Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Caution to the unemployed: beware of “just do this test” before we interview you. There are plenty of fake jobs out there that use one con or another to obtain free work.

This recent article is about fake jobs. Con artists on the Internet are tricking people into believing they have been hired and are doing work for pay. Surprise. After working for a few weeks, the “hired” person learns that there is no pay, no job, no company, nothing. They have done real work for someone for no compensation other than learning about fake jobs on the Internet.

I constantly warn writers and editors to be wary of “tests” that companies want us to take before hiring us. They are perfect setups for doing actual work—not test work—and receiving no pay and never getting a job.

This comes as “take our editing” test. I once did this for a company everyone knows (I won’t mention their name). I worked 12 hours editing papers. I heard nothing from them for six weeks. After hours of searching and calling, I spoke to a person about the test editing I had submitted. Five minutes later I received an email stating that my editing was substandard. It took them five minutes to judge 12 hours of work? No. It was a scam and a con. I had done real work for them at no pay. It wasn’t a test. (Can I prove this? No. But really, folks.)

Job interviews can be the same. They are job interviews, not consulting sessions. “Tell us about a difficult situation and what you did to handle it.” That is a consulting session. The applicant is teaching the interviewer techniques. Don’t answer other than, “I have plenty of experience with difficult situations. Some I handled well, others I didn’t. I have learned from these and my rate of success is much higher now than when I was 21.”

“But what did you do?” is the next question.

Answer, “My techniques for working through difficult situations is what makes me a person you want to hire. I am happy to teach these techniques, but that comes with a fee.”

The job interview becomes a fake job. “Teach us your techniques (at no pay).”

There are plenty of other schemes, scams, and cons out there. When I am unemployed, I am vulnerable to these things. Beware. Sometimes you take the work because what else are you going to do. Beware.