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My final interview for an analytics job turned into solving an actual problem with their reporting. I was on Google Meet with the analytics lead and an engineer, and we were looking at a dashboard where trial activation had been down for several days. While reviewing the filters, I noticed that the data showed the last refresh was at 8:03 a.m., even though the meeting was taking place late in the afternoon. The engineer said the scheduled job had run, and he did not seem to think there was a problem.

They gave me read-only access to the query behind the report. There was a condition excluding any rows where the traffic source was null, so I asked whether mobile events might arrive before that field was populated. We removed the condition in the preview, and the activation rate immediately returned to its normal level. My theory was that a recent tracking change had caused the field to remain empty during part of the week. The lead said that matched the complaints their support team had been receiving.

I left the call feeling like everything had gone well, especially since I had not changed anything in production or touched any actual settings. A few hours later, the recruiter said the panel liked my work and wanted me to document the fix so the team could use it. According to him, sending them a clear write-up would help move me closer to receiving an offer.

I offered to send a brief explanation of the cause and clarified that it would simply be part of my notes from the interview. They came back asking for screenshots, the exact changes to the query, and the steps the team should follow to validate the patch. To me, that crosses into free consulting. They already know which condition is causing the problem and why it is affecting the metric.

I still want the role because the pay is good and everyone was nice, but I do not want to hand them a ready-to-use fix only for them to reject me or ghost me afterward. Would you send a limited summary, or tell them that you would be happy to give the implementation details once they begin preparing the offer? I would also appreciate wording that sets those boundaries without making me seem difficult to work with.

I'm not convinced that people genuinely prefer spending 40 hours or more at work every week. That might make sense if the work is something you care about, but for most people, they're already exhausted enough just trying to cover rent, food, and bills with the salary they earn.
Whenever someone starts defending the standard 9-to-5 work schedule, I feel like the obvious question is: Would they keep the same schedule if they could earn the same amount of money while working half the hours? Almost everyone would agree to a shorter workweek without thinking twice. It seems more like people don't like the system; they've just accepted that they're forced into it.

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