The process began with a recruiter contacting me via LinkedIn - the recruiter said that my previous experience in life sciences was a desirable attribute for the role. An initial phone consultation with the recruiter and a current employee was carried out - the phone call was fairly pleasant although the employee seemed like he wanted to be somewhere else. I expressed interest in the role and the employer explained that I would need to complete a task which would then be presented in an interview setting to the Lead Consultant and one other senior member of staff.
The task involved me analysing over 300 survey responses as well as 3 user-testing videos which were over 40minutes of content in total and then producing a presentation with my analysis, results, and future recommendations for potential experiments. The task took 5 days in total and was very time-consuming.
I sent my finished presentation to the recruiter on the day of the deadline. The following day the recruiter contacted me saying that they had decided NOT to take me to the interview stage as there were other candidates that more closely met their requirements and that they wished me every success in the future. This would be fine, HOWEVER, they did not have my CV at any point and I was told I would have a chance to present my task.
I followed up by asking the recruiter for any feedback and they did not respond. 4 days later I emailed again but cc'd the lead consultant - they didn't respond again.
TL;DR - They have got 5 days worth of free work from me. They did not reply to my request for feedback. Definitely a company to avoid. Don't fall for the trap!