The idea was to limit the risk of hiring someone like me who might not be as experienced as they were hoping - by offering to show them what my velocity / abili

The idea was to limit the risk of hiring someone like me who might not be as experienced as they were hoping - by offering to show them what my velocity / ability was like actually doing work for them. I might be totally off-base and naive about this - totally willing to be called out / corrected :)