I caught on to this pretty quickly as a youngster. I have a portfolio with peer reviewed publications. Any time I get asked to do work as part of an interview, I have a PDF file with a big hand giving the middle finger with text underneath that says, “Fuck you, pay me.”

Any company that asks me to do work before I am hired is not a place I’m going to work. Hopefully my shenanigans wastes just a bit of their time.