Tuesday, September 29, 2026

How to Handle a Request for an Unpaid Take-Home Assignment (With an Email Template)

The Pudding Team
For Candidates

A take-home assignment is a project a company sends you during hiring: a case study, a design, a writing sample, or some code you complete on your own time. Hirers use them because seeing someone's work says more than a resume or an interview. Many still send them unpaid. If one just landed in your inbox and your time is worth more than a free sample, here is how to respond.

Short answer: Decide for yourself whether unpaid work helps your career right now. Weigh:

  1. Your leverage. Do you have other offers, interviews, or savings, or do you need this job?
  2. Your career stage. If you don't yet have much work you can share, or your portfolio doesn't closely match this hirer's context, a take-home built for the role can show exactly what you'd bring.
  3. How much you want this role. A dream company may be worth a few hours. A maybe usually isn't.

If doing it unpaid works in your favor, do it. Otherwise, reply with interest in the role, ask the company to make it a paid assignment, and give them easy ways to pay you. Either way, only do work you can keep for your portfolio.

Why is unpaid take-home work a problem?

Because small asks add up. A one-hour exercise sent to 40 candidates is 40 hours of skilled work collected for free: a full working week, taken one hour at a time. That puts the practice on shaky ethical ground, however small each request looks.

Designers have long made the same case. The AIGA, the professional association for design in the US, opposes unpaid speculative work because it lowers quality for clients and leaves designers open to exploitation. It recommends that clients judge candidates on existing work and pay for new work.

Whatever you decide, keep one rule: every take-home should be something you can put in your portfolio. If you can't, don't do it.

How do you ask to be paid for a take-home?

  • Ask in your first reply, before you start.
  • Lead with interest in the role, so the request reads as a next step, not an exit.
  • List a few ways they can pay you. Hiring teams often hesitate not over the money but because they've never paid a candidate before. Include two or three payment tools in your reply, and mention that a small one-off payment like this usually needs no tax paperwork on their side.
  • Keep it short. One friendly email, no argument.

Companies have reason to agree: in a Monster survey, 59% of workers said unpaid assignments or excessive take-home work would make them least likely to apply.

Email template: asking for a paid take-home

Template

Subject: Re: [Role] take-home assignment Hi [Name], Thanks for sending the brief. I'm interested in the [Role] position and would like to keep moving forward. Would your team consider making this a paid assignment, with the finished work mine to keep for my portfolio? If setting up a payment is the hurdle, these services take care of it: - Pudding (runs the whole assignment, from brief to payout): https://pudding.work - Gusto: https://gusto.com/product/solutions/size/contractor - QuickBooks Contractor Payments: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payroll/contractor-payments/ - BILL: https://www.bill.com/product/1099-filing For a small, one-off task like this, there's usually no tax paperwork on your side. Looking forward to hearing from you. Best, [Your name]

The tools in the message: Pudding manages the entire take-home and pays every completed submission automatically. Gusto, QuickBooks Contractor Payments, and BILL are the contractor payment tools accountants recommend over personal apps like Venmo (The Tax Keeper).

What if the company says no?

Offer existing work in its place, which is what AIGA recommends clients ask for anyway. If that doesn't work for them, decline politely:

Template

Thanks for considering it. I don't take on unpaid assignments, but I'd be glad to walk you through a past project that shows the same skills. Either way, I appreciate your time.

Frequently asked questions

Is it rude to ask to be paid for a take-home assignment?

No. It is a normal professional request. How a company responds tells you how it values people's time.

Is a short unpaid take-home OK?

That's your call, based on your leverage, career stage, and how much you want the role. Keep in mind that a one-hour task sent to dozens of candidates adds up to weeks of free work for the company.

Does paying a candidate create tax paperwork?

Usually not for the hirer. The US federal threshold for filing a Form 1099-NEC is $2,000 paid to one person in a calendar year, starting with the 2026 tax year (OnPay). Below that, the hirer generally files nothing. The candidate still reports the payment as income.

Should I do a take-home if I can't keep the work for my portfolio?

No. Only do take-homes you can keep and show.

Sources

  1. AIGA, "AIGA Position on Spec Work." https://www.aiga.org/resources/aiga-position-on-spec-work
  2. Pudding, "Unpaid take-home assignments: are they exploitative? A fair look at both sides." https://pudding.work/blog/unpaid-take-home-assignments
  3. Monster, Job Search Deal-Breakers Report (2026). https://www.monster.com/career-advice/research/job-search-dealbreakers
  4. OnPay, "1099 Reporting Thresholds: 2026 Changes Explained." https://onpay.com/insights/1099-reporting-threshold-updates/
  5. The Tax Keeper, "Can You Use Venmo to Pay Contractors?" https://thetaxkeeper.com/can-you-use-venmo-to-pay-contractors/
Back to blog