I’ve been interviewing with another firm who asked me to develop an H1 2026 plan for a client I’d lead. I completely understand wanting to get a sense for my strategic thinking and planning, but this is feeling like an insane about of free work - that could potentially be ripped off from me.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been actively interviewing so is this normal nowadays? Or a huge red flag?

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This has happened to me several times and each time I have been the next best candidate because they wanted to hire someone who can grow into the role… aka, younger, less experienced, and less expensive.

I have come to tell recruiters that I am happy to engage their client/firm as a consultant and my fee is $350 per hour.

I’m tired of creating detailed plans to show my value only to have companies hire less qualified people to execute my plan.

No thanks… pass.

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I do hear this happening, not sure if it’s extremely common though. A full strategic plan with a detailed roadmap and market analysis, and so on, is too much. Agree with keeping it fairly high level. They can get a feel for how you think through the situation, but not do multiple days' worth of free work. If they aren’t happy with that, I would consider it a red flag at that point.

Glad to hear it! I can’t imagine giving too much time to ‘free’ work when you have no idea how the process will go. Best of luck with it!

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