[tombert]

I've told this story before here, but I actually did have a job interview for a company, where they had me work on site for four hours, doing "real" work, and they actually paid me. Granted, it was only like $35/hour, which is pretty low for an engineer in NYC, but it was still a welcome change of pace.

[bitL]

Usually companies that advertise paid interviews ghost the candidate in case of either unsuccessful interview or candidate opting for somebody else. OTOH if you want to work in some bleeding edge team that would catapult you to elite status, like AI autopilot at Tesla/SpaceX, you would be fine with an unpaid crazy project to pick you out/weed you out in the first phase.

[tombert]

Well, in this particular case they actually made me an offer, which I accepted but then they rescinded because I stupidly lied about having a degree.

I can't speak to any other companies, but at least this one did pay me, like they said they would.