Does anyone else notice that businesses are starting to request/assign several hours of free labor during the interview process? Are we being exploited here?
I work in the digital marketing field, and I was recently laid off due to 'lack of work'. Nothing to do with my performance but the company I was working for simply didn't have enough clients to afford my salary any longer.
It's pretty standard to ask for work examples, which require little to no preparation. But lately I've noticed that about 80% of the jobs that I have applied to/interviewed for have asked me to create very specific website audits, marketing strategies etc., followed by a professional presentation between 30-60 minutes long. I was skeptical at first and have been going along with it because I need the work. Still, it doesn't sit well with me that I am doing up to 10 hours of free labour for a *chance* to get hired for the position.
Note: I have tried to compromise by asking to present some of my existing work so that I didn't have to put in several hours of free labour. Some of these businesses are pretty insistent which is a red flag. How do I know they are even hiring for the position? Are they just trying to get free labour? Why aren't there labour laws surrounding this?
Another note: One of the companies that I did 10+ hours of work for ended up offering me a $45,000 salary with no benefits, despite listing the job as a 60-70K. What a waste of time.