I applied for a Marketing Manager role and went through an initial HR screening, after which I was asked to submit a full case study. The task was extremely demanding and required significant time and strategic thinking — covering brand strategy, positioning, campaign planning, and multiple innovation and new product development ideas, not just one or two. The case study itself took nearly three weeks of focused, serious work to prepare and deliver. It involved deep research, creative ideation, and end-to-end planning — the kind of work that honestly felt more appropriate for someone launching a culinary brand from scratch, not applying for a marketing role. This made the request even more concerning given the level of output expected upfront. The scope and complexity were excessive and unjustified, especially at such an early stage in the process. What stood out as deeply flawed was that I was expected to begin this level of work without ever speaking to anyone from the actual marketing department. After only one call with HR, I was asked to deliver a full strategic brand vision — which is highly unconventional and inappropriate for any legitimate hiring process. I later presented the full case to a few marketing team members, and the questions I received were very specific — mainly focused on justification, data, and insights rather than my strategic thinking or rationale as a candidate. This made it clear that what they were really looking for was consultancy-level input, not genuinely assessing my capabilities for the role. And after all that effort, I received no personalized feedback, no follow-up, and no formal closure. The role was quietly closed on the website, and I received the same automated rejection email as any casual applicant. To make matters worse, I had been monitoring this company and this specific role for nearly a year, and it’s evident that no one was ever hired. It strongly suggests that the position may never have been truly open — and that the company was simply gathering ideas from experienced professionals under the false pretense of recruitment. This kind of process is not just unprofessional — it borders on unethical. It’s incredibly exploitative to request this level of strategic and creative output from candidates without clear hiring intent. Processes like this should be formally regulated, if not made outright unacceptable in professional recruitment. Candidates are not free consultants — their time, effort, and ideas deserve respect.