I am at the moment interviewing with a fairly large biotech firm for a graphic design function. They gave me a design project to finish – okay that is all good by me, I’ve performed it earlier than for interviews. The factor is, the duties they gave me appear a bit excessive. They mainly need me to do 2 units of 5 internet show adverts, three animated show adverts, three social adverts, and 1 animated social advert. Then, they need me to make a presentation and embrace textual content about my course of. So in complete: 18 completely different distinctive objects together with animated variations and a presentation.
I’ve gone by means of this course of earlier than for different corporations they usually sometimes have me do possibly 1 or 2 assignments complete. I am all for getting this performed because the firm total appears nice to work for, however simply questioning if this can be a bit ridiculous?? As if I do not at the moment have a job and am engaged on different job functions?
Additionally, to notice, I’ve not interviewed with a human but. I solely accomplished a one-way video interview.
That’s unreasonable and if they’re asking that of you, they should be paying you.
This is ridiculous, it’s like they are trying to get free work from you under the guise of a test assignment.
A company I interviewed with once asked me to redesign their branding and website for their test task. They weren’t even planning to change their branding, this was just their dumb idea to see if my creative vision aligned with theirs.
It sounds like they are going to take your application and compare it to the other 2-3 guys who were tasked similarly. Then they will choose which one fits their product best and not call any of you back.
Red flag for sure. The hiring team is being super lazy.
The fact that this amount of work (18 pieces is excessive regardless) is requested before you ever get to your first REAL interview is ridiculous and incredibly lazy on the part of the company. I would take it as a big red flag that they view their employees purely as worker drones.
Highly unreasonable. Do not make a campaign for them. These kind of things cheapen our trade.
If you are still interested in the role complete 1 design and include an explanation on why it makes no sense to complete the others.
Source: I did the same thing, essentially told them good design work doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but requires some back and forth to really lock in on the correct approach. It would be to the determinant to the organization to go off and complete 18 assets completely silo’ed. If you are off by just a bit, be it messaging, colour, font, whatever, means you have to spend as much time correcting issues as designing solutions. Oh and I got the job.
Tldr: **Complete one asset, explain good design requires a lot of communication and collaboration, and that you are cognizant that unnecessary revisions can quickly push deadlines and increase budgets. And you don’t miss deadlines.**
Oh my god imagine doing all that and not getting the job
I’m sure a well-placed watermark of your name wouldn’t be inappropriate just so they know it’s your’s.
I would seriously send them an invoice with required deposit before starting the assignments.
Massive massive red flag. Huge amount to do and not only not even get paid but potentially not even get a job out of it. Totally unreasonable and actually potentially makes you take many hours out of your current workload to complete this.
Get out of there while you still can.
I think what you could do is create one design/creative and expand it within all those deliverables to see if your thinking is flexible. Basically versioning out to different sizes. And your presentation is about that whole idea. A flexible design system.
Hahahahahahaha no.
I might be game to do one of those things as a final stage in the interview process.
I skip the job adverts that require an unreasonable amount of time and work just for an interview like this. It’s shady and bs. I have a portfolio available of my work. That’s enough for me to offer. I understand wanting to work for a particular company but this request tells me if hired I can expect a shit work environment full of unreasonable requests. Just my thoughts.
What’s the time line/due date (not that the total of 18 items is reasonable for an interview)?
What did you interview with in the video interview?
This is far, far too much.
Asking you to do a banner ad, poster, social media ad etc – fine, although I’m still in two minds whether designers should be asked at all to do anything for free but it’s just the done thing in interviews nowadays it seems – but honestly this is taking the piss.
Personally I’d refuse to do it, or pick one of the things you’ve been given to do, and just do that. You should only be spending a couple of hours on this. imagine you did all that for them and don’t get the job? It’s ridiculous.
I wouldn’t work for them. That’s over the top ridiculous for sure. If they want all that work done they should pay for it. Unreasonable and unprofessional on their part. Imagine what they’ll ask for when you’re actually on their payroll. You’ll burn out.
This is beyond ridiculous, you’re getting ripped off. I was just recently working on a series of of animated ads (many different versions (content) as well as multiple sizes for each) and what any sane person would do in this case is get maybe one of each concept done at a size that’s best represents the other options that will be created.
I insisted that we do this instead of just “delivering all the files for review” because think of what a gigantic waste of time it would be if you had to make even a trivial change like (move logo to top and text below it) to 10 sets of 5 different sizes with 2 files each (animation & psd)? That’s a 100 files. Even if I just spent 5 minutes per file between opening, editing, saving, exporting, etc. that would be 500 minutes or 8.3 hours. Or you could just edit 10 flat files, get approval and then make all the other version. Putting that math in writing really helped my PM get off the “let’s impress them by showing everything” track.
If I were you I would think about the assignments they gave you, and see what skills or abilities they would showcase and communicate back something like “I will create this and this portion because I believe it showcases the following skills that are relevant and may help you assess my abilities. But I will not be completing an entire advertising campaign without being paid to do so. Cheers.”
Absolutely not. They can steal your work and never hire you. This is also a huge red flag even if you were to get hired.
NTA; they are fishing for free work whether they hire you or not. Counter with two or three examples and if they say “no” – say goodbye and realize you dodged a bullet…
Seems like they’re taking advantage of this “assignment” to get free content from you. Tell them that they have your portfolio, they can already see what you can do and can pay you to make a ridiculous amount of content if they want it.
If it was me in that position and I had a job already, I would outright refuse to do the task unless I was paid. Even if I didn’t have a job, I think they are asking way too much.
The fact is, employers can view your portfolio and have a good idea of your capabilities. They can also give you a trial period.
I wonder how many other professions have to go through this kind of BS before receiving an offer?
This is a red flag. They’re looking for free work. I might respectfully decline and move on.
I refuse any skills tests but this isn’t a skills test this is doing the job, this is a red flag to me so Iwould withdraw my application.
If something don’t feel right I’m out.
I would run many many many miles from this design manager. They clearly don’t get it and won’t in the future. This is over the top.
This is a huge red flag. Tell them to bill you if they want this much work from you. It’s days of work.
Also is the design request for their company branding? Or is it a more randomized project to see how you work? If it’s company or client branding, absolutely not.
That’s bad, don’t do it.
If you do the assignment though, cover it head to toe with watermarks. Don’t let them obviously scam you for free work, no one needs to see that much work to decide, one of each time should clearly be enough to establish your talents but 16 pieces if clearly just an attempt to steal your work with THEIR branding on it.
That’s absurd. That’s a couple of days’ worth of work, not to mention having to show your work and explain your process in a presentation.
It may be worth expressing your concern if you have a contact there (HR, recruiter, etc.). Even if you end up doing it, it feels like overkill and borders on exploitative if they’re mining prospective employees for free design work.
Another way to approach it is to piece together a presentation detailing how you would complete the assignment. Mood boards, design styles etc. make it clear that that you are well aware that such a assignment takes (x) amount of days and you would approach it with (y) method.
If they still insist on complete work and packaged files that’s a major red flag that they don’t have a grasp of how design works as a process.
Are you sure it’s not a scam?
This is what your portfolio is for. For proving yourself to others on what you are capable of.
You should NEVER give out free work. If they want any of that work completed, you should make them pay upfront for it.
Aw heeeeeeeellllllll no