To help you get the absolute most out of our anonymized, paid-take-home platform, we’ve put together a few essential tips for designing and managing your assessment "concert."

Designing the Perfect Assessment

The beauty of a take-home assessment is that it allows you to see candidates in action. When drafting your guidelines, ask yourself: What do I need to learn about this candidate that a resume or standard interview could never tell me?

You’ll also need to decide how closely the assessment should relate to your company’s actual daily work. While candidates’ deliverables cannot be used directly in your live production environment, the tasks should serve as a strong proxy. Design challenges that reflect related types of capabilities and variables your team faces in production.

• Keep it Accessible: Ensure your assessment only references public materials. Provide open URLs and avoid linking to anything behind a login, paywall, or private server. Never require candidates to spend their own money or travel.
• Keep it Compliant: Before finalizing your deliverable guidelines, check with your legal counsel. They can help you structure the guidelines to ensure they don't inadvertently look too much like standard "employee" instructions or impose supervision.

Managing the "Concert"

Once your assessment goes live and the "concert" begins, you should plan to be completely out of contact with your invited candidates. This no-contact period is a feature, not a bug! It ensures a level playing field where no candidate gains an unfair advantage through off-platform communication. Let your guidelines speak for themselves and let the candidates do their best uninterrupted work.

Budgeting and Compensation Strategy

Pudding is designed to ensure candidates are compensated fairly, which means you need to structure your budget strategically.

To maximize your budget, we highly recommend a tiered compensation strategy. Set your compensation as low as fairly possible in the early, foundational stages of the assessment. Then, set higher compensation for the later, more complex stages. This ensures you are reserving your primary spend for the most promising candidates who make it to the end of your pipeline.