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SCUMBAG CORNER
Here's a record of every organisation that tried to exploit me, take advantage of me, or make life harder for me while I was working hard on my craft
NONCLASSICAL
nonclassical (it's lower case) claims to support emerging artists. I applied for a position on their Associate Composers Scheme in early 2021 and was rejected (it happens), and had no contact with them until September 2022 when I received the below set of emails out of the blue asking me to do voluntary door/bar work for them (travel expenses not included).
As an extra 'fuck you Luke', the event was a showcase of music for one of the people they did accept on to the scheme I applied for. 'Sorry Luke, we can't accept your application as a composer, but how about we keep your details on file on case we need free labour in the future?'
You can support artists and the discipline of music itself by never, ever donating money to this organisation (as they frequently request) for them to pay their own healthy salaries with. You'd be doing a far greater service for the arts by looking through your phone and giving the first musician you know a tenner.
Scumbags!
ACCESSABLE
Pay careful attention to this one as it's the kind of shit you'll almost certainly encounter if you become a jobseeker again. I'd pretty much have my dream life if I could work as a freelance proofreader or writer or day job while pursuing my music career. As luck would have it, such jobs exist and I sometimes make it through to the interview or trial stage after I apply for them (it's pretty much just a lottery. Don't waste your time writing cover letters, is my advice to you).
I was asked to complete a lengthy proofreading trial exercise for a remote role with the company Accessable, which I did and spent about two hours on (on the morning of the Queen's funeral actually). I received the below email a few days later stating that, although my very results very good, in fact the company had failed to decide minor details such as who is actually eligible for the role prior to making demands of their applicants' time.
Note how worthless your time is deemed to be if you are looking for work. Two hours of pointless free labour because a presumably large organisation that deals primarily in administration can't iron out basic details before they advertise a role. Get used to it because this is very typical. Ideally we would band together and refuse to do any unpaid tests or trials or provide sample work, but really what can we do? If you're looking for work, you're in the inferior position. Your time has no value.
Furthermore, it's highly likely that, although the role was advertised as being home-based, it was going to turn out to be a bait-and-switch where being office-based becomes a requirement once you have the job. This is of course very exclusionary since not everybody is able to work in and/or travel into offices, the significance of which for a company whose sole purpose is to increase assessibility should not be lost anyone.
Go upvote my Glassdoor review (I unfortunately made a spelling mistake in the title which dampened the effect a bit) and note also the other negative reviews of the company.
Scumbags!
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