Young Aussie expat reveals major red flag after she was ‘ghosted’ after six job interviews

A young job candidate claims she was ‘ghosted’ by a fashion company after narrowly avoiding doing free labour in exchange for a better chance at the position.

Florence Fahmy, a social creative and art director, has been seeking a job in London since moving from Australia a few months ago.

A recent experience detailed in a video earlier this week has left the Aussie expat questioning how trustworthy some employers are.

She claimed she went through six rounds of interviews before she received a late-night request via email.

While playing ‘put a finger down if…’, she said: ‘About 6pm on a Thursday night, you get a very informal email asking you to complete an assessment.

‘They never mentioned an assessment would be part of the interview process.

‘It is an entire social strategy, launch plan and four-week content rollout for an active campaign that they had mentioned throughout all of your interviews, saying this would be your job if you were hired.’

Ms Fahmy immediately became ‘suspicious’ of the request, especially since the company was asking her to complete the task by Monday – giving her one working day to finish the project.

‘I’m a little conscious knowing this is an active campaign, to put myself at ease would you be able to answer a few of my questions,’ she replied to the company via email. 

Ms Fahmy questioned the company on whether she was the last candidate for the position, if she would be hired if they approved of her campaign and a timeline for a final job offer following the completion of the assessment.

Most crucially, she requested the company sign a mutual NDA that would prevent them from using her work if she wasn’t hired or compensated.

‘You never hear back, ever. Technically, you were ghosted after six interviews because you questioned doing a campaign for an active project, because you were slightly suspicious they were going to use your ideas for free,’ Ms Fahmy said. 

Several viewers shared their own experiences with recruiters giving candidates assessments. 

‘I did three interviews, did the campaign and calendar. And they decided the role was no longer needed, used everything I did. Pretty sure I just gave everyone on their team a lesson on how to do it,’  one wrote.

Another added: ‘Nine times out of 10 I get ghosted for pushing back on unpaid assignments during the hiring process. It’s honestly such a red flag. A portfolio and references should be enough.’

A third commented: ‘Similar for my current role (but this was after 1 interview). I put a copyright statement on each page, stating it’s my intellectual property and couldn’t be used without my written permission.’

Recruitment expert Graham Wynn said that while assessments during interviewing processes are very common, applicants should be aware of companies trying to take advantage of their eagerness to please.

‘Employers will still want a certain type of person only and will pay a certain wage for it. I just think that pushing the envelope a little bit too far can backfire,’ he told Yahoo Finance. 

When asked if employers were legally allowed to use work submitted during recruitment, Mr Wyn said: ‘Realistically, an employer could use it but nine times out of 10, employers do the right thing and don’t.’

Ultimately, Mr Wyn’s advice was for candidates to complete any recommended projects, so long as they weren’t a clear red flag.

‘We’ve all been through it and it still happens today. It’s not a generational thing, it’s still happening today. And you just have to do it,’ he said.

A young Australian was left distrusting of employers after she was asked to complete a massive project before she was hired (stock image)

Unfortunately, questioning whether she was being taken advantage of resulted in Ms Fahmy losing out on the position.

‘If I’m going to put time into something, I want to make sure I understand what exactly it is that I’m wasting my time doing,’ she said.

‘The fact they didn’t reply to any of these questions kind of shows they probably weren’t going to hire me.

‘There are times that companies will ask you to do assessments. I’ve done one before. 

‘I think there are also a lot of ways that people can share their thinking without doing direct work for a company.’