Email from the CEO and my response below.
So it finally happened to me. Applied to a role and received an assignment of work. Looking at the assignments, they weren't even hiding the fact that they could use all the applicants' work to service their clients. Even provided info on their clients to help us in the process.
Email from CEO:
”
Hi Scars,
Thanks for applying for the Marketing Copywriter and Strategist job at COMPANY – we are excited to keep growing and finding the right people to join our team. We are hiring two people for this role and hope to have both candidates start in the next 60 days at the latest.
Before we set up a call with our team, I want to quickly make sure there is a great potential fit for this role. Please take 1-1.5 hours (at most) to finish these three assignments to watch your skills in action:
- Assignment #1 – Copy
- Assignment #2 – Launch Planning
- Assignment #3 – Marketing Thinking
If these three assignments combined take more than 1-1.5 hours – STOP! This is not meant to be an extended task, just give it your best go and send it back to us.
Finally, we are hiring for this role in a salary range of $50-54K/yr, plus health benefits, gym membership and unlimited PTO.
If this works for you – send us the three assignments above, your resume and we’ll get a call setup with you ASAP.
Thanks,
Out of Touch Guy
Company CEO”
My Response:
”
Hi Guy,
While I appreciate the desire to filter applicants and gain an understanding of their skills, I am not in the business of working for free. As a marketing company, I am fairly certain you are not either. I am happy to provide work samples of previous emails I have written for campaigns, verticals I have designed for services and products to market, and client success stories.
If you insist on me providing these specific assignments, I will gladly accept the hourly rate the position averages to ($26/hr) for the 1.5 hours required ($39 total). Otherwise feel free to remove me from your candidate pool. No hard feelings, we are both professionals.
Regards,
Scarsandwillpower”