Weird interview scenario?

April 5, 2007 1:52 PM

Weird interview scenario - am I being a little paranoid about this?

Say you've had a series of interviews for a position, and you get a callback from the potential employer asking you to come in. They want you to give a design critique presentation of a web site, and also to leave a paper copy of the presentation behind. There's no indication that the web site they want me to evaluate is a client of theirs yet - it may just be an exercise. I'm not so much worried about that - standard 'how would you improve the product'.

But has anyone heard of a companies doing this? I'm normally not suspicious, but I've had friends screwed over by startups etc., and one friend said to me what's to prevent them from stealing my work. A quick straw poll of designer friends has told me it's unethical, others say suspicious, but not much can be done with it.

What sayest thou? Thoughts? Am I being paranoid? I don't think they'd steal anything, and this is probably just a standard 'get to know you and your work' type thing...right? right? I don't want to ruin a good thing by slapping a 'copyright - not for distribution' in the footer, or have a potential employer sign some kind of NDA. They did say the final decision rested on this presentation, so I don't seem to have much choice in it.

If you want to email me about this, I've set up a dummy account at [e-mail]. I've kind of been oblique about the details on purpose, but would like to hear other people's perspectives on this.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (16 answers total)

I'm not in the design field - but I'm not sure why this sounds so shady to your friends. They've invested time getting to know you - several interviews' worth. Truly, do you believe that all of that was a setup to bring you in and steal your analysis of this website? That's a lot of time and effort spent by that company to lure you in in the hopes that you produce a critique that they want to steal.

Yes, they could steal your work - and if they're inclined to do that, I don't think a footer is going to stop them, and a NDA would be a big hassle for you.

If this critique is the only reason you have to distrust them, then I don't think this holds up. If, however, you are inclined to be wary because you find them otherwise sketchy, then heed those mental alarm bells and do the diligence that you need to do to be comfortable or else find a new job to pursue.
posted by KAS at 2:05 PM on April 5, 2007

I didn't intend to sound snappy or to imply that I'm questioning your talent - please read me in the tone of "seriously - does this make sense? because I honestly don't think it does (as an outsider to the field)."
posted by KAS at 2:08 PM on April 5, 2007

Companies try to solicit free advice all the time in this manner. Why would they give you an academic test, when you might be able to help them solve a real-world, current problem? Kill a couple of birds with one stone, as it were.

If it's an interview, you're probably not going to go that deep on it and give them endless hours of free work and genius insights. At best, you may be able to point a new way to look at the issue, something they hadn't considered. It will make you look great if you nail it. Even so, the value in business is always in the execution. Just coming up with the idea isn't going give them an entirely new line of business or win the new client.

I mean, unless you are some kind of raging brainiac that can launch business with about 5 hours effort.
posted by psmealey at 2:16 PM on April 5, 2007

How bad do you want to work there? Decide how many hoops you are willing to jump through, and walk away when they've asked for too much. I doubt they are really trying to score a free half-day of work from you. They are probably just being over-cautious.
posted by spilon at 2:19 PM on April 5, 2007

It also sounds like maybe they are trying to narrow a choice down between you & another candidate ... you're obviously qualified if they have brought you back for several interviews, but this may be a tie-breaker between you and a similarly qualified candidate.

If you really want this job, just do it. Interviewing for jobs often sucks and you have to jump through lots of stupid hoops. That's the way it goes, unfortunately.
posted by tastybrains at 2:23 PM on April 5, 2007

Presumably they want the design critique relatively soon, so it can't be that much work. Think of the critique relative to the amount of time they've already spent interviewing you, and the amount of time it would take you to do one of those if they paid you. If it's more, sure, they might be screwing you, but if it's less, and it's likely less, then what would be the point?
posted by jacquilynne at 2:25 PM on April 5, 2007

In my business -- videogame development -- this is a standard exercise when hiring designers. Because "design skills" and "creativity" are such subjective, hard-to-measure qualities, you need a concrete example to gauge a person's effectiveness. The result is often a design test, which is very often "design a level for the game we just finished making." Of course, our next game may be quite similar, or even a sequel to, the next game we'll be developing.

Also, in my former journalist life, we'd often invite people to work the copy desk for an evening to get a sense of their real-world skills.

I think this practice is very common in creative/artistic or software fields, where there are few objective standards and/or the work is such that there's a million ways to skin a cat, design a level, edit an article, write a headline, etc.
posted by frogan at 2:25 PM on April 5, 2007

Oh, and btw:

I don't want to ruin a good thing by slapping a 'copyright - not for distribution' in the footer, or have a potential employer sign some kind of NDA.

Doing anything like that will make you look extremely bush league. As I read your question, you are not a consultant pitching them on an engagement (in which case this would be completely appropriate), you are an job applicant looking to secure a full time position. You want to appear as open and flexible as you want.

If you feel like they are pushing it, as spilon suggests, and you are not happy with it, just walk away. They've made their criteria fairly plain, and you are free to do that same. Just don't expect to get an offer if so. ;-)
posted by psmealey at 2:26 PM on April 5, 2007

To me, this doesn't sound out of line. People give away ideas all the time to prove they're worth being paid. I've heard the consulting world standard is "give enough free that they know they'll be missing out if they don't pay for the rest." Responses to RFPs are full of ideas the potential client could ask someone else to follow through on.

That said, I wouldn't find it odd if you added a "Work Sample -- Samantha Jones" footer. But if they're actually shady, they'd just white it out. Better protection would be to send an email asking for more context about the project so you can better tailor your efforts, including how your work will be used. Presumably they'll say "It's just an exercise for our internal use in evaluating you," and then you'll have a paper trail if something weird happens.
posted by salvia at 2:50 PM on April 5, 2007

If you have been to a series of interviews you should have learned something about the studio by now. If their work is strong and their business sound, this is an indication that they are interested in designers who can think, and not just make things pretty. That’s a good sign.

I have interviewed a fair number of designers and looked at piles of resumes. Lots of young designers can make portfolio pieces that look swell, but they can’t design their way out of a real world paper bag. We all know your portfolio is probably your best work under ideal conditions, possibly in collaboration with superior talent and we want to know what kind of quality thinking you have to offer.

It’s a critique they are looking for, not a series of logo designs or a redesign of a home page. It does not make that much sense that they would expect insights from you that they can turn around and resell. Frankly, if you offer them any insights that they have not had already, then they have a good reason to hire you rather than steal from you.
posted by KS at 3:59 PM on April 5, 2007

I would suggest that they pick an otherwise popular site rather than something that might be a client of the company's and thus subject to plagiarism. Either that, or as the above poster suggested, just give them a high-level and directional abstract of what you recommend, perhaps cutting a joke about "any more detail and I'm gonna have to charge you," or words to that effect.
posted by rhizome at 4:01 PM on April 5, 2007

I've written articles about breaking news as a journalist interviewing for a job. I've also written fake articles using canned details, which creates a standardized baseline interviewers can use to compare several stories. It doesn't really bother me. I think it's a pretty good hiring practice to see how well someone is able to perform a job live.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 4:33 PM on April 5, 2007

"Unethical"? "Suspicious"? WTF?

Having a candidate do a real-world exercise seems really smart. I only wonder why more companies don't do it.

It sounds like you may have an exaggerated notion of the value of a few hours of your work.
posted by ottereroticist at 6:38 PM on April 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Is the potential employer a design house? If so, this might be more reasonable. They have lots of designers of their own, they don't need to steal your work. They're going to grill you really hard because designers are picky, especially about hiring.

However, if the potential employer is something else, I'd worry. in this case, put aside the comments telling you you're over-reacting and try this one simple thing:

Ask them to pick another site for you to critique. If they won't bend on that, then you have your answer. They want to steal your work and they aren't going to hire you (or probably anybody) anyway.

I think it's shady. 7 years in dotcoms and I haven't heard of such a thing nor would I dream of trying it when hiring a designer. Any idiot who thinks this is a substitute for having a designer deserves to fail utterly, but who knows... they could be doing this to 5 people every three months and looking for common threads. Or perhaps they're too cheap to do exploratory usability studies. That shit is expensive, and yes, some assholes might go to the trouble of one job interview to get what they think is the equivalent (what does that take, a couple of phone calls and an hour of their time?).

It's totally reasonable to ask for samples of your previous work to be left behind. And it's totally reasonable to ask for your critique of a site as an interview exercise. It's even reasonable to ask you to prepare a presentation for them. But to show up and deliver a design eval as part of a job application? I call bullshit. That's like doing real work before you even get hired. Shit... I could bring in applicants all day long to do my filing and bring me coffee as an "exercise" with this method.

Ask them what the site is. And immediately ask them if you can work on something else. Unless they relent on the "printed copy" thing and take your feedback verbally, keep looking.

I change all my comments if it's a design house, though. You've been a little too opaque with the details in that department.
posted by scarabic at 11:12 PM on April 5, 2007

Not sure if this applies, but try the poor man's copyright. When you've finished the work, print it out and mail it to yourself. But don't open! That way you've got something you could convice a judge with if it came to that. Friend of mine said this is a common practice with Hollywood screenwriters.
posted by zardoz at 11:48 PM on April 5, 2007

In the pro design world, "spec work" is really looked down upon. You have to figure out if this falls into that arena or not. If this is a design firm, then I don't think it's unreasonable. If not, you'll have to decide whether the job's worth it or not.
posted by lychee at 1:30 PM on April 6, 2007