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Ryan Daniels expected pushback when he started asking job seekers to interview on Sundays. What the founder and CEO of legal services startup Crosby got instead were sighs of relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crosby, a startup that offers basic legal services to other startups, is one of many employers that are leaning into \u201cwork trials<\/a>,\u201d or short-term recruitment assessments where a candidate performs real job tasks, Business Insider<\/a> recently reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n Daniels sought to interview candidates thoroughly, but didn\u2019t want to disrupt their schedules with mid-week, on-site auditions. He realized that these interviews were forcing candidates to choose between their current jobs and a shot at Crosby. His solution was simple: offer Sunday as an interview and trial day.\u00a0<\/p>\n He found that many people responded to a Sunday interview with \u201chuge relief\u201d rather than annoyance. A Sunday visit meant that they could participate in a demanding, multi-hour work trial without sacrificing paid time off or tipping off their current employer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Daniels told Business Insider that the company uses Sunday sessions to simulate real work, not just to ask theoretical questions. For software engineer positions, for example, Crosby may drop a candidate into a live project so the team can assess their coding and AI skills in practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n For business roles, candidates come in on Sundays for panel interviews with Crosby\u2019s executive team. Executives have more uninterrupted time on Sunday to probe how candidates think, communicate and solve problems, Daniels explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n The trial does not end with the formal interview block. Candidates also join the team for lunch or dinner, which gives hiring managers and prospective colleagues a chance to observe how employees interact when they are off-script. Daniels said that this social window can be crucial in convincing top candidates, those with multiple offers, that Crosby is the place they want to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf people vibe with the team, we never lose them,\u201d he told Business Insider. \u201cIf they don\u2019t, it\u2019s a good lesson for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Work trials can vary in intensity. At the remote-first startup Linear, a work trial consists of co-working with existing employees on the real codebase, creating something the company will use.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s challenging to assess in interviews if someone is truly a builder, has good taste and judgment, can take initiative, and approaches problems productively,\u201d Linear CEO Karri Saarinen told Lenny\u2019s Podcast<\/a> in 2023. \u201cThe goal with the work trial is to simulate a normal working environment as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Linear pays candidates across two to five days<\/a> to complete a real project, with access to internal tools and resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sahil Lavingia, CEO of e-commerce platform Gumroad, takes things one step further by hiring candidates as contractors for four to six weeks. In general, the candidates work on small bug fixes and other simple tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so very hard a priori to know if someone can do the job,\u201d Lavingia told Lenny\u2019s Podcast<\/a> in 2024. \u201cSo we just pay them to do it!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Ryan Daniels expected pushback when he started asking job seekers to interview on Sundays. What the founder and CEO of legal services startup Crosby got instead were sighs of relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crosby, a startup that offers basic legal services to other startups, is one of many employers that are leaning into \u201cwork trials<\/a>,\u201d or short-term recruitment assessments where a candidate performs real job tasks, Business Insider<\/a> recently reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n Daniels sought to interview candidates thoroughly, but didn\u2019t want to disrupt their schedules with mid-week, on-site auditions. He realized that these interviews were forcing candidates to choose between their current jobs and a shot at Crosby. His solution was simple: offer Sunday as an interview and trial day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nHow the Sunday trials work<\/h2>\n
Other companies with work trials<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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