I applied online and got an email from HR to schedule a time to chat with the hiring managers via video. They were extremely pleasant and I definitely saw myself working with this team. The next step was to do an (unpaid) exercise, where I spent about 2-3 hours preparing some email and social copy for one of their clients. After that, they rejected me for the job. When I asked for feedback, they were very graceful about it, and explained my work wasn't on par with the level of experience required for the role, which was quite frankly shocking. I have about 10 years of experience and have never heard this before. Still, I was very grateful for the feedback and wished them well. I was disappointed that an agency would ask me to do an exercise, given it's such a portfolio-driven industry. There's a reason why us creatives have a portfolio. Please stop making us do free work as part of the hiring process and then rejecting us for the job. It's not right.
