I am writing this as a warning based on my recent experiences with a company called Innovage (or as it is known in this case - Willis Enterprises). I felt that I had a responsibility to bring the practices of this company to the attantion of the public.
I am currently on the job market and one of the jobs that I applied for was for a 'graduate management training' programme for a company called Willis Enterprises. The job add sounded extremely appealing and was listed by a large number of recruitment agencies in the area. Some of the key phrases included: 'the development and implementation of marketing strategies', 'targeting new tiers of distribution', 'prepared to cross-train successful candidates in every sector towards a management level', 'Areas include: promotional marketing, sales management, customer services, PR, legal, Financial and Administration, Project Management'.
After sending my CV in for this position I was contacted almost immediately and the recruiter congratulated me on making it to the interview stage.in an attempt to prepare for my interview I requested information about the company. I was referred to the Innovage website (www.innovage.net/) which was infact out of order for those two days leading up to the interview. I therefore requested further information and was told that this was unimportant and that I should just turn up at the interview. I felt uneasy at this point as this was not very conventional (having attended many interviews in the past).
Without knowing anything about the job (other than its extremely vague job description) I attended the interview. The office was extremely run down and I was immediately told that the office was under renovation. I thought this was odd as the offices were beyond run down... They was completely uninhabitable. I was then asked to fill in a form regarding my details, hobbies etc. Loud music was playing in the reception area and I was feeling more and more uncomfortable in the unexpected and unprofessional surroundings.
Finally, I was taken into the interview room to be interviewed by a woman called Thelma. She began the interview by saying how fantastic the opportunity was and that they had been interviewing candidates all week due to the hundreds of responses they had received. I began to ask questions about the company as she was offering very little information. She said that the company had originally been started in Canada, grown into the United States and had entered Europe four years ago. She also said that the company now had 23 offices across Europe and was expecting significant growth... How is it then that I could find absolutlely no information about this company on the internet? I questioned her on this and she said that their head office was called Innovage and that I should look on that site (the site that was unavailable).
She then explained that this was a cross-functional training programme across eight functional business areas. She made the training sound extremely appealing. She said that the training programme would begin in the sales promotions and marketing division and then successful applicants would then be fast-tracked into a management position.in regard to the recruitment process, she said that the next stage of the process would be to get a chosen few to come in again for a full observation day. She said this would entail going out with another manager and meeting the various 'clients'. She said that we would not be shown the glitz and glamour of the business, but rather the nuts and bolts in the beginning. She said that if this observation day went well I would be offered a job. However, she did say that I shouldn't get my hopes too high as there was a lot of competition as they are looking for the best - An hour after my interview a message was left on my answer phone saying I had made it to the next round!
I came home after the interview feeling very uncomfortable about my experience - something wasn't right. If the company was so large and successful why was there no information about them? Why was the manager so unprofessional despite apparently being a senior manager within this 'large international organisation'? Why was it that despite having been told that 25 people worked in the office there was no evidence of these people? My later research highlighed that they were all door knocking selling extremely low quality products, and with no chance of promotion other than to eventually be the one that runs the scam from the top.
I actively went about searching the internet for information that would help me make sense of this situation. What did I find? Story after story describing exactly what I have written here, however many of these stories have tragic endings (other stories of Innovage should also be read on this site). My experience was identical to these written experiences and all stories have ended in disaster, placing individuals in financial difficulty and horrible, unethical work environments.
I have written this as a warning that Innovage is operating within Europe and up to it's old tricks which have many different faces. Please be aware of this process (as it appears to always be the same) and make you fellow citizens aware of this corruption that is going on around us. I am now going to notify all of the recruiters that are advertising this job of its true merits or in fact lack thereof.
0 comments