Covering an event for a job interview?

A newspaper asked me to do this before to see my raw copy as well.

I told them I gave them my previous editor's number as a reference and to call him. Then I withdrew my name from consideration.

 

That's a pretty bitch move, IMO. I can't think of an editor I've had who has seen my raw copy, at least not since my first job. It's all deskers after that. SEs oversee.

 

You really taught them a thing or two, huh?

 

I interviewed for a newspaper and the editor first asked me to write a couple of paragraphs. After the interview, I was asked to write a story for the newspaper about a bill in government. I was floored by this and thought it was dishonest to present myself as an employee of this company when I was not.

I interviewed at another paper for a sports gig. They took a story someone had done in the past, deconstructed it and asked me to reconstruct it. I thought this was perfectly fine.

The latter should be the way things are done.

 

I can see the tryout aspect -- but the gotcha part, I don't like.

My first boss in a full-time gig did this in kind of a unique way, I thought: He played a role (owner of a batting cage company where major leaguers worked in the offseason, I believe) and told me to interview him. He showed me pictures of a similar facility and told me to just figure this was the real place (for description and color details) and then when the interview was over gave me 45 minutes or whatever to write the story.

It was the kind of story you'd write for a small-town paper, I wrote it as a feature, he liked it (although with appropriate critiquing), and I got the job.

I think it was actually a pretty good idea.

 

That's the problem of springing a tryout on someone.

I had an interview where I had to write off of some stats, the editor telling me a couple key points in the game, and then a YouTube clip of a big play in the game.

Employers should be creative in addition to the employees.

 

No problem at all with any of this.

A couple of years ago, I traveled all night for an interview to cover a Division I-A team college football for a smaller newspaper. Arrived that morning, crashed in the hotel room the newspaper reserved me, then walked to the newsroom for a series of interviews. After a couple of hours, the editor and I drove to the stadium for a news conference and weekly player interview session. Write a story on this player, the editor said. No problem. Talked with the player. Talked with two other players. Asked the coach a question and a follow-up. Went back to the newsroom and pounded out 24 inches in about 40 minutes.

Of course, the story was published in the paper, but not online. And I did receive a nice stringer fee. And I did get a great dinner at the end of the night. Didn't take that job for personal reasons, but that unnamed paper and sports editor were professional.

Recently interviewed for a position with a year-old trade Web site. They asked for a critique of the site, minimum of one page. No problem with that, either. Haven't heard back yet, though.

 

I had more than a few experiences with this, though not in many years.

Thinking back, I've got to say I've been through some pretty tough interviews over the years. In addition to one-on-ones, I've had several in which I had to take a standardized test (usually testing knowledge in basic grammar and current events). Most of the time, it was a Knight-Ridder paper I was interviewing with. For those of you who never took a K-R test, it also included a hypothetical situation (including hypotheical details and quotes) and you were given a certain amount of time to produce a story of a certain length. I don't know if that's the same thing as a tryout, though.

The only time I ever had a pure tryout was at a paper I eventually got the job at, but it wasn't nearly as involved (or late in the day) as a live event. (like the aforementioned softball game) What they did was provide me with the phone number of front-office guy for the team of the beat I was interviewing for and told me to get some info. and quotes and turn it into a brief advance story for an upcoming team event (wasn't anything that earth-shattering). I can never be sure, but I THINK they tipped the guy off that I'd be calling just to make sure he'd be in his office and available when I called him. The rest was just like an actual situation.

It was no big deal to me because A) It took me less than an hour from start to finish, B) I was staying overnight anyway and C) I did (as I mentioned) eventually get the job. Looking back, I guess I was a little too young and naive to ask about getting paid for said story (which DID, in fact, appear in the next day's paper, though buried inside. Again, it wasn't a huge story anyway). Or perhaps it was because I got the job that I didn't bother to ask.

 

I had to do this at my first job.
I came in for an interview and, at the end, the SE asked me if I would be willing to cover a football game three days later. Since I was straight out of school and had not covered preps before, he wanted to see how I wrote on deadline and if I could handle things like taking my own stats. I had to write up eight inches (this paper had particularly bad deadlines at the time, so all game stories were that length) and it appeared in print.
I did it, without payment. I just considered it part of the interview. Besides, the coach of the school I covered ended up being one of my better sources for the next two years.

 

If you write a story for a paper, you should get paid for it, for one.

For another, I'm not sure how I feel about springing something like this on a candidate, as opposed to at least working it out in advance.

I think it's only fair.

If I'm covering a game, and I don't know much about the teams, I'm at least given enough time to research the teams I'm covering. Who are the stars? Are there any trends I should keep an eye on? How did Team A fare the last time it faced Team B?

Just throwing a kid at a game cold turkey doesn't seem like a particularly fair way to gauge how he handles himself.