It seems a stretch to say you were burned. The company has no idea how much you are worth (to them, not an abstract company) until they interview you. The offer you got is not necessarily the same as the offer that somebody else might get; perhaps your offer was much lower because you seemed like a poor fit.
I wasted my time on a coding project for them, so burned is indeed correct, though it was my own fault. I actually never got an offer. They just told me what they thought would be the maximum as they really liked the project. Also, I learned never to do that again.
This last round of contract hunting for me was similar. Every single organization wanted an 8+ hour project to prove my skills but half the salaries ended up being <80k. So I started having to state base contract rates up front.
Comments
It seems a stretch to say you were burned. The company has no idea how much you are worth (to them, not an abstract company) until they interview you. The offer you got is not necessarily the same as the offer that somebody else might get; perhaps your offer was much lower because you seemed like a poor fit.
I wasted my time on a coding project for them, so burned is indeed correct, though it was my own fault. I actually never got an offer. They just told me what they thought would be the maximum as they really liked the project. Also, I learned never to do that again.
This last round of contract hunting for me was similar. Every single organization wanted an 8+ hour project to prove my skills but half the salaries ended up being <80k. So I started having to state base contract rates up front.
Have you ever tried quoting for interview projects?
"I've reviewed the spec for the take-home assignment and I estimate it at about 8 hours which is $1,200 plus tax."
It'd be an interesting experiment at the very least.
I can hear the scoffs already, lol. Maybe this would work if you were being poached.
Never do free work. Not even for an interview. Charge full rate plus some. Serious people know your time is money.