I completed my postgraduate degree this past summer. Before that, I did my undergraduate degree and did an internship in my industry every single year, if I could snag one, and I did. I have about fifteen years of freelance experience in what I do, and because I wasn't in the industry during the duration of my postgraduate studies, the only relevant work experience I cultivated during that time was freelancing. I have been applying to entry-level roles since the Spring, so I'd have something lined up following the completion of my degree, but all my efforts were fruitless. I thought, "Maybe it's because I haven't finished, and they're not too keen on taking a risk with an applicant who hasn't finished their degree," which was a logical assumption at the time. So I finished it, and then I dove right back into applying for entry-level roles.
Despite my extensive experience and a postgraduate degree, I am not receiving any offers whatsoever, which I find to be strange because I am more qualified today than I was when I entered the industry, and I was receiving offers left and right back then. I've tailored my covering letters, I've tailored my C.V. for each role, I've conducted extensive research into each company. Unfortunately, post-pandemic, the job market has become so hostile that my options are now scarce, and I have resorted to applying for internships to re-enter my industry after having not worked in it for a few years.
For one of the internships, they asked all the candidates to do a five-day-long test with a given deadline, and this test was labour one would ask of a contracted, compensated, full-time employee. In my industry, and pre-pandemic, it was not only unheard of to administer tests like this to intern candidates, but it was outrightly illegal; the process has always been phone-screening of promising candidates -> interview -> brief test during the interview -> update on application status. Or if there isn't one during the interview, it's phone-screening -> take-home test -> if they decide to move forward, there's an interview -> update on application status. Never, not even once, have I ever sat a test without a phone-screening beforehand; and never have I sat a take-home test that would be considered contracted, compensated labour.
So, naturally, I assumed that things had changed post-pandemic, and followed their instructions; considering my extensive experience and having done several internships, I knew what the industry desired out of this kind of work (that was under the guise of a "test" in this circumstance), so I went all in, followed their instructions and provided a bit more than what they asked for because I knew how the industry worked, and what companies sought out when assigning work like this. I submitted it three hours prior to the deadline, expecting correspondence regarding a confirmation of receipt...but didn't receive anything for two hours; a half-hour prior to the deadline, I sent a separate email to initiate a paper trail of my submission in the event that they were to accuse me of not meeting the deadline. No reply. I assumed they were busy, and then waited.
I waited a month, but nobody reached out for an interview. Nobody sent any sort of correspondence. We were told not to reach out regarding the status of our applications during the selection process post-submission, which I honoured. And the decision date was specified; they didn't specify "by (date)", but "on (date)". They didn't reach out until two days prior to the decision date, on a weekend, in the evening, which was obviously jarring, because I honoured the terms of their request, and never reached out, despite being anxious. I was also seeking other jobs in my industry during that time, but there were no postings, so I was hoping that this place would provide me with the opportunity to re-enter the industry.
Anyway, they rejected me, and I was puzzled about it, and a little hurt that I spent five days performing free labour for them, especially considering this was not the norm pre-pandemic. Frankly, it was unprofessional; I'm not hung up on the rejection as much as I'm hung up on the free labour aspect, them not honouring the specific deadline, and them not honouring the terms of their own request. I don't know if they thought I was overqualified, which I'd understand, or if they wanted me to follow their own company's format for the test, of which they never provided a sample, so how could anyone know? I've also heard that if your perform "too well" on these tests, the companies assume that you've used AI, which I most certainly did not, because I genuinely enjoy this kind of work, it fulfils me, and I never use AI for any work that I do; I never have used it; additionally, we had to sign an NDA prior to receiving the test, so even if I wanted to use AI at all, I'd breach the terms of the NDA, and I just wouldn't do that; I'm a by-the-book kind of person. If they were concerned that I'd used AI, they could've copied and pasted my submission to an AI detector to confirm that I hadn't used it; I did this myself after receiving the rejection, and all the detectors I used said "Your text is human written/0% AI"; so, if they were suspecting that I'd used it, it's very simple to check that I genuinely hadn't, and that it was all my own work.
People are sharing their experiences on here, for which I'm grateful because it seems that the job market is genuinely terrible, but some are even saying to remove your postgraduate degree from your C.V. to get calls and interviews, which is genuinely insane to me, because we did work hard to attain these degrees. Considering how the market is this terrible, and how employers tend to pass on candidates who have advanced degrees due to them believing these candidates are somehow a "flight risk", I don't think these kinds of candidates are willing to risk jumping ship for the next thing that may or may not be set in stone, as I've heard of people getting their offers rescinded just days prior to their start date; leaving a position in this particular market seems illogical.
I apologise for such a long rant, but I'm completely burnt out. I search for new postings every single day, and I refresh pages every half hour, and I'm about to do so again, right after posting this.