ll be reporting to, answers to questions you have, and information you’d like to research or refer back to later.

17. Follow up to say thank you

Good manners never go out of style. Take a moment after the interview to follow up with a thank-you note. Doing so shows that you appreciate their time and the opportunity, and helps you stand out from those who don’t send one.

Think of it as a pop-up notification to remind the hiring manager and interviewers that you’re interested, available, and appreciative.

18. Deal with any take-home assignment in a timely manner

If the interviewer asks you to submit a project after the interview, do your best work but do it quickly. Turning in an assignment promptly shows that you’re invested in the hiring process.

If you and another interviewee are both being seriously considered, submitting quality work with a quick turnaround time could help identify you as the ideal candidate for the job.

19. Follow up on questions asked during the interview

If there was a question that you couldn’t answer on the spot, don’t forget to follow up on your promise to provide an answer after the interview. It may be tempting to assume they’ll forget about it, and they might, but following up shows that you gave the question the consideration that it deserves and gives you an extra opportunity to remind them of your interest.

Looking for more information about how to ace an interview? Check out the questions interviewers might ask and how they evaluate answers .

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Can I say no to a job interview assignment?

Recruiters have few methods to thoroughly evaluate a candidate’s potential work product without asking them to do some unpaid labor. About half of job seekers strongly dislike when they’re given a take-home assignment, sometimes dropping out of the running. But some can hugely benefit from the opportunity to showcase their skills, and those assignments can lead to less biased hiring processes. 

Many candidates though are left wondering if it’s worth it, possible to decline, or if they can ask for more thorough instruction or an extension without being penalized. 

Alan Roberts completed about four take-home tests during his six month job search last year before landing a role as a senior account manager at personal branding and PR firm Prestidge Group.

An interview opportunity with iHeart radio sparked his interest, and the hiring team asked him to complete a take-home assignment: to create a pitch for Cheerios to advertise on the platform. The directions were rather vague, and he spent an entire weekend on the presentation which he had five days to do, creating demos and product placement ideas. He took a Thursday off work to go give the presentation to a room of company leaders and nailed it, he said. 

“They were all like, wow, that was amazing, I can’t believe you did all that,” he said. 

But he didn’t get the job, or even hear much back from them in the weeks and then months following. He was concerned they might have simply taken his work and reused it, along with some of the other companies he completed take-home tests for.

Some other tests he completed were less of a lift though. Exact requirements in take-home tests can vary widely by role and the company you’re interviewing with, said Ariana Moon, senior director of talent planning and acquisition at Greenhouse.

But “if take-home tests are constructed thoughtfully, in an ideal scenario it’s not just helpful to the employer but it is also to the candidate,” Moon said. 

Internally, Greenhouse asks candidates for engineering roles to perform coding tests, while candidates for leadership roles are given a prompt or problem statement to discuss at the next interview, she said. Some tests for other roles include writing samples. 

Employers should always be explicit with instructions and guidelines when giving assignments, including the time expected to complete it and deadline, and be mindful of accommodations candidates may need, she said. But for roles in certain industries, urgency and the ability to work under deadlines is part of the job description.

Thomas Maxwell started applying for journalism jobs when his eight month fellowship at Business Insider ended this summer, just as the outlet began a hiring freeze, he said. Since then he’s completed at least 10 writing assignments during job interviews with varying requirements and deadlines. Researching each publication and thoroughly understanding their particular audiences, writing style and what they’ve already covered is an added task, he said. 

One assignment entailed taking an unedited article for a publication and editing it for style and grammar, then turning it in within 30 minutes of receiving the copy. He declined and dropped out, turned off by his perception of that workplace’s culture. He said during his search some other companies have asked what kind of deadline would work for him, which was much appreciated.

What you can do

Candidates considering whether to decline an assignment should explore why they feel that way, Moon said. It may be because of time constraints, in which case they should ask for accommodations or a possible timeline extension. It can also be because the test is unclear or doesn’t feel relevant to the role, or because they think the company is getting free work out of them, she said. In any case, it’s an opportunity to open a dialogue and learn more about the role and the company. 

“The interview process is the first trust building exercise between the company and candidates,” Marissa Morrison, ZipRecruiter’s vp of people said. 

“If you’re unsure why a step of the interview process exists, ask the recruiter and learn more,” she said.

Another way to decline or ask for a revised assignment is to see if an alternative is possible, she said. Examples include walking the interviewer through work projects from past roles or more thoroughly presenting a portfolio.

“It’s completely acceptable to openly ask to learn more about what the assessment is looking to uncover about your skills and background, so you have the context and that you might be able to propose an alternative if you think you can showcase those skills in a different way,” she said. 

However, “you should be prepared to potentially be removed from the running for certain roles If you don’t participate,” she said. 

And ultimately, take-home tests can be beneficial to both parties, especially in terms of preventing hiring bias.

Greenhouse’s survey found that while half of respondents dislike take-home tests, those from historically underrepresented groups were more likely to be in favor of them. Some tools like one Greenhouse offers can also anonymize take-home tests to further mitigate bias. 

An analysis of over 300,000 applicants submitting take-home tests through Greenhouse software found pass rates rose by almost 7-10% when grading was anonymized. When not anonymized, applicants from historically represented groups were less likely to pass relative to white applicants.

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Reddit's chief people officer always asks interviewees: 'Why did you say yes to this conversation?' She wants to know how passionate they are about working at the company.

• Reddit wants to increase its headcount by 50% in some locations.
• Nellie Peshkov, chief people officer, said she likes to ask three key questions in interviews. 
• She said candidates should show they can accept feedback and how they fit in with company culture. 

Interviewees need to be able to demonstrate their passion, talk about how they'll fit in with a company's culture and show they're prepared to accept feedback, according to Reddit's chief people officer Nellie Peshkov. 

Peshkov spoke to Insider about the company's recruitment plans shortly before it was revealed that Reddit was eyeing a $15 billion IPO next year . 

In 2020, the company expanded into the UK and has plans to increase headcount there by 50% by 2022. It also plans to recruit in other locations , said Peshkov. This is a far cry from 2015, when CEO Steve Huffman said "it was hard to get anyone to respond" to job offers. 

Insider asked Peshkov, who joined the company in February 2020 from Netflix, what questions she typically asks in interviews and how candidates should answer. 

'Why did you say yes to this conversation?'

Peshkov said that it's important to be able to see and feel how excited people are about Reddit and what the company does, so she asks: 'Why did you say yes to this conversation?'"

Excitement can come in many different forms, Peshkov said, but somewhere in their answers, their passion has to come through to show that they value being part of a community.

In general, whenever a recruiter asks a candidate why they want to work there, it is to gauge how familiar they are with what the company does. 

Genuine enthusiasm for the company and its business is a powerful way to get the interviewer to take an interest in your application, writes James Reed, the chairman of the recruitment firm, REED Group, in his book "Why You?"

He writes that you should show that you're familiar with the company's regular outputs and not just the "about us" page. 

'Tell me about your most fulfilling experience working for any company.'

Peshkov said that in any interview she wants to understand how candidates align with the company's culture. As a result, she doesn't just ask them about their most fulfilling career experience, she also asks about their least fulfilling experience, and why that was the case.

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If candidates say, for example, that they thrive only in a structured, predictable environment, they may not be the best fit for Reddit, which sees itself as high-paced, Peshkov said.

There's more than one way of assessing how likely a person is to fit with a company, though. 

Pip White, Slack's SVP & general manager for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, previously told Insider that she asks interviewees to talk about their passions outside of work to understand how they'll interact with colleagues and clients.

Likewise, Bank of America's EMEA head of diversity and inclusion Katy Ingle, told Insider that she always asks candidates the same question about initiative to assess what skills they can bring to the table. 

'What's the most difficult feedback you've ever received?'

Peshkov said it's an "edgy" question, but she asks it to understand how much a person values self-development. 

"Perhaps [the feedback] felt painful and really hurt you … What was your reaction? And what did you do about that feedback?" said Peshkov. 

In any answer, she said she wants to see humility, vulnerability, and examples of a person being really accepting of feedback, she said. 

"To me, that's a really strong signal that someone has a growth mindset and will challenge themselves to grow, learn, and improve ," Peshkov said. 

Traci Wilk, a former HR exec at Starbucks, told Insider's Shana Lebowitz that it's a good sign when a candidate naturally highlights what they would have done differently, because it demonstrates self-awareness.

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I have an assignment from a job interview, that its description is to determine "Proficiency in navigation and data processing in Excel". What kind of assignment you think that is exactly?

So I've had a job interview for IT Support man, and all they said was to have "knowledge in excel". They didn't ask me almost any questions about excel in the 2 interviews I went to, only if I know excel, how much do I know excel from 1-10 (I said 4), and that's it.

The rest of the questions were helpdesk type of questions, which I knew the answers to most of them.

Anyway, suddently they told me they will send me an assignment in excel and I have 2 hours to finish it and send it to them.

I pretty much know excel, know the basics of pivot table, and know how to use most basic formulas + sumif, xlookup, but not much more. I know how to get around, play with tables, make it look nice, etc.

What do you think that assignment would be like?

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