[loxias]

I agree with much of what you say, heck, nearly all of it -- but it's not reasonable to expect, or even ask for a _very_ short paid project. I see no reason that a possible employer should pay actual money for some useless task.

If it's very short, then almost by definition it's useless.

That being said I've had great results from doing, say, a tiny consulting project, and ending up with full time employment. The best jobs of my life have followed the pattern of "am either offered, or I manage to ask/negotiate for a small consulting project" -> "before the project actually ends, am brought on full time".

[davidw]

> I see no reason that a possible employer should pay actual money for some useless task.

My time is valuable. I see no reason to work on a useless task for free.

[jayd16]

So is their time. Takes candidate time to do, takes employer time to test/evaluate. Both parties are risking wasted time. You're wasting time driving to interviews and answering calls etc etc. Its the cost of doing business.

[davidw]

Asking someone to spend an hour on something is not a big deal, but I've seen/heard of stuff where they're talking about half a day or even an entire day. For someone with other things going on like a family (I know it may seem outlandish to younger readers here, but it does happen) and a current job, that's asking an awful lot. It does not take the company an entire day to review that exercise, making the time commitment very asymmetric.