Exploiting the Unemployed?
June 4, 2009 by Darlene McDaniel
Filed under Jobs
When a potential employer asks a job seeker to complete an “exercise” in order to evaluate their their skills and abilities, is it a fair evaluation? If the exercise is a real problem the organization faces, is this an attempt to get something for nothing? Would you define this as exploitation?
According to Veronica Modarelli from the Working Network, she believes this is unreasonable. Here is her quote that I read on LinkedIn that inspired this post:
“This is virtually asking the candidate to work for free and it’s not right. Candidates are worried that refusing will ruin their chances of getting the job, so they do it. This is sounding like exploitation.”
Here’s my two cents on this question of exploitation:
1. If an employer ask you to complete an exercise to evaluate your skills and abilities, do the exercise. Not out of fear, but with a genuine desire to solve the problem whether they hire you or not.
2. Yes, I believe it is fair to ask candidates to complete exercises that are based on real life problems an organization faces.
3. No, I don’t believe it is exploitation.
Why? Because, the entire purpose of an interview and hiring process is to evaluate the skills and abilities of job candidates.
For most organizations assessing job seekers, one of the key factors that hiring managers are looking for is your ability problem-solve. If you can solve the problem of an organization, you are much more likely to get a job offer than if you can’t demonstrate your ability to solve problems. Any “exercise” that you can successfully solve, will move you closer to the job offer and in the end, that should be the reason you are in the interview process.
Veronica’s article, Exploiting the Unfortunate, “Employers are taking advantage of the unfortunate unemployed when they appear to be innocently asking the candidate to do an exercise to evaluate their skills WHEN the exercise is a present-day issue facing their company. Employers, please don’t do this…it’s shameful.”
I don’t see job candidates as unfortunate, nor do I see the pursuit of evaluating your skills using real life issues as shameful. If you are in the market for a job, you have an opportunity to compete for as many jobs as you are qualified for. You may not always be selected for an interview, but when you are selected it becomes your opportunity to shine. It is your opportunity to help solve real problems that an organization is facing. If you are the best candidate for the job, you will demonstrate that better than any other candidate, I believe that most organizations are not attempting to exploit you, but truly attempting to identify the best candidate.
One gentleman I met at a job fair recently just got a job. He was working with a recruiter and one of their clients had a major problem that was impacting the daily work flow of the organization. The organization brought him in for a consult. He solved the problem in two hours and they offered him a job. He could have said “no” to the “exercise” of a real life problem. And he would probably still be unemployed. The organization needed a knowledgeable IT person to come in, assess what was happening and give a solution that would help the organization resume operations. This job seeker did just that and he got a job. Employers are not taking advantage of you when they ask you to solve real life problems they are facing. And whether you get the job or not, you WIN if the solution you gave is real, and it works. It demonstrates your ability to solve problems and if that organization will not hire you another one will.
Image Credit: sxc.hu
Darlene, thank you for writing about this and for your opinion.
There are two points of view…one from a person who is employed and one from a person who is unemployed. These two different viewpoints fuel emotions. My opinion is from the latter and now that I’m employed, I still feel the same.
I agree with you that it is fair to evaluate the skills and abilities of a job candidate, but there are other ways besides asking a candidate to solve the company’s real-life issue, not hire her/him and then use the candidate’s intellectual property to their benefit.
If the candidates feel this is unfair (and many do), why not choose the other options to evaluate skill sets. I offer a few alternatives in my post at http://www.workingnetwork.blogspot.com.
Candidates are unfortunate in these tough times because there are hundreds of candidates per one job opening. There are candidates that are loosing their homes and worried about their families. This is not an exaggeration or the few. This is happening all over. Though I was not in this severe of a situation, I certainly felt the stress, pain and worry of being unemployed for 5 months before I found work. An unfortunate situation for the unemployed.
You say, “…whether you get the job or not, you WIN if the solution you gave is real, and it works. It demonstrates your ability to solve problems and if that organization will not hire you another one will.” Sorry, but you don’t win and you don’t feel like you did. Feeling like you demonstrated your ability doesn’t make you feel good. Getting the job does. And you don’t know if another organization will hire you and, if one does, you don’t know when that is and that can be scary.
If after this topic is well documented and employers realize what they’re doing – which is asking a candidate to do something they think is unfair and free consulting – and do it anyway, then it is exploitation.
Hi Veronica,
Thank you for stopping by bizzia Careers today. I apologize for taking so long to get to your comment today. Very busy day. I appreciate your perspective on this topic which is one of the reasons I wrote my post.
I see the world differently. I don’t believe you can be exploited in this particular situation. I understand that you do. I even understand the despair that many job seekers are feeling because of the struggle to get a job. However, from my lens, the challenging employment market can be exciting times for job seekers. Wny? Because if no one else will hire you, you can get very creative. Entrepreneurs are birthed every day in this market. People are coming up with creative business ideas that are working. Job seekers are networking, and sharpening their skills, going back to school, and the list goes on. If it wasn’t for this crazy market, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter would not be nearly as popular as they are today. Job Angels would never have been established. And the list goes on. It can look unfortunate for job seekers, but what I challenge my clients to do is to get creative. Feeling sorry for yourself will not get you a job. Despair will not get you a job. If you are good at what you do and you can communicate what you can bring to an organization, you will eventually get a job. How long will it take? I have no idea, but get in the game and create a demand for you, your skills and your abilities.
Please feel free to stop by bizzia Careers any time!
Darlene
Hi Darlene,
Thanks for your response and for the invitation to return. I understand you have a different viewpoint, but I feel the need to comment on a few things.
First, the challenging employment market is NOT an exciting time for job seekers. Under different circumstances, it could be. It could be exciting if YOU made the choice to change jobs or careers, not someone else making it for you. It could be exciting if there were NOT 200 qualified candidates for every job you were interested in. It could be exciting if it didn’t take 5-10 months to get hired. It could be exciting if you had money saved up that would pay the bills to support your family and go back to school and get “creative.”
Second, getting creative, sharpening your skills and networking are not the issue. We all know about Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogging – I happen to do all of that and it’s still has nothing to do with whether an employer is asking job candidates to work for free. In fact, groups like JobAngels wouldn’t have been created had it not been for the unexciting, difficult job market.
Third, it’s a little offensive to say, “Feeling sorry for yourself will not get you a job.” and “ Despair will not get you a job.” Who said anything about feeling sorry or despair. No one is asking for pity. A day didn’t go by in the 5 laborious months I searched for a job that I felt sorry for myself or felt desperate. I’m talking about employers playing fair in this economic time and job market.
Let’s keep this on the topic…IF an employer knows that job candidates feel asking them to do an exercise that addresses the company’s real-life issues WHEN there are alternatives to evaluating skills, is that fair? IF employers know it isn’t fair and that they can get away with it because of the precarious situation a job candidate is in, isn’t that exploitation?
I say it isn’t fair and it is exploitation.
Hi Veronica,
Thank you for visiting bizzia Careers again. I appreciate your passion around this topic. Thank you for your insights. I believe that we see the world differently. I am not attempting to sway you to my point of view and you obviously have lots of passion around yours. That’s great.
For the record, I have been laid off in the past. It had absolutely nothing to do with my performance and everything to do with the climate in the market at that time. My time to experience being laid off was shortly after 9/11. So I have been in the market when it wasn’t my choice, based on the decision of others. As I have said on my blog in the past, it was not an easy time for me, however once I moved past my initial anger, frustration and despair about losing an AWESOME job, I began to reassess what my next steps should be. I made some decisions, went back to school and today I enjoy a new career path. The transition has been exciting. I believe that same excitement is available for job seekers today. Whether a job seeker has lost their job because of a choice they made or a choice made for them, the option about how to view that decision or choice is completely up to the job seeker.
In the world that you live in, it may not be exciting, and I appreciate that, but I don’t believe that job seekers have to be victimized by the economy, the employment market, the hiring and/or interview process. Job seekers have much more control over their future than many of them believe. That is the world I live in. My lens. Right or wrong that is how I see it.
My column here at bizzia is an open forum for debate, discussion and information sharing. I am not attempting to change everyones view to mine. I just freely share mine. And you are welcome to do the same. If my writing helps one person get a job, or move from anger, frustration and despair to feeling empowered to go get the jobs they want, or start a new business, than I have accomplished my purpose here.
Again, I appreciate your view. Feel free to stop by bizzia Careers any time.
Darlene