Job interview question

I understand where IJAG;s coming from but she's an exception in my opinion.

However, I'd suggest that for most people telling your supervisor/boss that you are interviewing for another job may be a huge gamble, even if you think you know that person.

Problem is, there's no upside to telling your boss other than assuaging what Serve-it-up referred to as "Mid Western Protestant Work Ethic" or more accurately Guilt.

Maybe it's because I've mostly held senior management positions and I didn't want ANYONE to know an interview was taking place. Not my colleagues and particularly not other people in the industry I was in at the time.

 

Getting back to the original question, I am stunned that any publication would want to use an interview audition story for publication, on the web or anywhere else. That pub's management should realize the people seeking these jobs are likely already working in the business and are subject to restrictions from their employers, or simply don't want to advertise the fact they're interviewing.

I once had a two-day interview with a paper that sent me to off-season practices of the team I would be covering and asked me to produce a feature story each day, but it was meant for evaluation, not publication.

If they want you to write something for them, fine, but they should ask if it's OK for them to use it (and pay you for it as a freelancer, BTW). If you say no, they should respect that.

If I was in your position, I would tell the magazine you're interviewing with that I'd be happy to write a story as part of the interview, but I would prefer it not be used for publication because of confidentiality and policy concerns with my present employer. If they have a problem with that, you might want to reconsider working there.

 

I can remember being asked to write a story for a pub I was interviewing with, but it was meant for evaluation, plus I was told to use AP style rather than the publication's telegraph style. The ME sent me a bunch of files that I had to go through and write a story with a one hour deadline.

It wasn't a sports pub, so I was doing a story on AT&T breaking up back in 2000 (which was when I was interviewing for this job). FYI, I beat the deadline and got a call a couple of hours later from the ME and he said, "so when are you leaving [my then-employer]?"

But again, that wasn't for publication since the story was slightly old at the time (now it's ancient history) and he would have had to edit it for telegraph style. Seeing how you write is legit. Getting you to write for publication with a byline is problematic.