The Great GTM Grift: How Companies Extract Free Strategy Work Under the Guise of Hiring
In the pursuit of cutting-edge workplace “innovation,” some companies have truly outdone themselves. Gone are the days of simply asking candidates to show up, answer a few questions, and maybe explain why a manhole cover is round. No, the new gold standard in hiring is to have candidates perform the job they’re applying for: gratis. It’s genius, really. Why hire a consultant or pay your existing team to do their job when you can crowdsource solutions from hopeful candidates for free? Forget LinkedIn endorsements or glowing references; true brilliance lies in unpaid labor packaged as “evaluation.”
And the pièce de résistance? The Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy request. Not just a casual brainstorming session, mind you, but a full-blown, actionable plan that you could print, bind, and slap on the CEO’s desk tomorrow. The best part? It’s all dressed up as part of the interview process, so nobody even questions it. "It’s just to see how you think," they say, as they discreetly forward your work to the marketing team. Capitalism at its finest: extracting intellectual property without signing so much as an NDA. Why innovate internally when you can pick the pockets of your future workforce? HR deserves a standing ovation.
"Oh, You Want a Job? First, Solve All of Ours"
Imagine you’re a seasoned professional balancing a demanding job, a family, and maybe a moment of personal peace. You’ve just received an email inviting you to interview for a senior role. Exciting, right? Finally, recognition of your hard-earned expertise! But as you skim the details, your excitement quickly dissolves. Turns out, the company doesn’t just want to know about your track record or hear your references rave about how you revolutionized their GTM strategies. Nope. They’d like you to create one for them: tailored, actionable, and, oh yes, free.
Let’s translate that corporate doublespeak:
“We could pay a consultant $50,000 to do this work, but we’re a savvy, cost-conscious company. Instead, we’d like you, a hopeful candidate, to do it. If we love your ideas, we might give you the job. If not, no hard feelings. We’ll just quietly recycle your plan into next quarter’s strategy.”
Of course, they assure you this isn’t exploitation. It’s "evaluation." Never mind your résumé, which screams “I’ve done this before.” Forget your references, ready to deliver TED Talk-level endorsements. And don’t even think about suggesting a simple Q&A session or a hypothetical case study. No, this assignment is “vital to the hiring process.” How else can they gauge your ability to do the job they’re actively asking you to do before paying you to do it?
Cheap Labor Disguised as "Cultural Fit Assessment"
Let’s not mince words: this isn’t about cultural alignment or gauging how someone thinks. It’s corporate freeloading, pure and simple. Companies claim they’re “evaluating” candidates, but what they’re really doing is outsourcing critical work without spending a dime. Why hire a consultant, or even pay your internal team, when you can dangle the promise of a paycheck in front of eager job seekers? Ethics are so passé when budget cuts are on the table.
This sleight of hand is particularly egregious in industries like consulting, marketing, and sales, where intellectual property is the entire product. Imagine you’re a chef applying for a role at a restaurant, and they ask you to cater a wedding for 200 people “to see if you’re a fit.” They’re not paying you, but if the guests love the risotto, maybe you’ll get the job! Absurd? Absolutely. But somehow, in the corporate world, this kind of logic is considered cutting-edge HR strategy.
What’s truly galling is the justification. Companies swear they need to see a candidate’s GTM strategy to assess “how they think” or “whether they align with our culture.” Please. If your company’s cultural alignment hinges on candidates providing unpaid labor, your culture is a problem, not the candidates.
The irony here is delicious, if bitter: the same companies preaching about values and ethics are essentially running a free idea farm disguised as a hiring process. Call it what you want, but let’s be real: it’s exploitation with a corporate logo slapped on it.
But Wait, Isn’t This What You’re Paying Them to Do?
Let’s pause and reflect on the absurdity here: you’re asking candidates to do the very job you’re supposedly hiring them to do. It's a corporate shell game where the real prize is getting work done for free. Developing a GTM strategy isn’t some cute pre-employment puzzle like figuring out how many golf balls fit in a 747. It’s the core function of the role. Asking candidates to execute it before they’re hired is like asking a contractor to build half your house just to “see if they know what they’re doing.” If that sounds ludicrous, congratulations, you’re still grounded in reality.
If you’re genuinely unsure whether a candidate can handle the job, maybe look at their résumé. You know, that document detailing their years of experience, successful strategies, and glowing achievements. It’s basically their professional highlight reel. Add a few phone calls to references who will gladly confirm, “Yes, Karen, they actually know what a GTM strategy is,” and voilà! You have all the insight you need.
And if traditional methods of assessment don’t work for you, consider this: maybe the problem isn’t the candidates. Maybe the problem is your convoluted hiring process. If you need immediate GTM solutions, hire a consultant and pay them. Consultants exist to solve short-term challenges while you focus on hiring someone who can execute long-term.
But no, why bother? Asking for free work under the guise of “evaluation” is just so much cheaper. And if the candidate refuses, you’ve weeded out someone who doesn’t “align with your values,” right? Genius.
If You Must Exploit, At Least Pay for It
If companies absolutely must insist on candidates doing unpaid work disguised as “evaluation,” the least they can do is throw a few bucks their way. Paying someone for their time, expertise, and intellectual property is called being an ethical employer.
Some companies already do this. These companies recognize that asking candidates for a detailed GTM strategy is just freelancing in corporate drag. They understand that compensating candidates is necessary. You wouldn’t expect a freelance designer to whip up your logo for free, or a lawyer to draft a contract out of the kindness of their heart. So why should candidates be any different?
By compensating candidates, companies achieve several things:
Show Respect for Time and Expertise: Candidates have lives, jobs, and Netflix shows to binge. Paying them for their work acknowledges they’re not interns eager for “exposure.”
Get Better Work: When people are paid, they actually care.
Avoid a PR Nightmare: Nobody wants to be that company whispered about in LinkedIn threads for squeezing free work out of candidates. Unpaid candidates do talk, and their reviews aren’t glowing.
A modest fee is a small price to pay for goodwill. Candidates who feel valued leave the process with positive sentiment, even if they don’t land the job. Contrast that with the unpaid crowd, seething with resentment as they watch their rejected ideas pop up in your next earnings call. Companies, take note: respect costs a little, but exploitation costs a lot. Choose wisely.
Making candidates perform unpaid labor saves a bit of time and money upfront, but the long-term consequences? Not great. Extracting free spec work is unethical, lazy, shortsighted, and, embarrassingly transparent. You’ve damaged your employer brand while simultaneously devaluing intellectual property and professional expertise. It's a true lose-lose masterpiece.
Treat candidates like professionals. Engage them in meaningful conversations, ask about their track record, or present hypothetical challenges during the interview. You know, thosemethods that don’t involve exploiting their knowledge for free. And if you absolutely must ask for their insights? Pay them. Simple, right? If you can’t invest in a fair hiring process, maybe you don’t deserve top-tier talent.
Job seekers, listen up: your time is valuable. If a company insists on free spec work, push back. Ask for boundaries, clarity, or even a stipend. If they balk, you’ve dodged a bullet.
Great companies know that hiring is a two-way street. So, respect candidates, invest in the process, and stop cheaping out. The corporate world doesn’t need another exploitation tactic masquerading as a hiring strategy. Enough already.