Or: What Happens When You Offer a Writer $25 for a 4-Hour Test Project and Expect a Thank-You
As a freelance writer, I’m always open to new clients. It’s a rollercoaster kind of job; some months are packed, others are quieter. So even though I’m busy right now, it doesn’t mean I will be next month. I recently applied for a writing position with a company that paid below my usual rate, but hey, whatever. The topic was something I’m pretty familiar with, so their content needs wouldn’t require hours of research, and I figured maybe it’ll be a decent fit.
Man, I should’ve heeded that first red flag.
Here’s how it went down. I got this email a couple weeks after applying for the gig:
I mean, their job description was misleading, so it’s on me for expecting anything good to come from this job, but that request is b-a-n-a-n-a-s. The company was hiring a “Copywriter,” but they’re actually looking for a content writer to churn out high-volume blog posts, not conversion copy.
I thought about how to reply. I considered whether it was worth being THAT person pointing out the hypocrisy of their request. I thought about not burning that bridge, cuz you never know when you may need to cross it, buuuut instead I stuck to my brand. Obviously, I didn’t write the blog post. I wrote something that probably took me longer than it would have to just write their post. It hit their word count, and made it crystal clear why I was (kinda sorta) politely telling them directly how to fuck off.
You can read the whole thing below:
When companies ask for fully scoped work under the label of a “test,” they’re not evaluating skill, they’re trying to get something for nothing. I’ve had my work stolen and used after tests like this. They’re quietly reinforcing the idea that writing (particularly content writing) isn’t worth paying fairly for. Professional writing is skilled labour. We deserve payment that reflects that.
It takes time, judgment, research, and domain knowledge to write like we do. Our words are often the very things that make a company look competent, credible, and trustworthy in the first place. So when a business treats that work as an afterthought, something to crowdsource, or harvest for cheap from freelancers desperate enough to say yes, it’s not just insulting, it’s totally unethical.
We don’t fix that by staying quiet. We fix it by being direct, by calling it what it is, by documenting it, and by refusing to play along. I know there are writers who will take the gig. They’ll underprice their work, complete the “test,” and hope it leads somewhere. I get it, I’ve been there. But every time an experienced writer calls this out, it chips away at a system that counts on silence. It makes it just a little harder for companies to pretend this is normal, and it gives newer writers a reference point they might not have had otherwise.
And maybe, eventually, it raises the bar for all of us.
I hope.