Everybody’s into roleplay, and so am I

Hi! I’m Peter, CEO of Kickresume, and these career-related stories caught my attention this month — and might catch yours too.

Not to be dramatic, but the hiring process is probably at peak stupidity right now. 

An average job seeker is doing three interview rounds, at least two assignments and skill assessments, and a personality test to see which of the 16 personality types you are. 

Oh and how could I forget that it’s all run by AI avatars that look like Jessica Alba. (I wish I was joking. I dedicated an entire newsletter to that.) 

All that just to get rejected without any constructive feedback.

It's all gotten pretty ridiculous. And weirdly ineffective for how complicated it is.

And yet, somehow, there's already a new hiring tactic spreading. At least judging by LinkedIn and Reddit.

And…I actually don't think it's terrible. 

Hell, I'm even thinking about trying it at Kickresume.

So, what is it? 

Try before you buy, except you're the product

I’m talking about work trials. 

I know, it's not exactly new. Companies have been doing this before. But suddenly it's popping up everywhere. 

Here's how it works. 

You get “hired” for 1-14 days to work on real tasks alongside actual employees. You're doing the actual job, you get paid fairly, and, this is key: you know upfront that it's a trial. And you voluntarily agree to it.

Now here's the part that's actually smart: it's not just the company evaluating you. You're evaluating them too.

• You get to see if the work is what they said it would be. 

• If your future colleagues are tolerable. 

• If the "fast-paced environment" actually means "perpetually on fire."

• Plus, even if you don't get hired, you walk away with real feedback on your actual work. Not just a "we decided to go with a candidate whose experience more closely aligns with our needs" email.

This is the ideal scenario. That’s how it's supposed to work.

In practice? Well, this is the recruitment business we're talking about. So of course some companies are screwing it up spectacularly.

Some are using it to get free labor. Others don't bother telling candidates it's a trial. Hence why Reddit is flooded with "I wasn't told I was on a trial period" threads.

It’s also quite difficult if you're currently employed full-time… It's not easy to take 5+ days off without your boss getting suspicious. So companies end up biased toward unemployed candidates.

But when done right, this actually seems to work.

Take Weebly. They've been doing work trials since 2008, and about 66% of people who do the trial week get hired.

Or Linear, who claim a 96% retention rate over four years. Which is kind of insane, actually.

So clearly it's possible to not turn this into a disaster.

How to get hired when you're already working

From my perspective as a CEO, I get the appeal.

There are things you just can't figure out in a two-hour interview. Or even from a take-home assignment.

Like how someone actually thinks through problems when things don't go as planned. How they communicate when they're stuck. Whether they'll fit with the team or create weird tension in every Slack thread.

If done right (paid, transparent, mutual evaluation), a week-long work trial could genuinely be smart.

I'm honestly thinking about trying it at Kickresume.

And I've already been thinking about what I'd look for in a candidate on trial. Some of it is probably specific to me and how I run things. But a lot of it? Pretty universal.

So I figured I'd outline it for you.

• Bring your own ideas. They might not work because you lack context, but it shows you're thinking about the work. Shows initiative. That matters more than getting it right on day three.

• Know your stuff (if it's a technical role). Pretty self-explanatory. If you're a developer, you should be able to... develop.

• Ask meaningful questions. Not obvious ones. Not questions you could've answered by reading the task description more carefully. But if you're given a vague task with zero specifics? Absolutely ask questions. Better to clarify upfront than deliver the wrong thing.

• Know when to ask for help (and when to figure it out). Ask for help when you need it, obviously. But don't make people solve problems for you. Show them what the issue is, what you've tried, where you got stuck. That's collaboration. Making someone else do your work is just annoying.

• Present what you've done at the end (I like presentations). Show the result, but also walk through how you got there. What problems did you hit? How did you solve them?

• Mention how you worked with the team. I want to know if (and how) you collaborated. Did you pair with someone? Ask for feedback? Work through something together? How'd that go? Because if you didn't interact with anyone all week, that's... a red flag.

• Be honest if it's not a fit. This is a two-way street. Even if we liked you, you might not have liked us. And that's fine. But say it now, not after you've accepted a full-time offer. Hell, maybe it even leads to us thinking about a different role that suits you better.

That's my two cents. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't. But that's what I've picked up running a company for the past 10 years.

I think this might be a good thing (emphasis on think)

Maybe this doesn't feel relevant to you right now. But the hiring process changes at a pretty unstoppable rate, so there's a good chance you'll find yourself on a work trial soon enough.

If you do, at least now you know what to expect—and hopefully, how to nail it and actually get the offer.

Work trials could be the future of hiring. Or just another HR disaster waiting to happen.

I guess we'll find out which when I inevitably try this at Kickresume and it either works beautifully or blows up in my face.

As a token of appreciation for your excellent scrolling skills, here’s a 30% discount code for Kickresume Premium.  

Catch you later!  

Peter