Ask HN: Take home interview project – is this ok?
How would you handle this situation?
About three weeks ago I applied for senior front-end developer job at a major global airline. I immediately got a response saying they liked my experience and wanted to interview. I was sent specifications for a take-home project to build a web application that would act as a test of my technical ability.
The project was relatively simple: A React-Redux app to search for and display data from a json dataset. That being said, there were "bonus" points for adding advanced functionality to the web app, and the recruiter repeatedly told me to take my time on the project to make it "perfect".
So I put my best foot forward [why would you not?], and spent ~40 hours producing a production-grade quality submission that ticked all the boxes, & some more.
A week later I got a response from the recruiter saying the interviewer was "very happy" with my submission and wanted to proceed with a final-stage, on-site interview. However, the interviewer's manager did could not approve for the budget and they would not be proceeding.
What is the appropriate response to this?
Should I be contacting someone's manager? Can I invoice the company for my time spent on the project? Was I stupid to accept a take-home project in the first place? Are take-home projects fundamentally unethical?
Honestly, I feel that I shouldn't have been asked to complete a take-home project and pushed to work extra hard on it only to be told the position does not exist.
If it matters, I've worked as a web developer for 5 years and 3 as a senior.