I’ve seen quite a few people lately say that companies are insisting on doing trial weeks before proceeding to final offer stages. In some cases, you’re offered full pay for the trial but not in all.
It got me wondering about the Pros and Cons of such practices. What Pros and Cons do you see with this?
I’m ok with trial week - as long as it’s fairly paid.
But some companies misuse those for free work on low-risk tasks.
40h is plenty of work, especially if you have multiple candidates doing 40h each.
Definitely! That’s where I am wary of them. Agree that if it’s fairly paid it can be beneficial to both sides.
I did one trial week back in 2014. After passing initial job interview, they liked me but weren’t quite sure about my skills since I did not work with required technology before. They offered me trial week with supervisor, paid at the same rate as position I was applying for. Things worked out perfectly, got job and the money for trial week.
I haven’t heard of such a thing before, but my initial impression is that it is great for employers but perhaps not always great for candidates. It seems particularly disadvantageous for people who are already employed. They would have to take a week of vacation time, which, in the US at least, might be half of their discretionary PTO for the year.
Absolutely! It’s taking a big gamble if you’re already in pretty stable employment.