[vsprabhakara1]

We did something very similar to hire our designer with Fanvibe (now we're with beRecruited.com) - we ran a normal job post, then asked everyone to submit a rough mock-up of a mobile site design for Fanvibe in addition to their resume and portfolio. We quickly got to three top options out of 100, interviewed those 3 and hired a designer who is amazing and still works with us. I'm a big believer in "real-world" challenges before hiring someone

EDIT: We likely would have not even interviewed our top 3 choices based on resume / portfolio alone

[epicureanideal]

This is the kind of thing that would screen me out for sure. If you want a mock up for a site design I'm going to get the impression you're trying to "hire" 1000 unpaid designers. Unless you're talking about a 1 hour job, in which case you're getting something pathetic, this is just abuse by the potential employer. Further, you probably hired the 3 worst guys because they probably put in 50 hours on what should be a 1 hour design because they're so desperate for a job (further indicated by the fact that this ridiculous requirement didn't make them look elsewhere). That's also probably why it didn't match up with their resumes.