I applied for a position at Square and was contacted by a recruiter via email. The recruiter told me that in order to move forward, I had 48 hours to complete an "assignment" related to the position. I have 15 YOE and could have easily completed the assignment in about an hour. However, I was not willing to complete any assignment without first speaking to the recruiter on the phone, so I replied stating that I would not complete an assignment unless we had a call first to discuss the details of the position and to make sure that our expectations were aligned. I received an email reply stating that they would not move forward at this time and wishing me luck. This is so ridiculous and insulting that it's laughable. Although, I didn't respond, I felt like writing back and saying "I don't need any luck. Your response showed me that I dodged a bullet, so thank you very much." Have other people had experiences like this with Square? I cannot believe they would treat a candidate like this. I have had good and bad experiences with recruiters, but this takes the cake. #recruiting #jobopening #hiring #square
I'm wondering if automation sent the later email. It's just.. too rude to make sense otherwise. Well when in doubt, write a scathing Glassdoor review.
Did you apply for data scientist position. Anyway good job. These assignments are a waste of time. You are expected to come up with something creative that the analyst has spent months looking at. It’s free labor.
I’m never convinced by the free labor argument. As if square are thinking, “ooh we could save 1 hour senior software engineer’s labor cost by getting an interviewee to do it. That’ll make a huge difference for our bottom line”?!. I think it’s much more likely that they’re just self important jerks
It was actually for a position in the Legal Department. The assignment was to review a very standard and basic legal document and let them know how and why to edit the document. It would not be a difficult assignment for someone with even just a few years of experience.
Square recruitment has gone downhill in the the past 2 years. I had similar experience. Worst recruiters ever
That's too bad. Maybe time to respond to recruiter with a fitting reply.
Really sorry! This massively sucks
That's an unusual experience and I'm sorry that happened. My recruiters were great. None of that malarkey occurred. Straight forward, helpful, and looking back, they were on my side.
I think you’re at fault here OP. The rules exist for a reason and everyone goes through the same thing as you. The only difference is in Square’s eyes, you’re difficult even when asked to do a simple assignment. At least for me, if it was an assignment that I knew was easy, I would be jumping for joy. For me it gives me the opportunity not to just do it in an hour, but take two hours to kick ass at it. It’s only an hour of your time to potentially get a new role no? If that is too hard for you to follow their rules, why would they hire you? Square pays top dollar for non-tech, probably a lot more than MSFT. I won’t say you shot yourself in the foot, but you had a big enough lottery ticket to get to the front of the candidate pool if that assignment really was easy peasy for you.
If you think that I am at fault for asking to be treated reasonably and with respect, then we will just have to agree to disagree. I am unclear how you determined that giving a candidate an assignment before having a preliminary phone screen with them is a rule at Square. If you peruse the interview descriptions on Glassdoor, you will see that many people don't mention an assignment as part of their recruitment experience. Those that do mention an assignment generally say that their recruiter gave them a choice of either completing an assignment or a having a phone interview. It is highly unorthodox to ask a candidate to complete an assignment before even having a phone call to discuss the position. That was the entire point of my post. What you call being "difficult" is what I describe as knowing my value. I did not refuse to do the assignment. I refused to do the assignment before knowing if my expectations of the position were aligned with those of the hiring manager/Square. If a recruiter can't even deign to briefly discuss the role with me over the phone, then how can I be expected to know if completing the assignment is a productive use of my free time? Your assertion that Square pays top dollar for non-tech is dubious at best considering their recruiting practices. Just because I assumed the assignment would be easy for other candidates doesn't mean that it actually would be. I have no idea what caliber of other candidates applied for the job. I am also not sure how applying for a job, and being contacted is a lottery ticket. They contacted me based on my qualifications/resume, not because I am lucky.
I don't think it's at all unreasonable to have a short conversation about the position before doing a take home assignment. It's unfortunate that you drew a short straw for your recruiter, I would pursue the other blinder's offer to look into it and see if you can switch recruiters. Other than that, move on. Plenty of companies out there and it's square's loss.
Correct. Never, ever accommodate. They have to work for it. I'd never take such a test however. Even the typical, "hey, if you're interested in this job please send me your resume!"is a big fat NOPE.
My resume and LinkedIn profile draws a lot of attention from recruiters and hiring managers. I'm not opposed to tossing my resume to a recruiter if the job description looks interesting. I don't go looking for jobs to apply to, though. All of my interviews came from recruiters reaching out to me on LinkedIn.
I have seen this happen in startups sometimes not sure about Square. In my case they never showed up for the interview and no matter how many times I tried to contact the recruiter he never responded. Had similar story at Uber, where they forgot me after 2 interview and recruiter asked to interview again. BTW he was the same recruiter at both companies. Quite unprofessional to say the least and process was dead slow!
That is so rude and unprofessional. I am sorry that happened you you!
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Thank you so much. I really appreciate your offer! It is a Legal role though.
Why would legal ask you to do a takehome especially if it would only take an hour anyway?