I was approached directly by the CEO via LinkedIn, who expressed interest in my background and invited me to connect with their People Lead. Unfortunately, the experience that followed didn't match the enthusiasm of that initial outreach.
The screening call with the People Lead was brief and surface-level — I came away with little useful information about the role, the team, or what joining Clever would actually look like day-to-day.
From there, I was given a take-home assignment asking me to evaluate a product hypothesis, produce a written proposal, build visual prototypes, and draft a meeting agenda — all framed as 2–4 pages but realistically requiring significant independent research. I invested approximately 16 hours and submitted two prototypes along with my written work.
A week passed with no communication. After I followed up, I received a rejection email a few days later with no specific feedback on my submission.
For candidates considering a process here: be aware that the investment asked of you may not be matched by the organization's investment in you. If you're being recruited — not applying — I'd expect more transparency earlier and at minimum some substantive feedback on work of this scope.
