Somewhen in the 1990s and 2000s I noticed a trend that even companies with tons of VC money wanted to get labor for free. I started freelancing in the 90s and back then in general companies accepted that they had to pay some market rate. Then slowly a lot of them started lowballing like crazy.<p>The latest trend seems to expect that job applicants spend hours, days or weeks working for them for free before being hired. That&#x27;s what probation time is for.<p>Unfortunately tech people are OK with being exploited. I don&#x27;t see too many lawyers or MBAs working at minimum wage or working for free to &quot;get exposure&quot;.