A young job candidate claims she was “ghosted” by a fashion company after narrowly avoiding free work in exchange for a better chance at the position.
Florence Fahmy, social creative and art director, has been looking for work in London since moving from Australia a few months ago.
A recent experience detailed in a video earlier this week has left the Australian expat questioning how trustworthy some employers are.
She said she went through six rounds of interviews before receiving a late-night application via email.
While playing ‘put a finger down if…’, he said: ‘Around 6pm on a Thursday night, you receive a very informal email asking you to complete an assessment.
‘They never mentioned that an assessment would be part of the interview process.
‘It’s an entire social strategy, a launch plan, and a four-week content rollout for an active campaign that they had mentioned during all of your interviews, saying this would be your job if they hired you.’
Ms. Fahmy immediately became suspicious of the request, especially since the company was asking her to complete the task on Monday, giving her one business day to finish the project.
“I’m kind of aware that this is an active campaign, so for peace of mind, could you please answer some of my questions?” she replied to the company via email.
Ms. Fahmy asked the company if she was the final candidate for the position, whether they would hire her if they approved her campaign, and a timeline for a final job offer after the screening was completed.
Most importantly, she asked the company to sign a mutual confidentiality agreement that would prevent them from using her work if they did not hire or compensate her.
“You never get a response, ever. Technically, you were ignored after six interviews because you questioned doing a campaign for an ongoing project, because you were a little suspicious that they were going to use your ideas for free,” Fahmy said.
Florence Fahmy (pictured) believes the fashion company had no intention of hiring her and wanted to use her “ideas for free”
Several viewers shared their own experiences with recruiters evaluating candidates.
“I did three interviews, put together the campaign and calendar. They decided the position was no longer needed and used everything I did. I’m pretty sure I just gave everyone on their team a lesson on how to do it,” one wrote.
Another added: “Nine times out of ten I get ignored for not accepting unpaid assignments during the hiring process. Honestly, it’s a red flag. A portfolio and references should be enough.”
A third commented: “The same goes for my current position (but this was after an interview). I put a copyright statement on every page, stating that it is my intellectual property and cannot be used without my written permission.”
Recruitment expert Graham Wynn said that while assessments during interview processes are very common, applicants should be wary of companies trying to take advantage of their eagerness to please.
“Employers will still want a certain type of person and pay a certain salary for them. I think going a bit further than that can be counterproductive,” he said. Yahoo Finance.
Asked whether employers were legally allowed to use work submitted during recruitment, Mr Wyn said: “Realistically, an employer could use it, but nine times out of ten, employers do the right thing and don’t do it.”
Ultimately, Mr. Wyn’s advice was for candidates to complete all recommended projects, as long as they weren’t clear red flags.
“We’ve all been there and it’s still happening today. It’s not a generational thing, it’s still happening today. And you just have to do it,” he said.
A young Australian woman became distrustful of her employers after being asked to complete a huge project before being hired (file image)
Unfortunately, when questions arose about whether she was being taken advantage of, Ms Fahmy lost her job.
“If I’m going to invest time in something, I want to make sure I understand exactly what I’m wasting my time on,” he said.
‘The fact that they didn’t answer any of these questions shows that they probably weren’t going to hire me.
‘There are times when companies ask you to do evaluations. I’ve done one before.
“I think there are also many ways people can share their ideas without having to do direct work for a company.”