A tech worker looking for a job went through 11 interviews and spent a full week working on a project for a company. Then he got rejected. But the rejection email had a shocking twist; the company admitted they were keeping his code and using it in their actual product.
According to Daily Dot, Steve the Beaver, who shared this story on X, showed just how bad the job search process has become. He sat through 11 rounds of technical interviews, which is already exhausting. On top of that, he had to finish a take-home project that took him an entire week to complete.
The company liked his work enough to steal it, just not enough to hire him. Steve posted a screenshot of the rejection email that proved what they did. The email thanked Steve for finishing the first phase of interviews, which included those 11 technical rounds and the week-long project. Then came the part that made people angry.
Companies are treating job candidates like free workers
The company wrote that they were impressed with his work and had accepted it into their codebase. In other words, they were using his code in their product.
The company tried to make the rejection sound nicer by calling it a hard decision. They said they recognized his technical skills but decided not to move forward with hiring him. But saying nice things doesn’t change the fact that they’re using work he did for free. This isn’t the first time tech companies have misused personal information in troubling ways.
Then things got even worse. After rejecting him, the company sent Steve another message asking how to fix something in the code he wrote. Steve said he immediately refused to help. They rejected him and then wanted free tech support on top of stealing his work.
People online quickly pointed out this looks like theft of intellectual property. Unless Steve signed a contract giving away his rights to the code, it still belongs to him. One user explained he should not have gone to such lengths in an interview.
“Never do more than 3 interview steps.
- Intro Call
- Technical Test
- Final Chat -> Offer
People need to stop wasting their time applying to companies that do anything but that. I once asked a recruiter if it was any more than this and he immediately hung up on me,” they wrote.
Steve wondered if he should take the company to court, though he mentioned not wanting to hurt a startup. But many people think he has a strong legal case here. This kind of behavior from companies is becoming more common, and it needs to stop.
Similar to how a smart device company faced backlash for crossing privacy lines, companies often push boundaries without considering consequences. Other users shared similar horror stories about going through endless interview rounds, with some companies demanding five or even eight rounds of interviews. The tech industry’s hiring process is clearly out of control, and stories like Steve’s show why job seekers are fed up with being treated like free labor.
Published: Dec 14, 2025 02:45 pm