I had my first interview on October 12. The recruiter said that as part of the role, despite being something you can easily do remote, I would need to travel from NY to CA at least twice a year to go into the office - something I could not accommodate. She said it was not necessarily a deal-breaker (one would hope not during a pandemic), and that if I heard back from her the next day with the writing assignment, that meant that she had spoken to the hiring manager and it was something they could work around. The next day, I received the writing assignment as discussed, so I was left to assume that they must really like me to make such an exception. The writing assignment was unpaid, but I dutifully completed it and submitted it the following day. I then received an auto-reply from the recruiter I sent it to, saying she would be out of the office for the rest of the week, and that I should forward my email to another recruiter in her absence, which I did. The second recruiter said she would make sure the initial recruiter received it upon her return. No one responded to me after a week, so I reached out to the initial recruiter, since it was a few days after her expected return. She responded that the hiring team was still reviewing my submission and would be in touch. I have never heard anything since. It is now December 22, so I think it is safe to assume that a) they got free work out of me, and b) I've been ghosted. It is so disrespectful when companies ghost you, as it shows a complete lack of respect for your character and your time. It is quite unfortunate that this is such a common practice these days. Note for the future: don't agree to do unpaid samples. This took about two hours of my time, and with no other response from them, I am left to assume that they used the interviewing process to get free work out of me and who knows how many others. Do it to enough candidates, and you can re-write your whole website for free! There are plenty of recruiters out there who will respect you as a person and who will pay you for your time and at least let you know, after all that work, whether or not you got the job.