Spoke with the hiring manager who was quite friendly and interested in my background. They indicated I would hear back within a week after our conversation, but after a week had passed with no company follow up, I checked in to see where things were at. I learned that the hiring manger had left the company and was asked to speak to another team member who was also friendly. We seemed to connect and the conversation flowed naturally. At that stage, I was asked to create a presentation outlining recommendations for the company. No data points are given, and without internal working knowledge/context, it’s difficult to develop meaningful ideas beyond what can be gleaned at surface-level. I spent 10-12 hours developing recommendations for the business based on the limited information I had, which I shared in advance of my presentation. The day of the preso, one of the team members was unavailable but I was asked to proceed with the presentation anyway. As I began talking through my ideas, it was clear to me that a decision had already been made to not move forward with me as a candidate — the interviewer seemed uninterested in what I had to say and hurried me through the presentation. Overall, no hard feelings, but I believe that a take home project that requires so much of a candidate without clear expectations and a subjective assessment of the work, isn’t indicative of someone’s abilities or skill set.