I flat-out refuse to give people free work. The very thought goes against the very grain of my work ethic. I applied for a job yesterday, and sent in an extensive resume with several samples of my work included. I received a response today requesting a brand-new, original article of 400-600 words, any topic, as an "application". So, I posted this question to several of my LinkdIn groups: What do you do if you apply for a job using your resume and samples of your work, and they request an original article as an application? The response was overwhelming. The general consensus is DON'T WORK FOR FREE. That being said, some of the commentators said they had found some really lucrative work for providing more samples of their work, as requested. The first person to tell this included this wisdom, it depends on how bad you want to work for them.

Maybe I'm out of the loop, or whatever you want to call it, but I just cannot see myself giving away free writing pieces to try to get a job. I've heard of too many scams out there. One guy who commented told a complete horror story about how he spent a week working up this really intricate, detailed and (sounds like) expensive report to prove to some company he could write for them. Apparently, he finds out years later (no, he didn't get the job) these people had scammed several others he met at a writers conference. The company had essentially tricked five people into writing an extensive manual for them for free. Besides wondering how people like that go through life without getting beat up, I want to warn newbies to watch yourself. It's so easy to be scammed when you're just breaking into writing. You are so excited, and scared, and just want your first job sooooo bad...then you will be a "real" writer. See the post immediately before this one for a story about that. When you're green you will take the dirt-cheap jobs experienced freelancers turn their noses up about, just to have something to put on your resume. This is where it gets dangerous for the ingenue.

Trust me when I tell you it is possible to get jobs without paying for them, and without having to go through the frustration and humiliation of having your work stolen from you. Now, I know there are plenty of other writers out there who swear by those bidding sites you have to pay to join. And then there are those sites where you have to be a member to view their job boards. Maybe I'm just not ambitious enough, but...whatever, I can't bring myself to do it. I'm sure it could be said by some I may think a little too much of my writing. Hmph. I prefer not to go there, but I can obviously write, because people have paid me to do so. This really isn't just about myself though. It's about warning new writers about con artists who will steal your work just as quickly as they will your money.

If I'm missing out on the really great jobs, so be it. Maybe sometime down the road I'll change my mind. Something tells me I won't. Writing wedding vows for my friends and typing resumes is quite enough free work on my part, thank you very much. If it sounds like I have an attitude about this, it's just the timing of this blog post. That email is still on my mind, obviously. Seriously, this didn't start out as a rant, but I get angry the more I think about it. Now, to be completely fair, this job offer was more than likely completely on the up-and-up. But, I always try to follow gut instinct, and gut instinct told me not to go with this one. So, I deleted the email. Now I'm just going to forget about it and get back out there on the cyber-sidewalk and start looking for more jobs. I honestly feel like I avoided a pitfall this time.

So what about you? Do you have some war stories to tell about being scammed, or almost being scammed? Everyone is entitled to their opinion. What's yours?