Would You Do These Things Even Before You Were Hired?

Companies make potential candidates go through several steps during the hiring process, and it might seem like the prospective employer is dragging its feet. These real-life examples show what happened to candidates before signing an offer letter. Avoid doing these 10 over-the-top things that may be way too much to ask of prospective employees who haven't even signed a job offer yet.

1. Research Projects

Never create a research project, white paper or even a press release from scratch for a company before officially signing an offer. If the employer wants samples of your work, you should already have a professional portfolio drawn up and ready to present to the company before you even start applying.

2. Travel Plans

Don't make travel plans for projected trips the company wants you to go on once you're hired. It doesn't matter whether you or the company pay for the reservations. Ahead of signing an offer, you can't make plans that drastically alter your schedule.

3. Future Events

Much like travel plans, don't clear your schedule to attend any conferences or trade shows before signing an offer. Although your new boss may want you to do this so you feel part of the team, make your employer commit to an official employment contract before you agree to go anywhere.

4. Intellectual Property

Never share your intellectual property with a company unless you protect your rights first. Make the employer sign an agreement that it promises not to share your intellectual property with anyone without your written consent. That's because the company doesn't own your work rights since you're not signing an offer just yet.

5. Representing Yourself

Don't represent yourself as part of the company until you're hired. This means working alongside other employees or making sales calls to prospective customers. This amounts to unpaid work.

6. Unpaid Labor

Try not to donate more than one hour of unpaid labor that's not already embedded in the application process. You should already know what the company expects of you when you pass each level of the hiring process.

7. Other Interviews

Since you don't know much about the company, the employer shouldn't make you participate in interviewing other candidates. That's just in poor taste, and it's still free work.

8. Employee Shadowing

Your future employer may ask you to shadow an employee for a day. That should happen as part of on-the-job training as opposed to in-an-interview training. No one should get a free day of work out of a candidate, unless you agree to an unpaid internship for college credit.

9. Interview Travel

If you're coming from out of state to interview for a position, the company should pay for your travel and lodging. Make sure you get it in writing who pays for the costs of traveling to the interview, such as costs for airplane travel, car rentals and hotels.

10. Consulting Work

Consultants are freelancers who deserve to get paid as opposed to job candidates who want a position. If your employer invites you to a high-level brainstorming session, let the company know about your freelancing rates.

It's 2017, and it's a highly competitive job market. Before signing an offer, you can always say "no" to unpaid work because there are plenty of opportunities for you to find a great job.

Photo courtesy of Notion Collective at Flickr.com