I applied for a job with the Indeed Assessments team (formerly Interviewed.com).

The process began with a phone screen, followed by a paid ($300) work sample that lasted up to 8 hours. Payment for this was processed through PayPal.

After submitting the work sample, I was instructed to contact them the following week to schedule the next interview phase. I reached out twice during that week but received no response. It wasn't until I contacted them again after two weeks that we were able to schedule the next part of the interview.

The second phase consisted of two days of paid contract work, with the promise of $75/hr for 8 hours per day. At the end of the first day, the reviewer informed me that I had "pretty much nailed it" and would be contacted the next morning regarding the scheduling for the second day. However, the next morning, I received a denial letter that also requested my Upwork profile to initiate payment.

I requested feedback and received a generic response stating they had no specific feedback, that I had performed well, but was "up against other strong candidates."

I had never used Upwork before, and my previous payment was made via PayPal. After informing the hiring manager of this, he stated that Upwork was their only sanctioned method of payment.

Upon creating an Upwork account, I discovered that Upwork would deduct $110 from the $600 payment. I also had to complete Upwork's verification process three times before my account was unlocked. After finally receiving the "payment," I learned that Upwork would hold the funds in escrow for six days.

The actual interview process itself was quite positive. The sample project and work contract were well-organized, once communication for scheduling was established. However, forcing candidates to use Upwork is completely unacceptable.

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