So many problems, where to begin? I received an e-mail about four months ago asking for a phone interview with ICG. I took said interview, and was asked to complete an assessment of 50 single-spaced pages for qualitative analysis. “Alright, “ I told myself, “this seems excessive considering they are making interview #2 contingent on this” so I did some digging, and found out that they were using data from a current study to judge candidates—in other words, they were FARMING FREE LABOR, with the same position being posted on multiple jobs boards for over 5 months. They even ask you to make the presentation such that it could stand on its own without your presence! If this doesn’t bring up red flags, nothing will—they are not interested in what the candidate brings to the table when it comes to client relations, only the analysis, which they can easily get from desperate graduates who will do the work for free and then be dismissed. So I didn’t bother replying. Several months later I received another e-mail from them, this time asking for an in-person interview. The craziest thing about this they didn’t seem to know that they had interviewed me before, and introduced themselves as if this was the first time communicating. For a large company, this would be understandable, but this is a very small company, which means the left and right hands are completely out of sync. Walking in the door it became immediately obvious that they are penny-pinchers, with a dozen kids crammed into a small room that occupies their entire workspace. None of the employees had their own desk or suitable space to lay out work materials. I’m then told a second interview will take place. Everything seems positive. And then I get the same e-mail with the 50 pages to analyze. Again, the fact that it is clearly not a dummy data set but rather one that is on an active account should throw you—serious companies do not do this, they find old data from accounts that are no longer active. Also be warned, if you’re interested in qualitative analysis, the company doesn’t make use of any qualitative analytical software (NVivo, Atlas Ti, etc) and the reason explicitly told to me was that they don’t want to spend the money to get licensing on these programs. This is another way of saying that analysts are on their own, without any real company support. In short, stay away from this place, don’t waste your time spending a week to give them a golden goose—after you work for free for them for a week, there’s no guarantee they’ll hire you on, anyways.