A Guide to Trial Tasks
Stop guessing. Start testing.
Resumes and applications only tell you so much. A good trial task puts a real problem in front of a candidate before you even interview them, so by the time you get on a call you already know whether the work is there. This guide shows you what a great trial task looks like, with twelve real examples you can copy.
What is a trial task?
A short, focused piece of real work a candidate does before you hire them. Scoped small enough to respect their time. Specific enough to show you who they really are.
Reveals real skill
A 45-minute video editor can say "I edit podcasts" for an hour. Ten minutes watching their edit tells you more than the whole interview.
Surfaces communication
Do they ask smart clarifying questions? Hit the deadline? Flag assumptions? This is what working with them will actually feel like.
Filters for investment
The people who show up and do the task are the people who actually want the job. It's a two-way signal. They're evaluating you too.
The three dials
Every trial task turns three knobs: how long it takes, how long they have, and whether they get paid. Move them and see what the candidate would see.
The sweet spot. Doable in a day or two. Most of our employers pick this.
Our recommended default. Gives candidates a day or two to finish
We recommend $5 to $20 per candidate who completes the task. It's enough to respect their time, cheap enough to test 2 to 5 people on your shortlist. Unpaid works for short evaluation tasks where nothing usable is produced.
Your trial task
This is what candidates see when you assign the task.
12 real trial tasks you can copy
Not "write a blog post" clichés. Specific tasks grounded in what people are actually hiring for right now: AI content repurposers, Go High Level admins, TikTok Shop managers, cold-email specialists. Click any card to see the full brief, plus a Bonus points note. These are signals to watch for in the submission that reveal how they actually think.
What great trial tasks have in common
The difference between a trial that reveals who to hire and one that just wastes everyone's time is usually one of these five things.
One focused deliverable
Not "build our entire onboarding system." Something small you can judge in under ten minutes: one edit, one sequence, one Loom, one reconciled account.
Real-ish, not real
Use a sandbox store, redacted tickets, or fabricated sample data. Close enough to the job to be meaningful, far enough from production that it's not free labor on a real deliverable.
Clear success criteria
Tell candidates what you're grading on. "We'll look at taste and voice, not AI artifacts." Vague briefs produce panicked work. Clear briefs produce their best work.
Fair pay for fair work
$5 to $20 per candidate is the sweet spot. It's enough to respect their time, cheap enough to try 2 to 5 people on your shortlist, and it dramatically raises the quality of who bothers to show up and do the task well.
Feedback, whether or not you hire
Two sentences is enough. "Solid pacing, the cold-open swap was smart, going with someone else." Candidates remember how you treated them, and the word-of-mouth effect on your future pipeline is real.
Ask how they thought, not just what they did
The difference between a button-clicker and a resourceful hire is visible in the Loom. Did they volunteer which AI or tools they used? Did they explain the prompts and what they rewrote by hand? The candidates who surface this without being asked are the ones who compound with your team over time. Every task in the gallery has a Bonus points note flagging exactly what to look for.
What to avoid
The fastest way to poison your applicant pool. If you're doing any of these, top candidates are silently ghosting you.
Don't do these
- Ask for 8+ hours of unpaid work to "prove yourself"
- Disguise real client deliverables as a trial task
- Send the same trial to 20 candidates expecting each to do it for free
- Replace the task with a generic personality quiz or IQ test
- Give vague instructions, then judge harshly on details you never asked for
- Ghost candidates after they submit. Bad for them, worse for your reputation
Do these instead
- Cap tasks at 3 hours unless you are paying for more
- Use sandbox data, fake companies, or redacted real examples
- Limit trials to your shortlist, not every applicant
- Ask for real work in their craft, even if it is small
- Spell out what you are grading on up front
- Follow up with a yes, a no, or a short piece of feedback
How trial tasks work on HireTalent.ph
Four steps, no email threads, no lost attachments, no arguments about whether the deadline was a Wednesday or a Friday.
Shortlist candidates
Pick the people worth evaluating further from your applicant list. Trial tasks work best on a shortlist of 2 to 5.
Assign the task
Start from scratch or pick from our template library, organized by category with time estimates. Set length, deadline, and payment.
Candidates submit
Everything stays in the platform. Text, files, voice, or video. Attachments live with the submission.
Review and pay
Approve, request revisions, or pass. Payment happens in-platform when you approve. No invoicing back and forth.
What reviewing a submission looks like
The entire thing (video, notes, audio, feedback, and status) in one place. Click the approve button to see what happens when you green-light a submission.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay for every trial task?
No, but you should. Short evaluation tasks (30 to 60 minutes, no real-world output) are fair unpaid. Anything longer, or anything producing something you could use, should be paid. Our platform lets you choose either, but we strongly recommend paying. The difference in applicant quality is dramatic.
How much should I pay for a trial task?
We generally recommend $5 to $20 per candidate who completes the task. That's the sweet spot: enough to respect their time, cheap enough to give the same task to 2 or 5 people on your shortlist, and a strong signal that you take hiring seriously.
How long should a trial task take?
Medium tasks, something a candidate can complete in a day or two, are our recommended default. That's enough to see real skill without dominating their week. Longer tasks are for senior or specialized roles, and should always be paid.
Should I do the trial task before or after the interview?
Before. Use the task to shortlist who's worth getting on a call with. By the time you're interviewing, you already know the work is there, so the conversation becomes about fit, communication, and logistics instead of trying to guess whether they can actually do the job.
Can I assign the same trial to multiple candidates?
Yes, it's actually ideal. Comparing 2 to 5 candidates on the same task gives you a much sharper signal than comparing resumes or interview vibes. At $5 to $20 a pop, running a shortlist through the same task is a small investment for a much better hire.
What if a candidate refuses the trial task?
That is data. Strong candidates who want the role usually welcome a short paid trial. A hard no, especially to a short paid task, is a signal to look at their motivation. That said, don't hold it against anyone refusing a long or unpaid one.
How do I prevent candidates from just using AI?
Design tasks where AI is a tool, not the answer. Ask for a Loom walkthrough. Ask why they made a specific choice. Use niche, real-world context (your brand voice, your data, your tool stack) that is hard to shortcut. And frankly, if they can do the job well with AI, that is also useful to know.
What happens after they submit?
You review the submission inside the platform, give feedback, mark it approved, send payment (through Wise for now), and either extend a job offer or pass respectfully. The whole lifecycle (assigned, submitted, reviewed, approved) is tracked so nothing slips.
Ready to see candidates do the work?
Post a job, shortlist applicants, and send your first trial task in under 10 minutes.