Beautifully decorated office

Position interviewed for: Visual Design Manager

After seeing all kinds of examples of companies allegedly exploiting interview candidates shared by those who came before me, I chose to believe that people are inherently good and thought, “It probably won’t be that bad, right???” So I went for the interview. The interviewer was the Marketing Manager. Here are a few points for everyone’s reference.

1. The manager conducting the interview seemed very nice, and the interview lasted three hours. But what kind of manager needs three hours just to explain the job responsibilities? During the interview, it became apparent that the Marketing Manager was simply throwing all the design and management problems he was currently unable to handle at the interviewee, hoping that someone among the candidates could help him deal with them.

2. The position I was interviewing for was Design Manager. Only after the interview did they tell me they wanted me to create a DM to assess my capabilities and design style. I replied at the time that I thought assigning this task to a specialist would be understandable, but for a Design Manager interview, did they really think it was appropriate to ask the candidate to create a DM? They then gave me a DM, so I replied that I would optimize it based on its content.

3. Next, after the other party provided the logo, product photos, and other materials, I mentioned in my first email that I could type the copy myself, but asked whether they could provide any other materials. They provided a situational image, and nothing else. After I replied with my proposal, I received a response the next day saying that they had realized they had not given me the copy and wanted me to create another design based on their copy. After reading the text, I thought the entire piece basically needed to be redone—the key message, headline, and so on were completely different from the original.

4. Finally, I replied that I felt I had already presented my design concept and ideas in the design from my previous email, so I would not create a second design based on the company’s content. That was the end of the matter.

Taking all of the above into account, along with the many accounts shared by people who came before me, it is apparent that this company habitually asks candidates to submit assignments after interviews. (Why do you think interviewees should provide free creative work and ideas to your company?) Regardless of whether you interview for a senior or junior position, they use the same approach. This kind of exploitation of candidates’ work is truly disgraceful.

For anyone considering interviewing at this company, please think twice.