Keeper Mallinson on 17/9/2009 at 15:51
The other day:
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Hello Kyle,
Thank you for your interest in the technical writer position with our company. Due to an overwhelming amount of responses we’ve received, we have formulated a technical writing test for all applicants to complete. Interviews will be conducted based on performance of the test.
The task: Write a Technical Paper on “How To Make Money Using Twitter”
Length: 500-1000 words
Research: Must be done by applicant
Please submit your document as soon as possible. We will accept documents no later than Thursday, September 17, 2009.
Sincerely,
Corporal Randomtest.
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I've been recently thinking about doing some research into Twitter, yes... about exactly WHAT IT IS. Can anyone tell me about Twitter's cultural implications or what (other than one big Facebook update-application) it's used for?
OnionBob on 17/9/2009 at 15:57
Quote Posted by Keeper Mallinson
Research: Must be done by applicant
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Queue on 17/9/2009 at 16:09
Who doesn't want to do vile stuff to that thing.
Keeper Mallinson on 17/9/2009 at 16:14
I know that, Onion, and I have every intention of doing the research myself; I've already started. I wasn't asking for anyone else to do work, just advise me on directions. As a former research assistant, I know that part of research is asking for leads.
Paz on 17/9/2009 at 16:15
it's hard to tell from just a form email, but having farted out a lot of stuff to WRITING OPPORTUNITIES type ads, this has several hallmarks of a scam
basically be pretty fucking sure that you aren't going to be dicked over before writing any 'test' articles for free, or writing ANYTHING for free with the promise of payment or a job or a wonderful new life as a dragon further down the road
again, I can't tell from just the email and you may know it's more legit than it appears but you may wish to read something like this: (
http://hubpages.com/hub/How_To_Beat_The_Send_Me_A_Sample_Scam)
if the company are totally legit, then yeah just ignore this
Keeper Mallinson on 17/9/2009 at 16:39
Good lord, thanks for the advice... while I try to be wary of scams on Craigslist, the writing sample is one that hadn't occurred to me. One thing though: if they are legitimate, will they think I'm a hack who stole from the net if I send them a jpg of a sample?
Muzman on 17/9/2009 at 16:50
Sounds highly Blanch Dubious.
"How to make money using twitter" is a topic you'll find around the marketing blogosphere quite a lot lately (I swear I saw it as the title of an upcoming book or something too): ie they haven't quite worked it out yet, if it works at all.
So why some company expects you to be able to tell them like it's simple industry knowledge you can look up and explicate, I have no idea.
Paz on 17/9/2009 at 16:51
ok, if this ad response came from Craigslist the chances of it being a scam just went up about 900% ... sorry
- why would a reputable employer need a totally fresh sample of your writing abilities? if you've got clippings/samples from previous jobs these will show off (a) your style and (b) your talent for grammar
- why would a reputable employer give you like a day to come up with this writing? (unless you've had this for weeks and only just decided to post about it)
- try putting the name of the company or some of the wording into google and adding the word 'scam' or just checking out what other references there may be to them around the net
this is almost certainly an attempt to get a lot of free content for some ad-driven blog or to sell en-mass to one of those utterly shitty SEO hubs that pays $0.10 per 500 word piece
