After 6 months of looking for a new job opportunity as a Graphic Designer, of doing “free exercises” and being ghosted, today I received criticism from a company I applied for cause the artwork I provided wasn’t perfect. They criticized me not editing the proper uniforms on the people showing in the artwork and complained I didn’t dedicate more time to it to make it perfect. We didn’t even have an interview yet, so this was my reply. Am I wrong? Cause I fear they might badmouth me with other companies as they are not a small business.
“I'm sorry to hear that i did not pass and although I always welcome constructive feedback, I would like to point out something to whomever is your hiring manager to make things very clear.
I used the mood board provided as a reference. I can in fact edit the uniforms, I have done it in the past, I have work to prove that. I did not invest more time into the exercise for a very simple reason: this was an exercise.
It was done for free, during the few chunks of free time I had available in one of our busiest week at my office.
If your hiring manager expected a fully finished, ready to be published artwork with full attention to detail and more time dedicated to it, not only I would have to invest more, I would have charged for it. Designers in this industry are always requested to do exercises beyond what we show in our portfolio, it is always done at our expense in our own free time.
Although I have never had an issue with delivering these requested artworks, it was always done after an interview first.
I'm not sure about what the other designers might think, but I tend to not give my best for free.
Thank you for the opportunity, I hope you have a lovely day.”
Am I wrong? I’m just fed up of doing stuff for free for nothing.