FAQ

An anonymous ledger of unpaid interview work requested from advertising and marketing professionals.

Candidates submit the assignment they were given and the hours they spent on it. We turn that into an invoice showing the estimated value of the work and what they were actually paid: $0.00.

Because by round three, you’re invested. You’ve met the team, pictured yourself in the role, and started to believe this one might work out.

Then comes the assignment.

It doesn’t always happen in the third round. The name stands for the point when another interview turns into hours of unpaid work.

Plus, as a copywriter, it has to rhyme.

Because these assignments usually happen one candidate at a time, behind closed doors.

The goal is to make the collective cost visible — the hours, the labor, and the estimated value of the work candidates are being asked to give away just to stay in the running for a job.

Read why we’re keeping the receipts.

Because this isn’t a blacklist.

The goal is to document the practice, not encourage pile-ons, retaliation, or arguments over individual employers.

We use a standardized market rate so every submission is measured consistently.

The number isn’t meant to be a literal invoice someone should send. It’s a way to put a common dollar value on the labor being requested.

We don’t publish candidate or company names. Every submission is reviewed for identifying details before publication.

Someone directly involved may still recognize the experience. Keep descriptions general and leave out confidential information.

No.

Submissions are moderated before they appear. We may edit or reject entries that contain identifying information, confidential material, harassment, unsupported accusations, or content that falls outside the purpose of the site.

No.

A short, focused exercise can be a reasonable way to evaluate how someone thinks or works.

The problem is when an “exercise” becomes hours of unpaid strategic or creative labor — campaigns, decks, rebrands, content plans, full concepts, or work that starts looking suspiciously like a real client deliverable.

If you were asked to create original work as part of a hiring process — copy, design, strategy, concepts, presentations, plans, campaigns, or similar deliverables — it probably counts.

Use it to support the conversation.

Candidates can point to a growing record of reported assignments, hours, and estimated value when asking about scope, compensation, or alternatives.

Share the recruiter page to help start that conversation.

Make excessive unpaid interview work harder to normalize.

That starts with documenting it. But the bigger goal is to start a serious industry conversation about what fairer hiring could look like.

If a company wants substantial original work from a finalist — especially when the field is down to two or three people — should candidates be compensated for their time?

And if companies want candidates to develop original concepts as part of an interview, should there be clear protections stating that the work will not be used commercially?

Those shouldn’t be radical questions.

Our guide for recruiters outlines practical alternatives for a fairer final round.

The more submissions we collect, the more leverage candidates have to ask them — and the harder it becomes to treat hours of unpaid creative labor as simply “part of the process.”

I’m an out-of-work creative director/copywriter with a Claude account who got pissed off enough to build a website.

I built this after spending roughly 15 hours on a final-round assignment, only to hear that the company was rethinking the position itself.

That experience was mine. This site exists to document how many other candidates have their own version.

But I’d like it to become something bigger than one person.

If you can help it spread, scale, or turn into an actual movement — creative, development, legal, PR, research, organizing, or otherwise — email me at r3isntfree@protonmail.com.