HonrlyJournalCandidate experience
Candidate experience
Candidates finish assessments that feel like the job, not like a test of patience.
Completion is a quality signal. If strong people drop out, the exercise is too long, too vague, or too disconnected from the role you say you are hiring for.
01Say what the assessment is for
Tell candidates which traits you are looking at, about how long it should take, and that a person will read the answer. Mystery makes people either overwork the response or abandon it. Transparency makes the sample easier to interpret, because everyone had the same instructions.
Offer a reasonable window, including evenings, and a way to request an accommodation. A fair process plans for that before someone has to ask.
02Bound the work
Ask for an approach, a sequence, or a judgment. Do not ask for a finished campaign, a production feature, or a speculative strategy you might use. Hypothetical and already-solved scenarios keep the exercise fair and avoid taking unpaid labor.
If the work truly needs to be substantial, pay for it and say so up front. For most early screens, a few focused questions are enough.
03Make the prompt answerable without insider knowledge
Give the context the candidate needs: who the customer is, what just broke, what constraint matters. A prompt that only makes sense if you already work at the company measures access, not ability.
Read the prompt yourself on a timer. If you cannot tell what a complete answer includes, candidates will guess, and reviewers will grade the guess.
04Close the loop
People tolerate a short assessment when they know it changed the decision. Send a clear next step after review, including a respectful decline. Silence after a work sample is how a company gets a reputation for wasting time.
Watch completion rate by role. A sudden drop usually means the prompt got longer, the link got harder to find, or the ask stopped matching the seniority of the applicants.
Questions
How long should a candidate assessment take?
For an early screen, aim for something a prepared person can finish in well under an hour. Match any longer exercise to a later stage, and compensate substantial work.
Should we ban AI in assessments?
Only if unaided performance is truly the job. Otherwise, design prompts where generic assistance is not enough, and score the judgment in the answer. Tell candidates what is allowed.