They wanted a 2-hour unpaid “mock presentation”, with their real client data

Got through two interview rounds for a consulting role. HR emailed me asking to prepare a “mock presentation” for the next stage.

Cool, no problem, until I opened the attached file. It was an actual client dataset.

I asked if it was anonymized. They said,

“It’s okay, just don’t share it publicly. We use this to see who can handle real scenarios.”

So basically, free consulting work with zero pay.

I declined politely and got ghosted. Not even a “thanks for your time.”

At this point, interviews are just unpaid side quests for companies.