UK Recruitment Glossary
Take-Home Assignment
In recruiter context
Used widely in product, design, marketing, data, and engineering hiring. Length varies — 2 hours for marketing, 4-8 hours for product, 8-16 hours for engineering. The 'time stated' on the brief is usually 50-70% of what candidates actually spend; this is normal. Two ways take-homes go wrong: spending 30 hours when 6 was expected (signals desperation), and submitting work that's clearly under-effort (signals not interested). Aim for the stated time + 30%, document your approach and trade-offs, ship to a public link rather than ZIP'ing it. The work itself is rarely the deciding factor — the conversation about your decisions is.
Related terms
Hallucination (AI)
When an LLM produces output that is fluent, confident and plausible but factually wrong.
Cover Letter
A short letter accompanying your CV that explains why you want this specific role.
PAYE
Pay As You Earn — HMRC's system for collecting income tax and NI directly from your salary, before y…
Reference Check
A call or written enquiry the employer makes to confirm your past employment and performance.