My friend and I both went through Discord's marketing interview process for different roles and somehow ended up with nearly identical experiences. The process is long: recruiter screen > hiring manager interview > assignment > presentation > then a loop. The assignment alone takes roughly 40+ hours once you factor in research, analysis, and deck building. In both cases, everything seemed to be going well. We received positive feedback throughout the process. During the presentation itself, interviewers complimented the work and asked thoughtful questions. Then, shortly afterward, the role disappeared, and we received the standard "we've decided not to move forward" email. Maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe not. What stood out was that the assignment asked for *exactly* the kind of strategic thinking, research, and recommendations the company would find useful in the next 2 months (about upcoming initiatives, campaigns, etc.). You spend dozens of hours building a polished deck, present it, leave the slides behind... and then everyone vanishes like a Discord message in a channel you no longer have access to. To top it off, both of us got the same "we don't provide feedback" response. Two data points don't make a trend (or maybe it does, when doubling by other reviewers). But they do make me a lot less excited about take-home assignments that resemble consulting projects.