The job posting required a resume and cover letter. I submitted both and received an email from Instrumentl on a Saturday asking me to complete an unpaid take home exercise within 48 hours of the email being sent (it did not specify business hours, so I did it over the weekend). The exercise took longer than the 45 minutes estimated in the directions. The exercise was doing research and proofreading grant application direction details. The instructions were confusing and seemed to ask for the same information repeatedly with each question. I passed the take home exercise and they sent me a Calendly link to set up a zoom interview. I learned things about the job during the interview that were deal breakers for me, so I declined to move forward in the hiring process on the spot. It would’ve been nice to have a screening with this information provided before spending an hour and 15 minutes on their take home exercise. Also, requiring a college degree for a minimum wage job was a red flag I should’ve recognized beforehand.

After submitting a tailored cover letter and resume with references, I received a gushing email from Kate Robinson about how impressive I was as a job candidate. She invited me to complete the next stage of the interview process, a "take-home exercise" which involved doing main task cited in the job announcement. Nope! I refuse to give them an hour of free labor.