I applied online and was pleased to get a response, although it came Sunday night before Memorial Day. In the email explaining the process, a candidate was expected to complete a pre-interview project that takes about three to five (3-5) days, unpaid. As someone who has done work similar to what the project was asking for, this sounded about right in terms of timeline. So this assignment was asking for anywhere from 24 to 40 hours of work (and sometimes it can be less and sometimes more, but I assume this was probably a "standard" assessment for the candidate's abilities).
I withdrew from the process, explaining that I would not provide work that was not compensated. To SIG's credit, I got a response within a few hours thanking me for the response and wishing me luck. I hope they realize this is an unfair burden to many people who simply don't have the time and/or not offering any compensation for free labor is a shady practice.
