I’ve never left a negative review before, but companies need to be held accountable when their process is misleading. This company promotes a “writing-focused” culture, and the very first step in the interview process was a prompt-based writing assignment without even a phone or video conversation. I was skeptical about doing an assignment without the courtesy of a conversation, but I assumed it would serve as fodder for a subsequent discussion to explore my thinking and experience. Instead, it ended up feeling like a waste of time and, frankly, a scam. I followed the prompt exactly, focusing on a specific example of how my feedback changed the direction and outcome of a project. Despite this, my submission was rejected for lacking context about the company and its goals, some of which is not public and none of which the prompt asked for. Adding to the frustration, they sent me a blog post about a candidate who was initially rejected for not putting in enough effort but later got hired after a year with a new mindset. The tone felt dismissive and overly self-congratulatory rather than genuinely constructive. In today’s already brutal job market, exercises like this feel unnecessarily high-pressure and ambiguous. The process rewards guessing what the company wants rather than demonstrating judgment, leadership, or strategic thinking. If you apply here, expect to spend time trying to anticipate hidden expectations instead of showcasing your skills.

I was contacted via email and was asked to fill out a form. It was a dry and cold email that they must auto-send to all applicants. When you look at the destination info in the email it even says "form mailer" so there's no way it isn't automated. I filled out the form which was quick and easy - took about 5 minutes or so - and just asked a few general questions about my experience. The next day I received another automated email from the same 'person' asking me to register for the option of my choice: 1)HR screen with a person, or; 2) move along to the case study (they recommend the case study, btw). I decided to go with the recommendation and about an hour later I received another auto email with the case study. THIS IS A FOUR PAGE DOCUMENT that appears to outline a real issue they are having at Clipboard Health. They are asking you to draft a plan on how you would tackle this complex problem. They ask for: Objective: What specifically are you trying to accomplish? Background Information: Summary of what you think the problems are and why they are important to address. Specific plan(s), which should answer: ● What do you plan to do about it, specifically? ● How will we measure the success of your initiative(s)? ● What is needed to support this plan? ● When is everything happening? I opted out of working for free through crowdsourcing. This is too much to ask a candidate to do when you haven't even taken a moment to attempt to have a real conversation with them. Heck, it's probably too much to ask a candidate to do at all, unless the candidate is a high-level engineer or is applying to some other high-functioning technical job. I was not. The fact that everything was automated and form filled is also a red flag to me. What happened to a conversation? They even tell you in the auto-emails "it was a pleasure speaking with you and getting to know you" although they did neither of those things. My suggestion to Clipboard: If you're going to ask your candidates to do these case studies, at least wait until they are further along in the process and have actually spoken to people. If you ask them to do it at all, make it when it's between your last two candidates. Don't ask them to do hours of work for you for free. Shorten the case study. Take a single piece of that 4-page document and use that instead of an entire novel. Stop auto-sending. It's cold and dry and doesn't give off a good vibe.