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| Cupcakes from the assignment |
By: Christelle du Toit
A friend of mine has been looking for work and landed an
interview with a top digital agency.
It’s become pretty standard for applicants to have to do
some writing or an assignment as part of the application process, but the brief
sent by this agency blew my mind.
They asked this young woman to create social
media content for two clients, one being a producer of a product used in
baking, the other a top-end restaurant. She had to create a Facebook post with
a 60-second video for the baking product, and three Instagram posts for the
restaurant.
My question to this agency is: are you clinically insane? Or
just unusually cruel and mean? Do you realise that you are setting talented
young people up for failure? Do you know yourselves what is required in
resources and skills to do this?
Please note, as an agency, you have resources at your
disposal. If you were to create this content yourself, you would have a
professional camera person, a food stylist, a lighting technician, a video
editor, a production co-ordinator, cameras, computers, data, money, etc. etc. Exactly how is a young person, who doesn’t have an income,
is unable to pay rent or buy food for themselves, supposed to pull this off?
To give you an idea of what it took to pull this off: my
friend does not have the money needed to buy ingredients to bake and is not a
professional baker. Both her parents are dead and her family is not well-off or
geographically close to her. I was able to buy what’s needed, but needed
another friend of mine’s help to buy the finishing touches and decorations as
this had to happen a week before pay-day. I have a kitchen that is
camera-friendly (and suits the look and feel needed for this specific product
and target audience), but my oven has been acting up and I am not in a position
to replace it. I had to find the time over the weekend preceding the baking to get
to the right shops where I can buy the ingredients required, and make sure I
have time to bake despite having to be at work at 5am in the morning.
Fortunately my friend does have a high-end smartphone that can
shoot HD video as well as a laptop with the video editing programmes needed.
Another friend had to help us out with taxi money to get to the restaurant while
the baked goods are in the oven where the applicant had to sweet-talk the
waiters to help her set up food and drinks shots for things she certainly can’t
afford to actually order – thankfully, the patrons who had it didn’t mind
waiting a few minutes longer.
The skill-set required of the job applicant is daunting in
itself: you not only need to have a good visual eye, you need to understand the
nuances of social media and what content works best on which platform, hot to
compliment your visual content with relevant, enticing copy, have technical editing
skills, sound mixing skills, understand marketing and audience differentiation,
and be a good writer. This, of course, is before you start dealing with issues
like data costs and being able to send the product to the agency – on time.
What happened to just having to worry about looking
presentable in the actual interview and knowing what to answer when they ask
you what your greatest weakness is? All of this, for just one job application! Looking
for work is work in itself and it can takes month to land a job – it is simply
not possible to go to this effort for every single job application. Clearly,
young people have to jump through burning hoops while doing cartwheels and
holding a plate of cupcakes (smiling) just to stand a chance of getting a job
that, hopefully, pays a decent salary. Like, seriously?
It takes a village for one girl to get a job, but that
village has to be in the city (where the jobs are), have money, have time on
their hands, have skills and experience, and have resources like technology and
transport. Most young people don’t have this available to them.
The face of poverty in South Africa is known to us: poverty
is a young, black woman, often from a rural area, with little to no family
support. Women end up financially dependent on their partners, often in abusive
relationships, and spend all their time and money on their kids, families, and
communities. They are damn lucky if they have a proper education, and probably
had to go hungry many a night and day in order to get that education.
What this digital agency required of my friend has become
the norm and no, they don’t pay for the content they received. I did tell my
friend that, should she not get the job but they want to use the content she
gives them they will then have to pay for it (i.e. she should make it clear
that rights are reserved on it), but quite frankly, she’s not as senior as I am
and it takes guts to take such a stand. I have the luxury of pulling rank in
this kind of situation – she doesn’t.
As a society, we are failing our young women. To this
digital agency: I really think you need to do some introspection about what it
is you are requiring of job applicants. Yes, you are the ones holding the
power, but I can promise you this: you will be poorer for not hiring this girl
and if you are putting her (and my village) through this for one job, how many
other people are you doing this took? People who do not have the means to rally
others to help them? People who would be amazing at the actual job, should they
be given the opportunity to actually do it in the framework of a monied organisation
that can – and should – support them, not break them down? Enough now. Ubuntu
is alive and well and I am confident that this girl will get this job, but that
is in spite of all your efforts.
All I can say to my friend is: I am proud of you for
sticking it out. For working hard, for tackling taxis at Bree in peak commuting
times to get your Instagram shots, for putting in the hours editing the video,
and for staying bubbly and optimistic. Slay away! And let them eat cake!
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