The topic of unpaid work has always been an extremely heated debate. And any time there’s a mention of unpaid work there are people from both sides of the debate coming out of the woodwork ready to defend why or why not it should be allowed. Now the unpaid work debate has made its way to unpaid interview assignments.
Yes, today we’re going there, and finally talking about unpaid interview assignments. I want to start off by saying, that you should only take unpaid interview assignments if you absolutely want to. And if you do decide to take them, I don’t want you to feel bad for giving in. Keep reading for my full thoughts.
2 Quick Thoughts on Unpaid Interview Assignments
First, before I try to convince you to engage with these unpaid interview assignments, I’m going to tell you how I really feel.
- If companies can pay thousands of dollars to launch a candidate search, they should also put aside money to pay their top candidates if they are asking them to complete test assignments or share unique ideas. If you are asked to complete an assignment (especially from a large company), ask to be compensated.
- I 100% think you should be paid for any type of work or ideas you’re sharing during a job interview process. This includes freelance, contract, part-time, and full-time positions. You are a consultant! By definition, a consultant is a person who provides expert advice professionally. You essentially become a consultant to the company when you are asked to create work for them, especially if it relates to their line of business.
Strategic Career Moves: Embracing Unpaid Interview Assignments
Simply put, you won’t be able to avoid them forever, so take the ones that make sense. When you do, you’ll get to:
- Develop and elevate your skills
- Offer consulting services to the biggest names in your industry (and put it on your resume)
- Raise your prices/rates (because you’ve officially consulted with these companies)
- Have a vetted project for your official portfolio
I’ve been doing job interview “tests” and “assignments” for a very long time. The reality is, that they won’t always be paid, and avoiding them might be hard to do. These types of assignments will most likely always be required, especially if you’re applying to creative, content, writing, marketing, or strategy roles. I’ve gotten a handful of jobs that required me to do unpaid interview assignments, but I’ve also been passed up for a lot more roles that required these assignments.
Still, I understand the hesitation. I’ve heard horror stories like companies passing on candidates and then stealing their work/ideas and launching them! I want to caveat by saying, that if it feels like you’re required to do too much, and pay isn’t offered, don’t take it! This could set you up to get your work stolen!
Ensure You Own All the Rights to Unpaid Interview Assignments
- Always do your assignment on a platform that you control (i.e. Google Docs or Canva). This way you can control who sees your work.
- Never give the company “Edit” access if you don’t have to. If you do have to, make sure you limit what someone with Edit access can do (this is possible in Google Docs).
- Always share your work as a website if you can and then share the website/or publish the assignment to the web. Share that web link. This is possible in Canva and Google Slides.
- Disable the ability to share, copy, or download your work. (This is possible in Google Docs!)
- As soon as you get a message from the team saying that you did not get the job, disable all share links. If this is not possible, make a copy of your work, and then delete the original version that you shared with the hiring team.
- Put all the work that you’ve done in your portfolio. You were essentially a consultant for that company, and you now have proof.
What’s Next: Learn How to Leverage Unpaid Interview Assignments
