UPD. “My test is a real project that I would have to work on if I got the offer.” The designer believes that her employer offered her the test as part of a commercial project. The company explained what happened and why it was wrong
UI/UX Designer Valeria Tynok shared a frankly strange experience of completing a test task. The employer, the girl claims, actually admitted that her test was part of a real project. What do the company say?
(the news is supplemented with the company’s position and the comment of the CEO of Heaven Soft.
UI/UX Designer Valeria Tynok shared a frankly strange experience of completing a test task. The employer, the girl claims, actually admitted that her test was part of a real project. What do the company say?
(the news is supplemented with the company’s position and the comment of the CEO of Heaven Soft.
«I want to share my experience of interacting with Heaven Soft (office in Ivano-Frankivsk — Ed.). I applied for the position of UI/UX Designer and quite quickly received a message from the company’s CEO about the offer to communicate. The meeting went well, we agreed on a test,» the girl said .
The first thing that alarmed her was the fact that the test was quite extensive — UX research, eight screens, and a UI-Kit for a mobile app. «And I had to set the deadline for this test myself,» the designer adds.
A day after receiving the assignment, according to Valeria, the company’s CEO announced that he had decided to «connect» a designer who already works at the company and will be able to monitor the girl’s work. «They created a chat for us, I sent my work, after which the designer sent me (attention!) the client’s edits. Test and client’s edits?» Valeria asks indignantly.
After the girl asked clarifying questions to representatives of the potential employer, it turned out that Valeria’s test project was a real one. «I would have to work on it if I received an offer. When asked whether my work would be paid before receiving an offer, I, of course, received a negative answer with the argument «the payment will be the offer to work with us,» the specialist said.
She also released correspondence with a representative of a potential employer.
«This situation has proven once again that gaining experience for the sake of experience, agreeing to any conditions, is a bad strategy,» the designer noted.
Valeria’s post has over 140 comments. The Aitovites note that this is not the first time they have encountered such an approach. However, some are surprised that the employer does not hide that the test task is part of a real commercial project from the customer.
Yulia Bludova, UX/UI Designer, notes that, unfortunately, some companies do not understand the path a specialist takes, investing so much money, effort, and time in performing their work efficiently and bringing them profit. «Such a person deserves both respect from them and decent pay. And your company will find you,» she wrote.
«Why not ask the employer: if you’re not getting paid for this task, who’s getting the client’s budget for it? A guy from a similar company once told me that this is a scheme to get free labor. Everyone does a piece, and then they say they doubt their competence, have comments about the work, and can’t make an offer,» said Brand Manager Viktoriya Kuts .
And, according to designer Victoria Gildeeva, the test should be either short or paid. «I am convinced that with the right task formulation, you can identify the candidate’s key skills without involving them in a large-scale task. But you have to think about it,» she believes.
UPD. dev.ua reached out to Heaven Soft for comment. Here’s what they told us.
«The situation with Valeria was truly unexpected, and we are still surprised by her reaction. We looked for a long time for someone who could join our team, but, unfortunately, we never found anyone. We communicated with Valeria for quite a long time, reviewed her work. Although she had no commercial experience, we still considered her candidacy, although we hesitated — precisely because of her lack of experience and her current employment in a field not related to IT.
We understood that she was at risk of losing her current job, and therefore approached the situation very carefully — we could not immediately offer her a full-time job without a test assignment.
In the end, we decided to give her a chance — not on a real project, but on an internal pet project that we plan to develop in the future. The idea was to gradually bring her on board so that in the future she could become a permanent part of our team.
She was outraged by the situation when our designer passed her comments from the client in the team chat — it was a project-idea for development. Otherwise, no one would sell this project at this stage. Sorry, after the courses, a person is not at the level to have their design go into production!
We would like to emphasize:
No one intended to use her work for free.
We just wanted to see her approach work on a few simple screens (2–3 windows with buttons).
After that, they planned to officially offer her cooperation.
But she hadn’t even started any work other than looking for references when she started writing such nonsense. The fact that we treat candidates responsibly and that every job should be paid for is not even discussed.
There are also screenshots of our communication with the designer to confirm: we really intended to support Valeria, help her develop professionally, and gradually involve her in the team for ongoing cooperation.»
«We cannot know whether the girl had personal reasons for such a reaction, but for our part, we want to emphasize that we value our reputation and act in good faith. If this situation gains popularity, we reserve the right to act within the framework of current Ukrainian legislation,» the company noted.
In turn, the company’s CEO Mykhailo Dichuk told dev.ua that he had apologized to Valeria. «Moreover, I was sincerely willing to support her development: in particular, to cover the cost of the courses she mentioned at the company’s expense. I truly value the people I work with. We have a warm and honest atmosphere in our team — during the entire existence of the company, only one person left of their own free will, and that was only because after four years of cooperation they decided to try something new…», he noted.
«Soon, offers will be given to those who made more mistakes and did not answer perfectly.» Aitivets complained that he «burned» a candidate for using ChatGPT at an interview, and asked what to do about it. The community offers options
«If there were no jobs at all, I would accept the offer. If there was a chance, I would screw them on LinkedIn.» Are IT professionals ready to work full-time for $150–200 a month: discussion
Висмоктана з пальця сенсація.
IT дуже пепеоцінені, а тут з самого початку кар'єри дівчина щось переоцінила свою роботу ще до того як її виконала.