It all started with a simple glance through the classified ads. I had quit my job in retail a couple days before and was ready to begin hunting for a "real job". I see an ad for a receptionist with no experience necessary. Perfect, I think, right up my ally. I give them a call. The woman who answers is very enthusiastic. She asks me some basic questions and ensures that while I live about 45 minutes away, I will be willing to travel for the right kind of job. She is even helpful enough to give me directions. I'm surprised that she wants me to come in today—as it was around one when I called—but nonetheless enthusiastic about the prospect of a new career.
Fast forward two hours. I arrive at a string of non-descript offices. I'm early so I sit in the car and call my mom. I tell her how the place looks a bit rundown from the outside but hey, at least I didn't get lost. When I enter the office, I'm surprised. There is loud, popular music playing, a woman sitting at a desk adorned with only a phone and a clipboard, and two females around my age dressed more for an interview at a fashion agency then for one as a receptionist. Immediately my morale drops. I can see that this isn't the type of job I thought it was. Nevertheless, I wait it out. I sit down an fill out my application... And it's one of the strangest I have ever seen. It actually asks me what sort of reliable transportation I have and has no space for prior employment history. After about a ten to fifteen minute wait, I'm asked into a room to "interview" with a fast-talking young man whose name I can't recall. He says he doesn't want to take up much of my time and that this is simply a brief screening process. He "briefly" outlines the two positions that need to be filled. He says there are two entry level management positions at 30,000 a year (547.42 a week) and one receptionist position at 8-9 dollars an hour. He also says that there will be sales positions opening up in the near future. He asks me which I feel I'm best suited for. I say that while I can do either, I'd prefer management. He says great and asks me what my best quality is. I say my intelligence. He informs me that if I'm chosen for a second interview, I'll receive a phone call between 5 and 6 that very evening.
While driving away, I'm ecstatic. 30,000 a year isn't the best manager pay but it was a little better than my last job and I could be in charge. Sure, I thought it was weird that he talked so fast and knew exactly how much 30,000 broke down to weekly... And sure, I had asked what sort of company this was and still had no idea... But hey, it still seemed like an awesome opportunity. I got the phone call that I was wanted back while driving home. I should have known something was up when she told me to make sure I brought a notebook and a pen. I've also never heard anyone say "dress to impress" in a job environment. That's usually reserved for clubs and parties. Two and a half to three hours also seemed extreme for an interview time. Anyways, the second interview isn't for a week so waste that week doing absolutely nothing... Figuring that I will soon have a 9-5 and not be able to sleep in.
Second interview day arrives. I have gone out and bought myself nice new interview attire, complete with a blazer. Everything down to the color of my nails is perfect. I arrive about fifteen minutes early. I park... After being notified that the parking space in the front is for someone important. I head into the office and there isn't a seat to be had. There's barely any space to stand. I sign the clipboard and I'm number 12. My brain is completely given over to chanting "wtf". I simply cannot understand being invited back for a second interview at the same time as so many others. I wondered if it was a competition. Once again, the same woman (Karen, I believe) is sitting at the desk doing absolutely nothing but talking... Unless you count the two people she "phone interviewed" while we were waiting.
The meeting started late. We were herded into a room that already had two or three people sitting in it. I was confused. It didn't look like a meeting room, it looked like a classroom. It came complete with stacked plastic chairs, a TV, a radio, podium and a dry erase board. As soon as we sit down, a loud, energetic woman named Holly starts to talk about her grandmother.By now, I realize something is not quite right about this situation. You see, Holly's shirt is completely see through except for her bra. You do NOT come to work in a respectable place of business looking like that. How utterly ridiculous. Anyway, she talks about her grandmother. Then she talks about a bet she has with Donny. You can tell she's just talking just to fill up space which is strange because this is supposed to be a job interview. Somewhere in the midst of all the talk she makes us write what was on the board when we came in:
S.C.I.
Phoenix Management
President - Larry Hahn
Divisional Manager - Donny Zinkin
Regional Manager - Holly Jacobetz
Site Locator - Karen Cirago
Finally, Donny shows up. He's just as loud as Holly but more boisterous. He begins by talking about his workout regimen. He then mentions that throughout the course of the presentation (his word, not mine) he will be eliminating some people and letting others eliminate themselves. He tells us that there will be a Q&A session at the end that we should hold our questions for because if we ask during the presentation, it'll end up taking too long. He informed us that if we were only sitting there because we were on unemployment and needed a paper signed to say that we'd been there, we were out of luck because he wasn't "signing a damn thing". He begins his presentation in earnest talking about Larry, Larry's money, company trips and the Mercedes money he won. Eventually he gets to us. He makes us list the qualities he wants from us so that we can't say he didn't mention them later. The qualities were as follows:
positive attitude, enthusiastic, dependable, mon-fri 9 - 5:30 ish sats mandatory/optional 10 - 4:30 until you can get a trustworthy Assistant manager, dependable means of transportation, and teachable.
No... That's not a typo. He seriously listed hours and transportation as qualities. More than a little suspect. He went on to tell us that fragrances are recession resistant. Which, given the tone of the whole presentation, seemed a bit out of place. He went on to discuss the reason department stores place fragrances in the front and gave us a break-down of where the money goes when you purchase a bottle of perfume. He discussed renditions, Larecy, and did the demonstration with the cheap bottle of aerosol perfume. He then gave us a breakdown of the 6-8 weeks of training. He broke it into four phases:
Phase I
Basics
merchandising
marketing
distributors
B to B (Business to Business)
EDP (Employee Discount Plan)
He briefly mentioned becoming independent contractors and that we could only give our friends and families discounts on the first three days after we started.
Phase II
This was basically a brief blurb that said you're only good as a manager if you can teach others what you know.
Phase III
Management
Checklist
6-8 of his people to manage
pick your location
Phase IV
Administrative end
A/R
A/P
Budget
Inventory
Phones
He told us that the parameter of our income during the program varies. He gave an example of someone making 800 dollars a week and someone else making only 10. Apparently, there was some sort of badge program where if you complete a phase, you get a badge. That sure does seem like middle school to me. He said there were company trips two times a year and that the regionals get an additional four trips. He broke down the money a business should make and by his calculations a business should sell 200 units a week which should add up to 60,000 a year for someone who doesn't take the contract. He also said he didn't open up a new location until the area was moving 200 units. How in the world are these 200 units being moved, I wondered, and who are these mystery distributors? He explained that if we took the contract, he'd pay for our benefits excluding dental but if we didn't, we were on our own. Then he explained that he wasn't going to tell the group whether people were being eliminated or not, rather, he'd let us leave by twos or threes and have Holly tell us. He then gave us instructions to fill out the background check from and return it or fax it the next day if we were accepted. He said the dress code would be casual but neat and that jeans were acceptable. He told us to think of it like going to class. He said he wouldn't call us if we didn't show up and if we didn't get the paper back he'd assume we'd changed our minds. He then read off our names once and we were to respond and tell him whether or not we could start Monday. After making some notations on the papers, he ran back through and asked everyone two or three questions. While he was asking a couple questions, a couple people were led out by Holly. We waited a while and Karen was called to escort out one remaining person. Then he asks us if we want the good news or the bad news first. He says there is no bad news. We've all been accepted. He makes us give ourselves a round of applause... Twice. He then says that we don't have to be in until eleven on monday morning because he knows we want to go out and party in order to celebrate our new jobs. I think this is the oddest thing because it's Thursday and monday is three days away. He says that this is going to be like graduation. He hands us a piece of paper and shakes our hand as we leave. He smiles at the ones before me... But not at me. Perhaps he knew.
Now, there were one or two things that happened during this long-winded retardation that I can't place chronologically. At one point, he stopped talking to address a young man sitting in the back who wasn't writing. He told him that if he didn't want to take notes, he didn't need to be there. The guy left and Donny told someone to go out and check on him because he didn't want him in his waiting room. Later, he "picked on" two people in the front row. One was a black male, the other was a white female. He began a scenario in which the black male worked with the company for years as some sort of assemblyman but didn't get promoted when a management position became available but the white female graduated and though she had no experience, got the job. He went on to tell us how much better of a manager she would be if she worked with him for a week before taking the job. The whole thing seemed pointless and rubbed me the wrong way. Towards the end, the female sitting next to me was obviously paying attention but had stopped taking notes. Donny also stopped to ask her is she needed to leave, reinforcing the fact that she needed to take notes.
During this circus of greed and ignorance, he gave us a website. Www.scenturacreations.com I was incredibly skeptical at this point and figured I had better do some research on this company. This website is among the most suspicious I have ever seen. It has testimonials... And I ask you... When has a legitimate company ever needed testimonials for hiring processes? My suspicion grew and I decided to look up scentura and I found exactly what the rest of you have found. This is a scam that seems to have been around for quite some time. It seems to be new to Middlesex and thus hasn't raised enough complaints yet to significantly warn people. I've read just about everything I could on this situation in the last couple of hours and it seems to me that the people posting rebuttals and arguing the legitimacy of scentura are incredibly uneducated. This is a scam that preys on the uneducated and malleable. Unfortunately, these are the very same people who will be unable to access the internet to check out prospective shady employers. I have no intentions to actually go through with training so I probably can't get them shut down. It would appear that they'd only open up somewhere new. This is the sort of thing that could only really happen in America. The old adage is indeed true. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Amber
Neptune, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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