Dear Recruiters: You should really reconsider your practices!

I have about 15 years experience as Character TD (Rigger) and 8 years experience as Unity Developer.

Recently I have finished working for a client doing rigs and I have decided to look for new opportunity and here we go, I've started applying as a Character Rigger and / or Unity Developer to different companies.

After few days i started receiving emails from recruiters, working for the game studios that i have applied for.. Interesting part is that most of the big companies out there are doing exactly the same thing. They ask you do to a test. 

Here is one example of an e-mail that i have received today:

 So i started wondering.... Who exactly you think you are, to expect me to waste one week of my life to do your test for free. And just pay attention, that this is their first e-mail. We didn't talk about working environment, what do they offer, what will be the payment and so on. They just expect me to leave everything that i'm doing at the moment (Either if it's something personal, or just watching TV) and start working on their test for free.

I mean, who exactly do you think you are? Why do you think i should do something for free, just because you have a lot of applications for that certain position?

Just imagine that a developer is looking for a new job and he applies in 10 different companies. Then all of them asks for a free test that takes one week. That will make over 2 months working for free, without even knowing what the salary would be on these companies.

Well recruiter, maybe the salary is not enough, what would you do then? Say sorry for the time wasted?

I'm thinking that this is companies politics mostly because developers agree to do this test.

Dear developers, don't do tests for free before you know the details about the job that you are applying... Valuate your time