Some employers ask prospective hires to create free elearning samples before being hired. Should you ever do free work? I think people deserve to be paid for their time and effort. However, in some circumstances, creating free elearning samples make sense.
I originally published this post in 2019. Everything I’m hearing from multiple sources tells me that the job market is more challenging now than it was six years ago. Given those challenges, I want to update my advice. The reality is that while you shouldn’t have to work for free, you may have to to get a job in the current market. That’s especially true for people who are earlier in their careers.
The problems with free samples
Doing free work sends the signal that you’re not worth paying. If they don’t value your work when they’re trying to hire you, they won’t value it if you take the job either.
Unscrupulous organizations have been known to outsource work to a bunch of different people to save money. This happens more in fields like graphic design and editing than elearning, but it does happen in our industry too. I especially worry about people being asked to create things like templates as their free samples, as those are more likely to get used without actually hiring the creator.
I also have a significant issue with organizations that ask people to create free samples before even interviewing them. If you’re going to request free samples ethically, do it after your initial screening interviews for just the top few candidates. Orgs that ask 50+ applicants to create samples are wasting their own time as well as everyone else’s.
Some organizations have been asking for immense amounts of work as free samples. For example, this reddit post describes a request for free samples that required candidates to create and elearning module with the following components:
InfographicStoryboard in Word or PPTPublished SCORM outputPublished HTML outputHandout for translation
That’s a ridiculous amount of work to expect for free!
Do short paid projects instead
If a requested free elearning sample will take 10+ hours for you to build, use this response (feel free to edit it for your own language and pricing):
Hi! That sounds like a great short project. My rate for a project of this scope is $500. If that’s in your budget, let me know and I’ll send over an agreement.
You’re not telling them “no,” you’re telling them “yes, and.” That is, “yes, and here’s how much it will cost.” I’ve done short paid projects like this as a sample.
It’s expensive and risky for companies to hire people, as full-time employees, contractors, or consultants. It’s also risky for you to agree to work with someone new. A short paid project doesn’t commit either you or the organization to anything long term. You can both figure out if this is a working relationship you want to continue.
Some legitimate companies will pay for this work. If they push back on paying you, that’s a red flag. You can try to negotiate for a smaller project. If they won’t pay, and they won’t negotiate the scope down, it may be better to walk away—with some exceptions noted below.
Less than 2 hours
What about elearning samples that can be completed in less than 2 hours? I think that’s a reasonable amount of work to do for free. I usually do a free 1-hour initial call with new prospective clients after initial screening. A sample of this scope feels comparable to me as the work I would provide on a 1-hour call plus follow ups.
A 1- or 2-hour project gives employers a chance to have a consistent project to compare candidates, but it also respects your time.
I personally generally limit it to 1 hour of free work as a consultant; after that, people can pay me. But I know I’m in a stronger position to negotiate. If I were at an earlier stage in my career, I’d be more flexible about that limit (and I have been more fluid with that boundary in the past).
Portfolio example
What about if you’re brand new to the field, or you don’t have any samples of past work you can use in your portfolio? In that case, I’d consider doing a free project if it will end up giving you a new portfolio sample. Even if you’ve been working for a while, but you need more or updated samples in your portfolio, then it can make sense to use these free projects to boost your overall portfolio.
If the requested project uses a company’s proprietary content, you probably can’t use it in your portfolio. If they request something generic, you probably can reuse it.
A few years ago, I created a free sample that took 2-3 hours (instead of my usual paid project or 1 hour limit). I had the ability to use that sample in a future blog post and part of a new portfolio sample eventually. Because I knew I would personally benefit regardless of whether I was hired for that project, it was worth the effort.
How badly do you need the job?
This is a real consideration, especially in the current job market. How badly do you need the job? At some point, if you’ve been searching for months, you do what you need to do in order to pay the bills.
When I was hired for my first ID job, I created a free sample storyboard that probably took me 8-10 hours to create. I absolutely wouldn’t do that much work for free now, but at that point I’d been looking for a full-time role for a year. I’d applied to hundreds of positions and interviewed repeatedly without actually getting hired. Doing that free sample helped me demonstrate that I could do the work even though I’d never been an instructional designer previously. And frankly, I was making $7.50/hour scoring writing samples for an assessment company at the time. If you’re in that kind of position, do the free sample and get the job.
What do you think?
Do you ever do free elearning samples for prospective employers or clients? Do you set any conditions for your free work?
If you’re an employer, how do you handle this process? How much do you ask prospective hires to do?
Originally published 8/16/19. Updated 7/17/25.
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