for candidates staring at an unpaid take-home
Ten hours is not a screening step.
Open it the moment the assignment email arrives. A flowchart tells you whether to do it, cap it, ask to be paid, or decline. Then four copy-paste emails that set the boundary without burning the interview, a watermark and IP notice for anything you do submit, and a one-page process contract for before round three.
Instant download · PDF + editable .docx · 30-day refund, no questions asked
Inbox · Tue 09:14
Unpaid
- FROM
- talent@company.example
- SUBJ
- Next step — take-home exercise
- DUE
- Sunday EOD
“Shouldn't take more than 3–4 hours.”
01 Not just you
The same complaint, thousands of upvotes deep.
Three of the most-upvoted take-home threads on Reddit. Every quote below links to the original.
r/recruitinghell↑ 4,822
“Long take-home assignments that disappear into a black hole.”
→ 531 comments · read the thread
r/jobsearchhacks↑ 2,652
“10 hours is literally free consulting.”
→ u/GondorBeacon8 · read the thread
r/recruitinghell↑ 369
“Got rejected after a take-home task, then they shipped something suspiciously similar.”
→ 52 comments · read the thread
Nobody in those threads is lazy. They are doing a week of unpaid work for a company that has committed to no rubric, no timeline, not even a reply. Refusing every assignment is not the answer either. What helps is knowing which ask to accept, and having the words ready before the weekend starts.
02 How it works
Three moves, in order, in about ten minutes.
Read the ask
Open the decision flowchart with the email in front of you. It asks four questions (how many hours, which round, what's being evaluated, whether this is work they would otherwise pay for) and lands on one answer: do it, cap it, ask to be paid, or decline.
Pick the script
Four copy-paste emails. Each one asks for something small and easy to agree to, a cap on the hours or a rubric or a rate, so it reads as professional rather than combative. Change the name, change the hours, send.
Send it before you start
The boundary goes out before the work goes in. Watermark whatever you do submit. Before round three, send the process-contract page so the timeline and the decision-makers are on the record, then log the outcome in the tracker.
03 The kit
One download. Roughly one hour of the work it prevents.
Everything is editable. Open it in Word or Google Docs, paste in your name and your hours, send. The download starts the second you pay, and there is no account to make.
PDF + editable .docx
- The “should I do this?” decision flowchart: do it, cap it, ask to be paid, decline
- 4 copy-paste scripts: propose a 2-hour cap · ask what's being evaluated (and for the rubric) · ask to be paid · decline with a consulting reframe
- The watermark + IP-notice template: for anything you do submit
- The pre-round-3 “process contract” one-pager: timeline, decision-makers, next steps, named
- A “what happened next” tracker page: for multi-round processes
30-day refund, no questions asked. Email support@mizudev.com and it's done.
Not legal advice. Some employers will move on rather than negotiate, that is information too.
04 Fair questions
The three we'd ask first.
Won't this get me rejected?
Sometimes, yes. A company that would rather drop you than cap an assignment or name a rubric has told you something useful about how it treats the people already working there. The scripts are written to be easy to agree to: you ask for scope, or criteria, or payment, and you ask once. Plenty of teams say yes to a two-hour cap.
Is this legal advice?
No. The watermark and IP notice are a deterrent, not a contract. They make it awkward for someone to ship your work, and easy for you to bring it up if they do. If real money or real IP is at stake, talk to a lawyer.
What if I still want to do the assignment?
Then do it on terms. Most of the kit is about capping and scoping rather than walking away: agree the hours in writing, ask what is actually being evaluated, watermark what you submit, and log it so round three doesn't arrive as a surprise.
The email is still sitting there.
Ten minutes with the flowchart, one script sent, and the weekend is yours either way.