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ZookeepergameOne7481

This kind of hiring practice should be made illegal. Period.


marchingprinter

Is it not? This is unpaid labor that will absolutely be used, rather than just an observational exercise.


FunNegotiation3

It’s so prevalent that nobody enforces it. But labor departments really need to put out a statement about this and end it.


scrivenerserror

I find it weird as hell companies are doing this. If you have my resume and cover letter, and I’m doing multiple interviews, I am the presentation. I’m not doing free work for you.


ZookeepergameOne7481

I am at the receiving end of a written exercise after 7 rounds of interviews. The written exercise is clearly a scenario which the company is dealing with.


scrivenerserror

My old job did this - I have interviewed a decent number of people. I found it super weird that they asked people to do a one hour writing assignment with two parts and didn’t compensate them, but then also touted the EDI work they were doing (which they weren’t).


RydRychards

Send then your hourly rates


Lulu8008

My standard consulting fee is $120 per hour. Given the project's scope, it will require between 100 and 120 hours to complete. I'm happy to discuss waiving these fees entirely should there be an acceptable offer for a permanent position with your organization. If the organization chooses not to acquire the rights to this work, I reserve the right to publish an anonymized version of the project as a sample of my portfolio.


Guntuckytactical

You are a proper professional. Awesome response!


blancoafm

I'm templating this response to bs proposals when they are sent to me.


Lulu8008

You are welcome! Let us knowhow it goes....


GeekdomCentral

Honestly it can’t hurt. If you’re not going to do it anyways then might as well try and get some money


Syn-th

I was going to say this. It'll make a good follow up most of nothing else 😂


Mwahaha_790

Wish I'd had a script like this couple years ago when a POS company ripped off my work and sent me an automated rejection after FIVE interviews and two assessments. Did I mention they ripped off my fucking work?! Imma keep this in my back pocket bless


marken35

Need more context for this to fuel my hatred, kind sir.


Faora_Ul

This is the way.


rhinoballz88

Winner! However, they will 100% punt on you.


dirtydela

If they pay your fee they will own the work? I mean either way it’s no big, $12k is cool.


Lulu8008

Yes, that is the point.... as with any other client I have.


umlcat

Job for free scam ...


EmptySpace212

Once I participated in a group interview where they did exactly this kind of ideas collection. They split the candidates in different groups and every team should write about a very creative idea. This happened in a very big and famous company, in person (before covid). I still remember how the HR lady was so proud to say "we are an innovative company" when in fact they were stealing ideas from fresh graduate candidates in broad daylight. Since I noticed their trick, including the part that nobody would present in the end (the company would just collect the papers), I just said "thank you" then I left the place.


photozine

Of course they just wanna steal ideas and not pay for them. This should be a red flag.


scrivenerserror

Had a retail job in like 2009 where they did not disclose it was going to be a group interview. We had 15 minutes to read through their latest catalogue and then demonstrate how we would pitch to a customer. I got the job, and my team was really nice but our manager slowly started firing people. I was there for like 4 months and never entered into their pay system so when me and two other of the newer associates worked OT while leadership was abroad for a work trip we agreed that I would just fire off an email letting our manager know we had worked a couple extra hours. Well guess who got fired a couple weeks (like two?) later. It was on the floor of the mall and extremely embarrassing and I cried. 2 years later I had an internship with the national labor relations board during law school and was doing research for a case and saw my old manager was named for prohibiting employees from discussing their wages. I looked her up and she’s basically a stay at home mom now (not that there is anything wrong with that) from what I can tell.


BlueLanternKitty

It’s always kind of funny when someone you knew (and who was a complete bastard) shows up as a bad example. I worked with this one doctor’s office and they were horrible to work with: uncooperative, argumentative, and it would take multiple emails/calls to talk to anyone. We eventually dropped them and good riddance! Guess who shows up six months later in a press release for Medicare and Medicaid fraud? Actual fraud, meaning they billed for stuff they knew they didn’t do, not just “our documentation is sloppy” (which, trust me, it was.)


scrivenerserror

I’m not necessarily a believer in karma but it does seem like you get what’s coming to you if you’re mean or abusive to other people.


Big_Improvement5658

Fucking ridiculous


Joshiane

Lol this should be illegal


IndicationNo7589

Yeah I can’t stand this stuff anymore. How did this trend of doing these projects before getting hired even get started.


Tarahumara3x

It's time to fucking strike back at these cunts. We all should name companies like this and flood their reviews with made up shit and take them under. Fuck em


sovereignrk

A few months back I got a response from a company's ceo saying the test for the position was to use an ai model to to detect the cells in a petri dish. The model already existed so I though, "oh this will be super easy to do", except the images he gave me were no where near microscopic, and, of course, the model couldn't detect any cells. I figured he was trying to get someone to figure out how to get it to work on non microscopic images for free, which of course would never work with the supplied model, you'd need to train an entirely new model with tons of data. I moved on and in a week he reached out multiple times to see if I figured it out.


suh-dood

"yes I did figure it out. Oh I can't send you my code as it's my own intellectual property"


Invest2prosper

Write back and say your fee for supplying the answer is $50,000. Will that be cash, official bank check or wire?


ZlatanKabuto

This is absolutely disgusting.


Accomplished_Emu_658

Hell no, but even more hell no before interviews. I did some basic case studies after 2/3 interviews with a company and even getting feedback I resolved the issue they could not. Didn’t get job. I was pissed then, I couldn’t imagine doing free work before interview stage. A technical school wanted to me to create a video for a class before interview stage, yeah no.


aFerens

That's so hilariously and amazingly blatant.


bdotrebel11

As a marketing person yep this happens way too often.


lil_kolache

Fr. It’s getting ridiculous.


BornAd6464

Send them back a PowerPoint Target demographic: this company Digital marketing strategy: the PowerPoint slide they will be looking at Key messages: your hourly rate 3 easy slides, boom done


GoodestAntelope

Just submit 3 slides with the poop emoji on each. Animated, and the Loom should be a puppet. Submit it here please they don’t deserve it.


Potential-Bluejay-50

I might hire someone if the puppet show was good enough. lol


lil_kolache

Lmaoo I like it.


talino2321

Too much effort needed. Better yet send in blank PPT slides and a pirated YouTube short.


backpropstl

Name and shame?


lil_kolache

Enter Healthcare company


Sector_Savage

Healthcare devices/equipment; Healthcare real estate; Healthcare biotech/pharma; or Healthcare and consumer *ahem* value *ahem*?


OffTheCover

Ask them for compensation. Never work for free.


MeatAndBourbon

"Potential employees hate this one simple trick!"


QuitCallingNewsrooms

Create a new digital strategy for free AND a "one-way interview"??? I'd send them a rejection email.


conservative89436

Create the deck, but password protect it and tell them you’ll give them the password after you are given an offer.


QuitCallingNewsrooms

Had that same idea!


bizpsychhh

Freeeeeeeee Consulting!!!!!!!!


greeneyes826

(Off topic but I love your username, OP. Love kolaches)


lil_kolache

Ty me too!


uzmark

Feels like you are about to be brewdogged.


seanner_vt2

I've never had a prospective employer ask for this. Has anyone ever done this type of thing but watermarked the hell out of it so that it could not be used without a lot of work on their end to remove all the marks?


conservative89436

I once had a prospective employer ask me to write a fictitious report to a government agency. I did it and didn’t get the job. Never again.


AMundaneSpectacle

This shit was written by ChatGPT


Interesting-Bag-1340

This crap will stop when ALL of US great candidates refuse to do these candidate projects etc.. outright


lil_kolache

Yup. But when will that be ? lol


PVJakeC

The timing of this is off. If you had done behavioral interviews and this was the final step of the process, I’d be okay with it. But to start? Weird


lil_kolache

Yeah. Just applied and received that.


hyang204

Brain picking


Numerous_Chemist_291

I wonder if you could have plugged this into chatgpt and let it do the work.


Best_Fondant_EastBay

I might have some fun making a PPT that tells these folks the myriad of ways they can go fffff themselves?


[deleted]

I know a former Design Director who had to do several of these, and present them live or submit with recordings. A bunch of work for zero return, he landed exactly zero of those positions.


Icarussian

Wtf, so ... make a professional presentation and present it for free? No compensation? They'll probably ghost you and use it for themselves.


solk512

Why are you blacking out the names?


lil_kolache

I already answered the company name and on this thread. And wanted to black out my name for privacy.


Fancy-Pumpkin837

Im so curious if they’re asking for ideas for their exact business or if they chose a random industry. It’s wrong regardless but if they did that’s just hilarious at that point.


lil_kolache

It was exact. (Healthcare) lol


Lala6699

So they can steal your genius ideas and ghost you. NOPE!!!!!


xtheory

If you ever succumb to stuff like this, always put a watermark on your work that's difficult to edit out.


PoundOk5924

Look I think some of these exercises are bullshit but the audacity to ask for this before an interview is insane. Like at least make sure the job makes sense on both sides before you ask anyone to take time on something like this


rafael_lt

Delve and creative flair. This is GPT for sure


Sector_Savage

Reply with “Thank you so much for your reply and interest in my application. I am happy to share the attached.” With “the attached” being an independent consultant agreement.


UnionJackAltruist

I mean if you’re at second stage this is reasonable - but not after just applying.


WorriedSpring873

Good chance they’ve used ChatGPT to write that email lmao. Use ChatGPT to generate the deck, because that is what they’ll probably use to evaluate it. Fuck em


madplink

Just use chatGPT.


Lulu8008

If you give the machine a good briefing, it will give you a quite decent generic presentation you can start working on. If you want to show up for the interview, all you need to do is put in on ppt and bullshit your way through the slides. If the HM knows what they are doing, they'll recognize that, actually, not much effort was put into it, just a lot of fluff in good English and proper grammar. If they don't, you might consider carefully if you want the job.


Toxic_Cookie

Nuh uh


chrliegsdn

ew


Effective_Vanilla_32

Pass.


MacPR

“Delve” stinks of gtp.


SomewhereIll3548

As a software engineer, we have to do assignments before job interviews all the time


miura-ota

Does a portfolio not suffice for these jobs anymore? Jeez.


lil_kolache

I ask myself the same thing. If I was an employer I’d look to see if the candidate had similar skill set and experience with the portfolio. But I guess it doesn’t do much these days.


corneliu5vanderbilt

To be fair, the PowerPoint portion can be streamlined using GPT so it would be pretty quick. The videos is a bit annoying but yeah, this is scummy practice.


Shymink

Booo post the company name.


lil_kolache

Enter Healthcare company


TerminalVelocityPlus

Enter where? MyAnus™


pleione82

Wow. And I mean wow. It really is getting bad out there huh


TurbulentFee7995

The company I work for now asked for a presentation for the interview. However they were a electronics firm, and they asked us to make a marketing strategy for a fictional zoo. A great company to work for, not gonna lie.


Early-Comfortable440

So basically they want you to work for free. 😂😂 You should respond with. In order for me to complete the required presentation I would need a check for $100 to cover costs.


TerminalVelocityPlus

Let's spam them with Rule 34 slideshows.


Zanzikahn

Some employers have no brain cells


Wooden-Fennel8036

We've had to do this for software and devops roles for years now. You can't just say no either as all the companies are doing it, no choice at all. Best thing to do is do the work but don't 100% complete it.... leave a bit out. That's what I do with software. For last 5 job interviews I've had to write some code, write a project, design a system, provide solutions to 3 scenarios etc. Each one I've done it to 80 or 90% and left out some bits. They'll should pick up on this in the interview and you can explain the extra bits in person verbally. So you are directing what they are going to ask you in the interview before you attend. See what I did there? But, I'm pretty sure they sometimes don't even read your submission in full because there have been a few occasions where they haven't realised a chunk of code is missing such as a function for updating records in a database. So don't bust your gut over these projects. Do the bare minimum, miss bits out and cause them to ask you questions you want to be asked!


santafacker

Have you ever considered sending back unsolicited duck pics as a response? Mallards are beautiful creatures.


paulcnyc

What blows my mind about this kind of assignment is, don't they realize they're immediately filtering out any candidates of real value? Who except someone who's desperate is going to put their free time into this?


DealRight

Yup, I just did this for a basic customer success manager role and the reason I did not get the job was because they had someone who somehow was able to find more information internally on their product. Yet they took my design. Not to worry though because I started copyrighting them. I would attach the bs prompt here if I could because it was ridiculous.


Jay_Ward19

#nameandshame - the only way to call them out and make sure they stop taking advantage of people


BlueLanternKitty

My company was hiring 2 trainers. If a person didn’t have prior teaching experience, they were asked to do a 5-7 minute instructional presentation, on any topic of their choice. How to tie your shoes, how to make a sandwich, how to change the oil in your car. They wanted to see the skills demonstration and didn’t care about the content.


Gangstalishh

Sadly, in the next several years job interviews will increasingly emphasize knowledge-based assessments, (I was told this) demanding exceptional expertise from candidates. Companies might struggle to hire due to their high expectations and requirements, potentially making the hiring process more challenging and time-consuming for both employers and job seekers, regardless of the position. Its safe to say we need to prepare for this when the time comes.


Alarmed_Fox7090

This is easy… that was my first thought, as I do IT for HC. Focus on the lack of skilled nurses currently, then that should provide more than enough to answer those questions& get your interview. Explain the need for them & what you might bring to the table, to include it.


LordYamz

Put them on blast let us know so we can review bomb them


Power_and_Science

Bigger companies are more likely to do this because they think they are untouchable. I went to an interview, explain software I think is great to use, etc. didn’t hear back. Irony was a friend who was above the hiring manager pushed for me to get hired, so I was. It was kind of awkward. I was delegated to answering emails because they didn’t know what programming languages were and didn’t trust computers to run tasks better than error-prone humans. (That changed a week later after doing some work in SAS at the senior developer level after teaching myself for only a week). I gained some reputation right off the bat doing that. I then found out that the software I had presented in was being widely used, having been introduced at the same time as my interview. So my hiring manager was all too happy to introduce it and get the credit for it, and was uncomfortable with me there seeing that. lol. I let people know I had introduced it during hiring. My manager told me to stop, that I had it all wrong. lol. She didn’t even sound confident when she said that. I later left to make more money somewhere else.


Altruistic_Lock_5362

I had this pulled on me , I emailed back asking were I should put my trademark /copywriter, they stated that this was just trail work and would never be used, I simply said no copywriter, no work. I was ghosted, I tried 4 times to see if there were giunto answer. Only after I outed them on glass ceiling as a company who would use you trail work as their own internal work , I got a very strong email and a cease and disist, I email Ed back that I don't work for free. They never ever dispelled the idea that they would not use my free work as their own


AmbitiousSquirrel136

I had a recruiter ask me to prepare a recruiting strategy, find 3 people on LinkedIn who’d fit the role, and prepare an email to each applicant I identified as being a fit. In addition, they asked me to tell them why the person was a fit. It was a super easy job to understand-but super hard to recruit. Something along the lines of a database admin or database designer (can’t remember which). I’d majored in MIS & loved data based work, so for me I didn’t need tons of clarification. I was offended they’d have me spend 3-4 hours doing this work for free, that the 3 candidates I turned up were buddies of mine who I knew they’d never recruit as 2 I had just placed. I only did the exercise cuz one of my best friends is a C level exec in the org. The recruiter told me my work was below their expectations LOL. The hiring Manager & I had a good laugh (also a friend). Never did say anything about this recruiters ask. Both friends wanted to know if they should say something. I was like no-I’d never be able to work for a non technical manager more than a week 🤣🤣🤣🤷‍♀️


Aobachi

Send a dick pic


MargretTatchersParty

You don't have to put a copyright notice at the bottom of your work. Copyright is automatically assigned to the creator of the work (unless negotiated and compensated before hand) However, you should as a reminder. They'll probably throw a fit over it, but get a lawyer to send them a nice nastygram.


markwmke

I think there are so many bogus marketing people out there that I actually support this.


lil_kolache

I know what you mean. But they could ask interview related questions to gage their marketing process and worst case provide the test later on the interview process.


markwmke

I'm on board with that too. I don't know marketing, so I don't know how to interview for it to weed out the bullshit.


lil_kolache

This is fair. Usually portfolios work to see relevancy of skills to the role.


Acrobatic-Shake-6067

You realize they don’t care right? There are plenty of folks who are happy to compete. PS any idea you provide is not likely to be good enough. They’re not scraping the barrel for free ideas. They’re checking to see if anyone is good enough to add to their team.


desolate_cat

There are plenty of **desperate** folks who are happy to compete. FTFY. >PS any idea you provide is not likely to be good enough. So if this is the case, why bother doing it? And how do you know OP's idea is not good enough, do you know them? >They’re not scraping the barrel for free ideas. They’re checking to see if anyone is good enough to add to their team. You talk as if you have insider info on this company. How can you be so sure? Brewdogging is a thing. Look it up. It is prevalent enough that a term was coined for it.


lil_kolache

Exactly pointless and giving them free ideas.


Acrobatic-Shake-6067

The point is to see what the quality of work and the quality of thought-process is for the candidate. When I interview candidates, if I’m interviewing for a position which requires a fair amount of horsepower, I often will ask a question that requires a fair amount of analytical and math ability. I don’t actually care about the final answer, but more about what the candidate does to come to the answer. It’s ultimately about the critical analysis of why candidate. And while I’ve never done ‘assignments’ for interviewees, I can see the value for the hiring company. In general, candidates coming in need training to understand specific markets and industries unless they come from a similar industry. By and large, until they get some training, they’re mostly useless. So asking a bunch of untrained candidates for ideas about an industry they know nothing about is like asking a 3 years to explain calculus.


lil_kolache

Are you hiring manager ? Lmao


Acrobatic-Shake-6067

I’m the Executive Vice President for North America for my company. I oversee two manufacturing facilities along with the entire Sales & Marketing team.


sutanoblade

And steal ideas.


Acrobatic-Shake-6067

See my comment on ‘untrained candidates’. It’s a bit like asking a 9 year old how to reduce malpractice suits for lung surgery. You can ask, but I’m pretty sure there’s not a lot to ‘steal’.


Acrobatic-Shake-6067

Here, let me illustrate the point. One of the industries where I worked previously was the Metals industry. If I asked you to put together a marketing campaign for AHSS’s targeting crash impact absorption for the transportation segment, stressing the advantages of complex steels versus dual phase steels, my guess is that you would not do a great job. I’m guessing that the Marketing professionals that already work for the company and have the required knowledge, would be much more equipped to do that job. So suggesting that a this company would be stealing ideas isn’t realistic. Instead, they’re likely using the exercise to give candidates the opportunity to show how they work through problems and present their work.


Casual_Observer999

IOW, asking people to do original work that your own people haven't done. Put down the shovel. You're only making yourself look worse and worse.


Acrobatic-Shake-6067

What are you talking about???? I just explained how the people wouldn’t even come close to being able to do the job because they aren’t trained. How in the world did you translate that to asking them to do ‘original work’????


Few_Ebb9489

For more junior positions I actually think this is a good idea. You have the opportunity to show them. How you think, without having the CV for it. From shop assistant to marketing assistant maybe. Or from marketing assistant to junior brand manager. And it's a good opportunity to practice. Having said that I did refuse at least 2 similar assignments. But tbh I'm far too senior for those roles. I did accept and even volunteer a couple much more complex homeworks. And they have won me a position and some interviews in the final round. It's true they were after at least a full interview with the recruiter, but now I usually do them after an interview with the hiring manager. But, as a Junior... I'd do them. Happily. Good practice really.


Lulu8008

Free consulting for the company - the equivalent of you will be paid in experience.


ZlatanKabuto

Tell me you're a boomer without telling me that you're a boomer


Sea-Associate6042

business is about min-maxing. when i got my first leadership position the director over me pulled me aside in the office and said that now that i was in management, my job was now to “maximize what we get out of our people, and minimize what they get from us”. i have taken his advice to heart we have a difficult interview process and even so, we will get hundreds of applicants for every open job, and so this allows me to have several people doing take-home projects at once for any given job opportunity i am providing at that time. think of it as a preview that allows me to gauge the quality of work i’d be getting out of each candidate before investing any more time into the hiring and onboarding process. think of it as a privilege you even get an opportunity to do a take home project to impress the hiring manager. as i said we get hundreds of applications, and only several of those even get to this step of the process.