Oh man story time, I just went through this yesterday.
I applied for a government job posting. I have 8-years experience in this particular role, and I've trained hundreds of coworkers for the job — I'm a dream applicant. They request in the posting that I read through their department's rubric on their values and cater my cover letter to it (e.g., demonstrate examples of showing service excellence, sound judgment, creative problem solving, yadda yadda yadda). Takes me an hour or two of what feels Iike writing a college thesis.
I get an offer to advance in the interview. I book off an hour of work for the first round of the interview, lying that it was a Doctor's appointment; then, I come to find it was actually a mandatory presentation asking people to not apply for the job unless they "really want it" because it's emotionally difficult. I consider it a waste of MY time.
Second round they offer me to take their '2-hour virtual exam', only offering it during business hours. I lie to my boss again and attend the session. After showing up on time, waiting for the Microsoft teams invite and getting nothing, I email the talent acquisition person: they are out of office.
The following Monday the lady is back in office, emails me, and offers me another virtual exam slot: 4 hours from now, again during work hours, and again requiring me to request time off from my current job.
Wtf? Is there another stage after the exam? An interview? How ridiculous have job searches gotten where we are expected to jump through endless hoops to satisfy prospective employers. Nobody has time to do this for every single frigging job they apply for.