I have been thinking alot recently about interviews and the things employers often ask candidates to do. Now, I fully appreciate that a potencial employer needs to find out about your skills, and whether or not you are capable of taking on the job in question. However, in my personal experience I think employers often take this a little too far.
I recently attended an interview, and had the usual chat about my skills and past experience. I had taken my portfolio of work with me which the interviewer looked through. I was told, at the end of the interview, that I would be informed the following week whether or not I had been successful. But the next week, I was informed that I would be required for a second interview and would have to produce a written report and a ten minute presentation. Now that's quite a lot of work, especially when it wasn't expected in the first place.
Now as I mentioned before I do appreciate that employers want to be sure they're finding the right person for their position. But I think that some take advantage of the large number of graduates looking for employment. If a candidate has taken the trouble to put together a portfolio of their work for you to look through, is it really necessary to ask them to complete multiple pieces of work in their own time, many of which will simply be new versions of work already in their portfolio?
3 comments:
Hi,
I have been reading your blog with interest as I am in pretty much the same boat as you. I just wanted to point out that 1 - a lot is two words not one and 2 - I believe that employers have every right to ask you to prepare a presentation or do something that relates to their company and the work that they do. Although it is all well and good having a portfolio of work, it is extremely unlikely, even having studied PR as a degree, that any of the work that you show them will be close to what you will do if you work for them. There are huge differences in the way that you would write an academic essay and the way that you may write a by-line article and employers should be able to test this before they provide you with a job. This is especially true with presentations as this is a skill that is highly valued in the PR industry and while people often say that they are good at presentations this often needs to be proved.
Hello,
Missed that grammatical error, so thank you for pointing it out.
In regards to my post, my issue isn't employers asking for a task to be done, it's how much some companies ask for. I have no problem completing a relevant task, and have done numerous times, but think that some places ask for too much. In regards to my portfolio of work, it isn't composed of academic essays it is all work which I have completed professionally. So there are promotional materials, articles, press releases and advertorials, all of which are exactly the kind of writing you would be expected to do in a PR role.
I appreciate you reading and wish you luck in your job search.
I have to say that I disagree with the first comment completely. If portfolios of work really weren't of any use to employers, or degrees which you claim are not a deciding factor either, why would they ask to see previous examples of your work? Surely all work you have done in the past, that is if you graduated from a respected course and university, would be relevant if you have illustrated the correct skills and knowledge.
It seems fairly obvious to say that candidates who provide an extensive portfolio of past work experience are more likely to impress than someone who can merely bluff their way through a ten minute presentation which, lets face it, given enough information, anyone can do, with or without a PR degree.
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