I worked with Kaz at Empire Marketing Concepts Inc. From July 27th-July 29th. I found their advertisement at monster.com (a site they continue to advertise on) under the heading "administrative assistant" position.
Like most recent undergraduate grads, I, too, felt the job market was a bit tight, and any large company willing to hire someone with less than 2 years experience in the professional world was a sure bet to the road of excellence. Boy was I naive.
I applied July 25th. I was called in for an interview July 26th (most companies take at least 2-3 weeks to respond to applicants due to the high volume of resumes). When I arrived at the office at 11am for their mid afternoon appointment schedules, I saw many many people there for an interview.
I was interviewed by Nicole. Her partner, Jason, was interviewing a man in the other unfurnished office (there are only 2 interview rooms inside one large room). She spoke so fast, yet so convincingly about the entry level management trainee position, that I was confused-especially since I was applying for the administrative assistant position.
Ah, there's the rub. Her face went blank, she admittedly switched gears to discuss the so-called ADMIN position, but kept hinting at the better fortune of being an entry level management trainee. After she was finished talking, I couldn't remember half of what she said that was significant and didn't have any questions to ask her. I just remember feeling my facial expression turn from excited to bored.
She did inform me that those who were hired would receive the call back no later than 3pm that same day. When I finally got home, at exactly 3pm I received the phone call from the same Nicole telling me I was hired. I started to feel excited again.
The next day I showed up in the proper business attire she mentioned to wear at the interview (have to wear blazers / jackets in the office, company policy), and proceeded to look around the waiting lounge until 9am when the "team" would come out of the meeting office and greet us. Well, let me make a long day short: my trainer was this young woman who took me and this other woman (who was from Baltimore, MD) on the presentation round.
Us two had no idea that the presentation round was just door to door sales pitching to businesses that A) were not expecting us B) were on the poor side and could easily be taken advantage of and C) were mainly male oriented (which explains my trainer's push of the push up bra and low cut blouses).
My trainer, however, was not in the know of what was really going on with the company. She was baffled why the sent me out on a go with her since I, unlike the Baltimore woman, had applied for the ADMIN position. She talked too much about the slight negative side to the company, and we witnessed her cussed out and criticized by the small business owners.
At the end of this long (only 1 sale) day, our trainer gave us two sheets of papers to fill out about what we learned, etc. What was unusual about the paper was it only made reference to the entry level management trainee position, not the ADMIN one. When we arrived back at the office site, we were both taken into separate offices and asked what we thought about our day on the job.
Mariana, the Brazillian hot shot who apparently learned English in less than 3 months, smiled and cooed and finally said "Congratulations you got the job!" I asked her "the ADMIN position?" She lost her smile, then perked up and said "the entry level trainee for management. We feel you are suited to work with our company." yadeyah the same BS.
When I finally got home that night and told my family about my new job, they warned me not to go through with this "pyramid scheme." I told them, it did sound fishy, but I might as well try it-I don't like it I quit.
This is what ticked me off so much that I quit after two full days on the job with the same trainer from when was hired: how she just burst into offices, and then left without saying goodbye or shaking someone's hands if the owner was not available. One owner, this guy Mike of a hardware store, he started doing the mathematical calculations on this so-called save plan from this phone company we were representing.
He saw that he would be paying 500 dollars more in two months than if he stayed with the plan he had. She, not being a mathematician, could not argue otherwise and I closed the conversation with "MiKE, thank you for your time, have a nice day." I got chewed out by her during our lunch break for saving her hide. If we had not left when we did he was about to kick us out.
Better we leave on somewhat good terms than being kicked out and risk having other businesses around him find out about us. At the end of that first day, she only made one sale. She couldn't ring any of the bells. Liz even called her into her office and scolded her for it.
July 29th, my last day on the job, Morgan arrived. Morgan was this recent college grad from New Orleans whose parents refused to buy her an apartment. Liz teamed Morgan with my trainer and I to show her the ropes.
So apparently she saw this ad and replied, hoping for the 100% commission promised. Going into this she was excited, after one hour of standing on her feet and waiting on owners she started falling asleep, almost left the phone company's book we needed as our "guide" and tried to convince her parents (who are business owners in the same area we were scouting) to switch their company's phone lines to the ones we were representing, so she could make good with Empire on her first day.
Her parents refused-she started whinning about it. Some where between this and the last go see was what finally made me quit right there and tell my trainer off. I wish the small business could be informed, the ones who did switch lines, of the deceitfulness of this company.
What baffles me is, as many people that have complained on this web site, that have tried to sue and may have sued the company, why are they still positing jobs as of January 3rd?
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