I have a job but am always looking for new opportunities. I got a call from a man who works for Primerica, a division of citigroup. I was excited when I got the voicemail and for about a week and a half we played phone tag. I thought that was a bit odd, if they were really interested wouldn't they try a little harder to get ahold of me than me having to call them every day for a week before they got back to me?
I finally spoke with the man who asked for my backround and I explained I was recently out of college and didn't really have much experience in anything. He told me that would be no problem. Again, pretty strange. Then after about two minutes of conversation the man told me that I seemed like a very intelligent person (of course I am, but you can't tell that from two minutes on the phone) and that he was willing to let me skip the first formal interview and move onto the second which started at 8:05 on saturday morning. I can't tell you how many red flags that raised in my mind. 8:05? Saturday? You can tell how smart I am and how good I would be for your company after just moments? Plus the whole thing sounded so scripted. I was definitely skeptical.
I called a few friends to tell them about the job interview and told them it sounded fishy, like they were going to try to get me to sell Amway. The all told me not to be so skeptical, that Citigroup was a fortune 500 company and they aren't recruiting people to sell avon. I told my skeptical side to shut up and went to this interveiw.
The interview turned out to be a meeting of several other people in my same situation who were "invited" by members of the company. As soon as I walked in I again felt like something was off. The employees looked like they were starving and fresh meat was just walking through the door. Before the meeting began the man who invited me came over and introduced himself and had me fill out a form with my name, address, phone number, 6 references, and questioned if I had any licenses for any insurance or trading activites. 6 references? Not only that, but 6 LOCAL references. That again was very odd.
I filled out this form and the meeting began. There was supposed to be a slide show but somebody accidently locked it in a room, but luckily they had pamphlets that had all the information on it. The man doing the presentation claimed to be working there for 8 months and went on for about 15 minutes about how wonderful primerica was and how they were out to help people. (Cause we all know big business want nothing more to help people.) At this point my skepticism was waning. I was wanting to believe that the people who worked here helped people and as they did they made a LOT of money. The guy speaking was pretty convincing.
The meeting ended and I wanted to talk to the man who invited me with a few questions that I had. I kept hearing my dad say "if it sounds too good to be true, it is". There were only two questions I had and if they answered them wrong I wasn't coming back but if they answered them right I was ready to sign on the dotted line. Before I could ask my questions the guy asked me if I wanted to come back for a more formal interview on monday. I figured I would ask my questions then.
As I was walking to my car I started getting the bad feeling again. During the meeting they were telling us that we would be paid commission for certain services we provided for customers and that the people who trained us (aka recruited us) would make an even larger percentage of what we brought in by doing nothing. Hmmm... Can we say pyramid scheme? I got so angry that they were able to make me think for even a minute that it might be a legit deal. I still decided that I was going to go to the interview on monday to make sure that I wasn't overreacting.
I talked to my dad the next day, sunday, and told him about my skepticism. That it sounded too perfect and I was waiting for the catch. My father is the ultimate skeptic. To believe anything he needs twelve sources and then to see it with his own eyes. Before I even finished telling him about everything that went on he sighed and shook his head and I knew he thought the same thing I did. He walked over to the computer and put Primerica into google and pointed this site, as well as many many others, out to me. I read them and knew that I was right. The company, while technically not illegal, was still a scam. I can't thank usacomplaints.com enough for confirming my suspicions.
My dad always told me that if any job EVER makes you pay to join then it is a scam so I know that if they had asked me to give up $199 for various fees and junk then I would have walked out the door, but the wonderful world wide web saved me from a potentially costly mistake.
I promptly called everyone on my reference list and told them to hang up on anybody from primerica who called. Then I called my recruiter and told him that I was smart enought to do my homework and wanted nothing to do with his company and to not bother calling my references because they wouldn't hang up on him.
Beware of anyone from Primerica, whether they are recruiting you to work, or if they are trying to sell you something. Do your homework!
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