I went to an interview for a role that included website management for a small company. They asked that the candidates look at their website, note any changes that we thought they should make, and bring them into the interview.
I noted a few dead links, spelling errors, excessive category pages for products, etc., and highlighted all of these.
The next day, the prospective employer called me back to tell me I hadn’t gotten the job, but that they wanted to follow my suggestions.
Prospective Employer: “Would you mind logging in for us and making those changes?”
Me: “I’m not going to do that if you’re not hiring me.”
Prospective Employer: “Your suggestions were the best, and nobody else noticed all of those mistakes. We’d like to implement your changes but don’t know how to do it.”
Me: “You should get your new website manager to do it. They’re not exactly complicated changes.”
Prospective Employer: “We’re not sure what all of the mistakes were. Can’t you just change it for us?”
Me: “No. Your new website manager will do it for you.”
Prospective Employer: “They don’t know how to do it.”
Me: “Wait. You hired someone to manage your website who doesn’t know how to edit it?”
Prospective Employer: “Well, all the changes you suggested were so simple, we thought it wasn’t necessary.”
Me: “…”
Prospective Employer: “So, will you fix it?”
Me: “No. If all you wanted was your website tidied up, you could have hired someone as a freelancer for a one-time job instead of advertising for a full-time role.”
Prospective Employer: “See, this is why we didn’t hire you.”
I checked their website the other day, six months later. The mistakes are still there, and the website hasn’t updated at all in that time.
