What position are they offering??...
I had answered an ad in the paper for an appointment setter. They called me back, leaving a message on my machine. I called them back, but when they answered the phone, they didn't say, "Austin Alliance, How may I help you?" or anything like that; they answered the phone with a quick "Hello?" I thought that was a little weird. I ignored it however and talked to a woman by the name of Cindy about the job. She said that they were offering two positions: sales and an appointment setter. I told her I might be interested in the appt setter position but not sales. We schedule an interview for the next day.
I felt a little strange about the way Cindy had picked up the phone, so I decided to do a little research on the company (Cindy had told me the name of the company was Austin Alliance). Not only could I not find anything online about the company, I couldn't even find their name in the phone book! I decided to still go to the interview but didn't wear any of my nice jewelry and gave my husband all their information in case I didn't come home in a few hours. As you can tell, this whole thing made me feel a bit uneasy. I had to go to it though, just to see what would happen.
The next morning, Cindy called me a few hours before the interview just to make sure I was still coming. Now I was feeling very uneasy. (Who calls to remind people about an interview?) She also made sure I knew to dress nice for the interview. (duh!)
When I arrived at the building, I walked into a small room supplied only with two small couches and a small desk. The woman at the desk had me sign my name and who I was there for. From the room next door, I could hear loud music and people talking. "Sounds like they're having a party in there!" I joked to the receptionist. I figured they were having a going away party for someone or something. Little did I know, that room was where my "interview" was!
Cindy came into the small room and got me. She took me into the room with the music. There were about 40-50 nicely dressed people talking in groups. Cindy took me to one circle of people, introduced me, and left me with the people. She said they would talk about the company in a minute to all the people; it was quicker and easier to tell everyone at once instead of one by one.
A few minutes later, we were all seated and an attractive woman in nice, expensive clothing walked up and talked to us. She talked about her life and about how the company changed her life. She said that she was a college dropout, had 8 maxed out credit cards, and had no future... Until she stumbled upon this company! She continued to talk about the company and her life, etc.
After two more people sharing their life stories, I noticed a trend. Every person said that college was a waste of time and that a college degree would get you nowhere. This, of course, went against everything I had grown up with and had learned.
They only touched on the sales position and how it worked, saying you would pay the company $50 to start your own business. Then you had to purchase products, which cost a minimum of $160. You then had to sell these products and that's how you would make a profit. Also, there were these training session that were mandatory. The first few were free, but as you got into them more, they cost you $300 and $1,000 per session.
There was also this pyramid they drew to show you that you made money off the people below you (the people that filled out the application after you). If you didn't fill out your application soon, more people would be above you! (they kept trying to create this sense of urgency which made me feel more aprehensive).
After the first meeting, they had a break where uninterested people could leave, while others may stay for more information. I told Cindy that I wanted to know about the Appointment Setter position, which still hadn't been mentioned yet. She said that they would explain it all after the next meeting. Also, she changed the name from "Appointment Setter" to "Management Team."
After another meeting that focused only on sales, I met up with Cindy again. She told me that the "Management Team" position was actually a "Recruiter" position. You were paid by straight commision only. Your job would be to call people and get them to come to these meetings and you wouldn't get paid unless the people you recruited actually filled out an application and worked in sales.
That's when I left and cursed them under my breath for wasting TWO HOURS of my life, and making me feel like I had been tricked.
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