Ryan Daniels, founder and CEO of legal services startup Crosby, anticipated resistance when he moved job interviews to Sundays. Instead, candidates responded with overwhelming relief. The reason was simple — nobody had to burn precious vacation days or risk alerting their current employer just to stay in the running for a new role.
How Sunday Work Trials Actually Work
Crosby’s Sunday sessions go far beyond a standard interview. Software engineering candidates are dropped directly into live projects, where their coding and AI skills are assessed in real time. Business role candidates face panel interviews with the executive team, who have more uninterrupted time on weekends to evaluate how candidates think and problem-solve. The day extends to a shared meal, giving the team a chance to observe candidates in a relaxed, off-script environment. Daniels believes this social window is often decisive. “If people vibe with the team, we never lose them,” he told Business Insider.
A Growing Trend Among Startups
Crosby is not alone in embracing work trials as a recruitment tool. Remote-first startup Linear pays candidates over two to five days to contribute to its real codebase. Gumroad CEO Sahil Lavingia takes it even further, hiring candidates as contractors for four to six weeks to handle small tasks before making any permanent decision.
The underlying logic across all these companies is the same — traditional interviews rarely reveal whether someone can truly do the job. Putting candidates in realistic work situations, even briefly, delivers far more reliable insight than hypothetical questions alone ever could.