P4tronusCast's journey

I recently applied for a Growth Marketing role at a Series B tech startup and made it to the final round. The hiring manager requested a "practical assessment" to evaluate my thought process, which turned out to be a full go-to-market strategy deck for their new analytics tool. They provided real company metrics and asked for specific ad copy, audience segmentation, and channel budgets. I dedicated my entire Saturday to this task, creating a polished twelve-slide presentation complete with customized Figma mockups and a campaign tagline. However, the following Monday, I received a generic automated rejection email with no feedback. Fast forward to today, a friend pointed out that my exact campaign tagline is now featured prominently on their product landing page, along with the customer acquisition funnel diagrams I had created in my presentation. It feels like they used my work without any intention of hiring me, essentially taking advantage of my skills for free. I can't believe this kind of corporate behavior is tolerated. I wish I had watermarked my slides to protect my intellectual property.