A good phone interview gone bad; or, how to spot a coal in the rough

[actionjbone]

Background for this story: I'm on the job hunt right now, after having been downsized a couple of weeks ago.

I'm posting this for the benefit of the younger designers who haven't yet had much real-world job-hunting experience, and as a general reminder to know what you're worth and to keep watch for companies who don't:

Comments

[bl_nkdocument]

i have a question with my own (relating) story --

i'm a just-out-of-freshman-year college student and am interviewing for several internships. for one of them, the company wants to redesign their website to meet their needs. as part of the interview, they ask that i create a mock up of my ideas for their site and after which they will decide if they hire me or not. they make it seem like they have other students looking to intern but i'm not positive -- nor do i know if they ask the other students to do mockups.
so far, i've agreed to do it but, from an experienced point of view, do you think this is shady and unsafe?

thx!

[anterrabre]

That sounds kinda shady to me, because it's something they actually need and they aren't paying you for it. Most tests should be something that tests your skills...NOT something that company actually plans to use. It sounds like they are trying to get some free work out of the interviewing process, and that's just not on.

[actionjbone]

On the one hand, it's shady because that's the normal first step you'd pay someone for.

On the other hand, they may honestly just want to get your take on what could be done with their site. However, such a request is actually a bad way to judge a designer - you're not on the inside to ask questions, to develop strategies, to truly understand corporate needs and desires.

Companies often think that, if a designer magically shows them something wonderful once, the designer can read their minds and will always give them exactly what they want without any direction or instruction. By making such a request of prospective interns, and by going with the one applicant whose design they like the best, a company is probably setting itself up for long-term failure.