The interview process started with a 30-minute phone interview with their new communications director. Very friendly guy and straightforward interview. I felt positive about the position and organization. He then invited me to complete a writing exercise, and encouraged me to take a week to finish it. This would turn out to be the longest uncompensated writing assignment I've ever completed for a job recruitment process. There were six sections, with each section asking for 2-3 pages of developing a communications strategy for this past event, draft 6 live tweets for the event, 6 tweets promoting the event ahead of time, a LinkedIn post, a FB post, 3 social media plans for different events, and a content strategy that would help the CEO develop a presents on LinkedIn. The exercise covered other things as well, but this is just to give you an idea of how excessive it is. I think it's okay for companies to request that you complete assignments, even of that length, but you should be compensated a modest amount if the company thinks you were bright enough after the first round to be selected for such a gargantuan writing assignment — especially when the company is a hedge fund and definitely has the resources to do so. I submitted the writing assignment on time, received a thanks from the communications director — who assured me I would hear back the following week, and then things went silent. I followed up two weeks later, and heard back from the communications director that a few candidates are still working on their assignments and I'll definitely be hearing back when they make a decision... and inevitably I never heard from them again. If you were going to ask for a 12-page custom writing sample from entry/mid-level candidates without paying them, that's a case when you should follow up with a two sentence email, to say that you enjoyed reading their work and appreciate them for taking the time, but unfortunately they've gone in another direction. Waste of time.
