Job Seeker's Viral Rejection of Unpaid Trial Sparks Debate on Exploitative Hiring Practices

A job seeker has gone viral for their response to a company's "insulting" request during the interview process.

In a recent post to Reddit, the social media user shared that they had interviewed for a position with an unnamed business and were left so horrified by one of the interviewer's requests that they immediately withdrew their application.

The job seeker claimed that, during the interview, they were told they would need to complete a one-week unpaid trial in order to secure the office job.

"I am writing to inform you that I am no longer interested in the position I was offered earlier," the email from the candidate read. "A 'one-week trial' that requires office attendance and full employee-level work is not a trial but unpaid labour. I am not willing to proceed under those terms."

The screenshot of the email response was posted in the 30daysnewjob subreddit, which challenges members to land a new job within 30-60 days. Members are encouraged to track their daily actions, share updates, and "stay accountable" in their job search.

The poster explained the situation further in the post, saying they left a public review about the company to warn other potential applicants of "their tactics." Thankfully, they said they have since received an interview offer with another company that they described as "much better."

Commenters were fuming at the idea of a company requiring candidates to do a one-week, unpaid job trial, with many branding it a big "red flag".

"This is insane," one person said, while another branded it "so insulting." "Should have countered one week of work and no pay with one week of pay and no work," another suggested.

Others shared similar experiences of being asked to work for free in order to secure a job.

"I had an interview for a small office, nothing too crazy, for the medical industry. But the Dr. who owned the company wanted me to do a 'trial' period of two weeks," one commenter revealed. "So, you want me to burn my PTO to come work for you, just to hopefully have a job there? Who really thinks that's an attractive offer?"

Another person revealed they interviewed for a position and was told that the first two weeks of training would be unpaid.

The interviewee's response to the astonishing request gained even more attention after it was reshared to LinkedIn last week.

Timothy M, a senior sales executive for software company ServiceNow, shared the screenshot of the email to his page, stating simply that he was "not sure how I feel about this one" and asking his followers for their thoughts on the matter.

The post blew up, attracting more than 600 comments, with many people questioning why Timothy was seemingly undecided about whose side he was on in the matter.

"Why would you be unsure as to how you feel about this?" one person asked. "I'm certain you would know how to feel if you were asked to work for free," another said, with one questioning, "you're not sure how to feel about someone refusing free labour?" Another added: "How can you be unsure? Clearly a huge red flag. Candidate made a smart decision."

Timothy later clarified in the comment section of the post that "of course" he had an opinion on the matter, noting he would never accept a one-week trial without compensation. "That said, it's clear many people have experienced similar things. In many countries, this is simply illegal," he said. "It seems to happen more often with smaller companies. In some cases, people were even asked to perform a pen test on a production environment as a 'test.'"