Beware of 'Working Interviews' for Jobs

You apply for a job, are lucky enough to land an interview and make it through two or three rounds. Now, you've come to the part where the company wants you to do a test project. Unpaid.

Hold the hiring manager! Is this something you should do?

Employer test projects — research proposals, sample presentations, reports, marketing data, written strategy and content-marketing materials — all fall under the umbrella of unpaid labor. It's intended to show the company you're a good fit for the job and have the chops do the work. However, more and more candidates are pushing back.

This is mainly because it throws the dynamic between candidate and employer even further afield, giving the employer all the power as candidates scramble to complete the assignment and then wait while the employer subjectively "judges" their work, often not based on criteria the candidate's given. Worse, the rejection prickles when the company hires another candidate who's a "better fit." Some applicants have found their work on the company website — after learning they didn't get the job.

"We estimate that 80% of senior-level roles include a task within the hiring process," says Chris Mason, co-founder of Intelligent People Recruitment Agency, a firm in St Albans, England, that connects employers with specialist candidates across the U.K.

Mason also warns employers that any task given should not be viewed as an opportunity to get free consultancy and cannot be too onerous for the candidate.

"There is absolutely value to test assignments as a way to identify the best candidates for a role, but that is what they should be — brief sample projects that are not taking the place of paid work done by employees," says Rob Boyle, the marketing operations director at Airswift, an international staffing agency in Brisbane, Australia, that focuses on STEM jobs.

"When an employer uses unpaid work done by job applicants — especially ones who are ultimately rejected — that steps over an ethical line into exploitation in my mind," says Boyle.

Unfortunately, candidates have no way of knowing what an employer intends to do with a test assignment, so they can't use that as a metric for whether or not to decline it. Boyle says to consider the scope of the assignment. It may be a reasonable request if it only requires 15 to 30 minutes of work and directly tests skills or knowledge critical to the role. That's the amount of time you'd devote to a typical job interview anyway so you can think of it as yet another hoop in the hiring process.

Candidates eager to improve their odds, demonstrate their proficiency and land the job — especially if they don't perform well in traditional interviews — often take unpaid assignments in stride.

However, requests are becoming longer, and the "free work" can amount to hours of unpaid labor. What can you do?

You should cautiously approach any assignment that would take more than 30 minutes to an hour. "When you're asked for an unpaid assignment that seems excessive, a tactful approach is key to declining without closing the door on the opportunity," says Ryan Esco, the chief marketing officer of FireRock Marketing, a digital marketing agency that specializes in customer acquisition in Rockland, Massachusetts.

It's essential to negotiate terms upfront to ensure you aren't exploited, advises Esco.

Your Options

• Ask to reduce the size or scope of the test project. "Assess roughly how long it would take you to complete the assignment and identify a portion of it that would adequately assess your skills and could be completed within 30 minutes or so," says Boyle.

• Request compensation. Explain to the interviewer that the time involved in the project is more than you are willing to do free but that you'll gladly demonstrate your work by doing a sample assignment for pay. If the employer agrees, you may expect the company to use your paid work. "This approach not only maintains your professional integrity but also sets a precedent for how you value your own work — a crucial aspect in any job negotiation," says Esco.

• Ask for the assignment to be completed within the interview process, whether in person or via Zoom, for skills like Excel knowledge or coding capabilities in IT.

• Offer to explain behavioral or situational skills by discussing a time when you solved a problem, created material from scratch, or relied on a presentation to achieve buy-in.

• Politely decline to do a lengthy test assignment and explain why. “While it’s possible this will knock you out of the running, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. An employer exploiting job applicants for free labor is a red flag,” says Boyle.

According to Mason, the two most common tasks companies ask a candidate to perform include a look back in time: 'Give us an example of when you have done x.' This type of task doesn't include a lot of research time for the candidate but allows the employer to assess their approach and strategy behind their work as well as their critical thinking skills.

The other type is looking at a specific business problem: 'We have x problem; how would you approach it?' This task requires research into the business and should include a time limit, but it can be presented verbally during the next interview.

If you complete an unpaid test project, ask who will judge it — a recruiter, a hiring manager, or your would-be boss. Ask what criteria will be used to rate it and what skills will be assessed. If you don't get a satisfactory answer, you may decide that the company probably doesn't know, which may be a waste of your time since it isn't clear what they're looking for.

"In my career, I've witnessed many cases where candidates engaged in lengthy unpaid projects that rarely led to employment," says Esco. "The underlying issue often isn't about the quality of work but rather a signal of how the company values labor and creativity."

In addition, Esco says the hiring process is an opportunity for you to evaluate the company's ethos. If your gut feeling tells you that an unpaid task is more exploitative than evaluative, it might indicate the company culture at large.

To safeguard your work, propose presenting your findings or completing the task as part of a live presentation. A candidate can also ask the employer not to record the demonstration. Other precautions include asking the company to attest in writing that the work will not be used for anything but candidate assessment and "publishing" the work on your LinkedIn profile, noting that it's sample material for a job interview and you're proving ownership.

Remember, the right opportunity will recognize and respect your value without requiring excessive unpaid proof of your worth.

Jennifer Nelson is a Florida-based writer who also writes for MSNBC, FOXnews and AARP. Read More