I Would Do Anything for a Job—Except That

When I was fresh out of college nearly 30 years ago and eager for my first journalism job, I was fortunate enough to have three newspapers courting me.

The first was (and still is) one of the largest newspapers in Florida. My other options were a mid-sized newspaper in the Philadelphia area and a small community newspaper in central Pennsylvania. I received invitations to interview at each of them, but I only accepted two. Here’s why.

That large newspaper in Florida was immediately out because they requested I fly down for the interview and spend 2 to 3 days completing reporting assignments to prove my skills – all without any compensation. As a new college graduate, I lacked the disposable income to pay for airfare, food, a rental car, and lodging in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. So, I politely declined the interview.

My second option was the mid-sized paper near Philly. They only requested an interview. It was a 2-hour drive each way, but I decided it was reasonable. I showed them my portfolio, we discussed the position, and that was that. As far as interviews go, it was unremarkable. I sent a thank you note and waited for a potential offer.  

The third option for the small community newspaper in central PA surprised me. I was invited to spend two days at the paper, where I would receive several paid assignments to see where my skills best fit. The newspaper had several reporting positions open and wanted a solid match. I was stunned that they agreed to pay for my time. Imagine my utter shock when they also put me up in a respectable 3-star hotel and paid for my meals and mileage.

The editor offered me a job before I left. He said he didn’t need to think about it and didn’t want to wait for someone else to scoop me up.

Of course, I accepted (but not for the reasons you may think). I had a full-time job outside my industry, so I didn’t feel pressured into a decision since I could pay my bills. By then, I had also heard from the paper near Philly. They made me an offer that wasn’t all that spectacular, so I declined it. The reason I said yes to door number three was because of how they treated me as a job candidate.

This little community newspaper with limited resources invested in me during that interview. They showed me what they were made of and gave me a glimpse into what I could expect. That paper continued to invest in me as I honed my reporting skills. It was one of the best experiences I could have asked for as a cub reporter and I am forever grateful to them for giving it to me.

Show me all your skills . . . for free

Job interviews like the one I had with that small community newspaper are few and far between in today’s job market. I’ve heard nightmarish stories from job seekers in all industries about the multiple rounds of interviews candidates are subjected to these days – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Mandating large projects – often without pay – as part of the hiring process has become the norm. It’s especially prevalent in the marketing industry.

Marketing job candidates wonder how to show their skills without being used for free labor in the name of a job interview. Now, they have a resource to help guide them.

Ashley Sava and Navin Israni co-authored the e-book “Know Your Worth: How to Avoid Exploitation During Marketing Job Interviews.”

The duo began tossing around the idea for the book more than a year ago when Sava was regularly sharing candidate horror stories on her LinkedIn profile. She wanted to expose what was happening in the marketing industry while providing actionable intel on navigating negative experiences.

Israni had left his job in pursuit of a better opportunity that offered career growth and reached out to Sava about some of his job-hunting experiences. He pitched the idea of creating the guide. She thought it was a great concept and the two discussed some details. However, Sava said it took losing her job to give her the final push she needed to help Israni complete the guide.

“What I’d been hearing others talking about for more than a year, I began to experience it myself in job interviews,” she said. “I knew it was time to do something about it.”

Disposable pawns in a chess game

The guide doesn’t pull any punches. It’s chock full of handy advice about navigating the current job market – from evaluating an interview offer to the templates candidates can use to respond to interview requests.

“There are templates in there that people can copy and paste for different things,” said Sava. “We have a section in there that’s what kind of email you should send if you’re being asked to do an unfair amount of work without pay.”

Israni said the first thing you’ll find in the book is a section with tips for navigating your way through the first stage of a job interview. He recounted a time when he applied with a company that was hiring for a social media management role and felt more like he was being used for intel than interviewed for an opportunity with the organization.

“The assignments were clearly designed to be used by the company on their platforms,” he said. “I asked them point blank if they would use it that way and they denied it. But my previous interactions with (Ashley) told me there was something fishy about it so I declined to do it and they rejected me for the role.”

Sava said Israni isn’t alone in his experience and hopes the guide makes job candidates more thoughtful about what they’re willing to do during the interview process.

“It’s happened to everybody I know at this point,” she said. “Those in marketing are asked to do a lot of competitor analysis. You find out they picked 20 people, had them all do the same task, and then didn’t hire because they had what they needed to plan their marketing without hiring.”

Common exploitative tactics

The employers may be different, but the exploitative tactics they use seem to come from the same playbook.

Israni said one of the most popular techniques he sees often is completing the extensive interview process, making the candidate wait 2 to 3 weeks during a “cooling off” period – typically by saying that the “recruiter is going on leave for that period,” and then sending a canned rejection letter.

Some candidates are so turned off by the current games organizations play they decide to pursue different careers. That was the case with one of Sava’s old college friends from Texas who worked in traditional marketing jobs from 2013 through 2023. She was laid off twice in the same year, with the most recent experience happening after only two months in a new job.

At that point, she decided to do whatever it took to get a job. A company headquartered in Florida interviewed her for a remote position and said if hired, she would be required to come to their HQ only twice a year. “She went through 5 rounds of interviews and then she was flown to Florida without any notice for a 5.5-hour in-office interrogation,” said Sava. “She wasn’t allowed to ask them any questions, but they grilled her.”

One of the members of the leadership team told her to go to a whiteboard in the room and “think out loud” in front of them, Sava recalled. “After all of that, she didn’t hear from them for 3 weeks, and then they sent her an auto-rejection. Do you know what she’s doing now? She’s going to be a yoga teacher. That interview experience was her final breaking point. She said she’ll never work in another marketing job again.”

Ignoring the red flags

Getting captivated enough by a job can be our undoing as job candidates, Sava warned. “When we’re intrigued enough by a company or a role, we can ignore some of the obvious early red flags about them.”

Fishbowl is an excellent resource for finding out information about a company before you get too deep in the interview process, she said. Another method for uncovering important details is to look up people who had the role before her and contact them to ask questions. “I’ll ask them why they left,” said Sava. “Sometimes it’s for better opportunities, or sometimes it’s because the company wasn’t good to work for.”

Israni and Sava’s guide uses a green flag, yellow/gray flag, and possible red flag rating system when advising job seekers on how to approach specific stages of the interview process.

The job market’s role in exploitative practices

It wasn’t too long ago that employers were bending over backward to get qualified people in the door. “It was difficult to get talented and qualified people in the door because they had lots of options,” said Sava. “For every offer that you gave out to a candidate, they were weighing three more.”

Some industries, including hospitality, still have shortages leftover from the pandemic. Other industries, such as marketing and technology, have cut their workforce over the last year. When positions become available, job seekers find themselves competing with hundreds of other qualified candidates.

That’s when desperation seeps in. It’s a feeling some organizations are taking full advantage of in an environment that almost feels mean. “Now, we can barely get interviews and they’re making you jump through hoops that they never would have tried before,” said Sava. “The pendulum will swing back to favor employees again, and I encourage candidates to remember how companies treated them.”

Knowing when to draw the line

Desperate times call for desperate measures. People facing unemployment for months sometimes compromise during job interviews out of sheer hopelessness. They think if they don’t jump through every hoop presented, they won’t have a chance of landing a job.

One of the issues Sava and Israni’s book tackles is knowing when to draw the line.

“It all comes down to how badly do you want the job?” said Israni. “We have tried to create a balance to help job seekers decide.”

Even when you want – or badly need – the position, the book offers advice on suggesting alternatives to lengthy tests that may be idea stealers in disguise. Job candidates are advised to identify the core skills tested by the assignment, design a comparable task, and present the proposal professionally. Sava and Israni list examples of alternative assignments for marketers, data analysts, and content creators.

The other risk with engaging in lengthy assignments to demonstrate your skills is finding you’re not a good fit for the company if they hire you. Sava recommends bowing out of these kinds of tests until you’ve had the opportunity to meet crucial team players at the company. “You can do these projects and then meet the team you’ll be working with and decide you’re not a good fit,” said Sava. “Then, you’ve done all that work for nothing.”

Sava’s been on both sides of the fence – as a hiring manager and a job candidate. When she worked as a hiring manager, she would issue editing or writing tests that had nothing to do with the industry for which the candidate was being considered. “Then, they know they’re not being exploited because we can’t use their work,” she said.

Israni said as a candidate, he refuses any test assignment that takes more than 2 hours to complete. He also doesn’t share his assignments in any format that allows them to be downloaded, copied, or otherwise shared to prevent exploitation.

Ariella Brown, a content marketing and branding specialist, has actively sought a full-time role for more than a year. She said professionals in her industry are more likely to get exploited for free work under the guise of an employment test, especially those early in their careers who lack strong portfolios or previous experience. “When people don’t have a portfolio yet, they don’t have proof of what they can do,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean they should do it for free.”

Brown said sometimes the requests for unpaid assignments during the interview process are a scam to get free work from candidates. Other times, it’s a power play to see how many hoops candidates will jump through before they’ve had enough. “Some places want people who never question what they’re told, including unpaid tests,” she said.

Calling out the bad apples

Should job seekers put companies that engage in exploitative hiring practices on blast? Sava and Israni both caution against it.

While it’s OK to go on Fishbowl or Glassdoor to talk about some of your experiences, coming off as a tattle tale can hurt your overall job prospects, Sava warned.

Israni said when asked about the reason he quit his last job, he tries to balance the positive and negative aspects of a job and tries to keep it impersonal to avoid coming across as a disgruntled ex-employee. He also advises candidates to use review sites to talk about such experiences with former employers but only when it’s safe to do so, not in a fit of rage immediately after leaving the job.

From the first handshake to the final pitch

It’s a tough job market out there. That doesn’t mean job seekers must roll over for exploitative hiring practices. Following the strategies Sava and Israni outlined in their e-book gives you the knowledge and tools you need to protect your valuable ideas and skills during the interview process.

You’ll learn to recognize the subtle tactics companies use to extract free work under the pretense of evaluation and maintain control over your contributions.

From the first handshake to the final pitch, this resource helps you stay vigilant and empowered, and never settle for less than the respect you deserve during the interview process.