How to run a paid test task without wasting anybody's time

A portfolio shows you somebody's best work after several rounds of revision. A test task shows you what arrives on a Tuesday.

Pay for it

A test task is work. If it is worth doing it is worth paying for, and paying for it changes the character of the exchange: you are now a client rather than a competition organiser, and you get to see what being your client is like.

Bound it hard

Two hours, one deliverable, one round of feedback. If you cannot describe the task in a paragraph, it is not a test, it is the job.

Make it useless to you

The strongest signal that a test is fair is that you cannot ship the output. Use a real brief with the specifics changed, or last quarter's problem, or a piece of work you have already done so you have something to compare against.

What to actually look at

• Did they ask a question before starting? The good ones almost always do.
• Did they do the thing you asked, or the thing they wanted to do?
• How did they take the feedback round?
• Did it arrive when they said it would?

Three of those four are about working with somebody, not about craft. That is the point: craft is the part a portfolio can show you.

Say no clearly

Somebody who did a paid test and did not get the job should hear so, in a sentence, quickly. It costs you nothing and it is the difference between a small professional exchange and a bad memory of your company.

Where the platform fits

Agree the task in the conversation, then record it as an engagement with the rate and the hours you agreed, so the hours and the invoice attach to terms both of you can read back. Nothing about the money passes through us.