Want to interview for the job? Send us 8 story ideas first!

I see both sides of this. I get that the bosses want to get a sense of how candidates think. I also understand that ideas have value.

At that point, it is up to the person applying for the job. You can either chalk it up as a cost of doing business/applying for the job. Or you can choose not to apply and have one less job possibility.

That's a value proposition that each person has to make on their own. You aren't obligated to apply for everything.

 

Jesus, you're a pill. I'm glad I didn't tell Esquire to bite me when they asked for ten ideas early in our courting. Of course, I had no idea then that they were bush league.

Idea generation is the hardest part of this gig. If I'm an editor, I want to know a guy will bring me ideas. Like, hundreds of ideas. Even now, ten years in, I probably pitch 20 ideas for every one that gets accepted. Ideas I like, I might pitch a dozen times before I finally give up. If coming up with six blog posts and two features taps you out—and, if it doesn't work out, will leave you totally spent, unable to contribute to society for months or even years—then this isn't the business for you.

One sign it is for you: You see ideas everywhere you look. You're either a worker or you're not.

 

Oh, typefitter, your words cut so deep.

Nice to see you still can't handle views that don't dovetail precisely with your own.

 

Not necessarily. A lot of ideas, good and bad, are generated by editors.

 

playthrough, I understand what you're saying, but maybe you were fed those great ideas by a fantastic, generous editor. A clip shows the story, but it doesn't show the work behind the story. It doesn't show the dreaming, it might not show all the reporting, and it definitely doesn't show the raw copy. Again, idea generation is the hardest part of this gig; I want proof that you can do it.

Like someone else said earlier, this all boils down to choices: If you don't want to meet the application standards, or if you feel like it's too big a risk for you to do so, then don't apply. But if you're going to apply, you're submitting to the whims of the person doing the hiring.

And if I was the person doing the hiring, I wouldn't care where you went to school, say, and I wouldn't care what your grades were. I would care about your clips, I would care about how you seemed as a person, whether you were decent and easy to get along with, and I would absolutely care about your ideas. I would ask for them, and I would ask for more than two.

Excellent counter, Piotr.

 

Are magazines different than newspapers when it comes to idea-sharing in the hiring process?

 

OK, I am going to play Devil's Advocate here...

I think the eight story ideas (or three or five or ten or whatever) can be seen two ways, and each way makes a perfectly good case for asking and refusing of these ideas.

You do have to know the person is creative if you want to hire them. You do not want a person just making a career off of PR releases for budget items, or you do not want a person the day after you hire them to walk into your editorial office and ask if you have anything for them. I understand that totally.

But...

If you were a features freelance writer for the New Times in Phoenix and the Arizona Republic asked you for five great story ideas, I would not want to give up my next five features for the New Times unless I was sitting in front of the person doing an actual interview. But if it was the Washington Post or the LA Times asking for the five ideas, I don't think it would be that big of a deal because they would not realistically do the stories I was working on.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Outside of journalism you can be asked to give your "vision" for the job if it because yours. You of course are laying your cards on the table, but when you do that, many times you lay the cards down that you know you can do better than any Joe that walks through that door.

And, Frank, great post about everyone learning something in an interview.

 

The thread started with someone asking whether they should send eight clips to a political alternative weekly. It's not Esquire. And no, not every job opportunity should be treated as if it is.

 

I mean this in the spirit of genuine debate, Alma: What is the difference? As far as I can tell, he was asked for six blog posts and two feature ideas. I'm guessing that's one or two weeks worth of material, if he got the job. I don't think they're asking for anything crazy. It's not like they asked him for a year's worth of ideas.

I don't know. I'm trying to put myself in the position of the editor of a small weekly. I'd still want to know my potential hire could bring me ideas. Does the size or relative prestige of the outlet really matter? Maybe it does, but I can't see why.

If you're publishing original material, you're in the ideas business, aren't you?