I interviewed with Elite Marketing on April 10th. When I arrived there were other candidates and Marc Phaneuf (not sure it is his name) came out and had us to complete an information sheet - said his administrative assistant was out for the day. He took approximately, 10 minutes with each candidate. For a marketing office it was very bare. No paperwork or file cabinets anywhere. I was very suspicious but Marc said they were just getting started in this location. He asked me if I was invited back for a second interview would I be available for the whole day, also asked if I had a car. When I said yes, he said he would call by 5:15p that evening. Marc called at 5:15p on the dot! He invited me for a second interview and although it did not feel right to me I accepted.
I arrived (along with 3 others) at their offices at 9am. While we sat in the waiting area we were asked to sign a release form stating that we understood that we would not be paid for the day because we were not employees of Elite Marketing and this was only part of the interviewing process. I was also able to observe that there was no real sign of a business other than pictures on the wall in the few offices that were there.
While we were sitting there, there seem to be some type of team meeting going on in the conference room. Since I have never been invovled with an actual marketing firm, I could not tell if this was normal or not. We were then all placed in a conference room for a while and we just sat around talking with the "Admin" which I dont think she really was. I think she was there to observe and gather information on each candidate.
After about 20 minutes, Marc came in to get us one by one. We were all set up with one of the Reps which we had not been introduced to prior and were told that we had to go out with these individuals and impress them and at 5:00 we would know whether we would be invited back for a third. Since I was the last to be sent out I had time to think and things just didnt feel right to me.
I was sent out with a Rep name Dave (no last name was given) and we were supposed to be going to see customers in Annapolis. When we left he asked me to move my car from in front of the building and park it out further in the lot which I did. I was then asked to ride with Dave and another trainee (Josh - who had supposedly been working with Elite for 2 weeks) which was a very small car (I am 5'10) and
I thought are you serious where is everyone going to fit! Josh said he would sit in the back (where by the way was a bunch of stuffed animals and he was holding a duffle bag with things he said they had to deliver before we went to the customer).
Much to my better judgement, I went along although I offered to use my SUV for more room - Josh was buried in the back seat. They declined and said they had to stop to get gas - which made me very leery again because I would have thought they would do that beforehand in anticipation of the day. Along the way Dave asked me questions about my myself and when I started asking him questions about the business and Marc he did not give up a lot of informtion and what he gave was very vague. We stopped to get gas and both Dave and Josh got out and went into the gas station.
By now I am feeling very uncomfortable and Josh returned with snacks and a drink (for himself). I questioned him about his involvement with the company and his experience and he was very hesitant as though he wasnt exactly comfortable with his involvement - he stuffed his mouth with candy - as if to give him time to come up with an answer, and he said it was training he had not received in college and this was something he was doing until he found the job he wanted.
I forgot to mention - everyone involved in this as well as the candidates, appear to be in their mid to late 20's. I was surprised because I am in my late 40's and did not seem to fit in with this group, however, since the Job Posting was for management, I thought I would give it a try.
Dave explained the purpose of these management positions was to train you to start up your own branch of the business somewhere on the East Coast. When I asked Dave about how long Elite Marketing had been in business he said that they were 5 months old, but they are a part of a larger company that had been in business over 26 years. When I asked the name of the parent company he never answered. I asked how long he had been with Elite Marketing he said 4 months and after he finished his training, he would be opening up his own business in Roanoke, VA. He told me that once you started your own business you could name it anything that you wanted.
When Dave returned from the Gas station, he explained that he was very sorry but he had an emergency (by the way he mentioned before we left the office that he may have to cut the interview short), and he would take me back to my car but they would give me a call to reschedule. I was very curious at this point and played along and was very relieved to return to my car and get out of there. Dave promised that they would call by the end of the day - which he did not. The whole thing seemed very staged and I think I was asking too many of the wrong questions and I suspect that Dave made a call back to Marc while he was in the gas station.
It is also interesting that when I returned home and started checking things on the web, I could not find anything on the history of Elite Marketing - At least theirs - until I kept doing google searches and found the report on the Rip off Marketing companies that were advertising on the Job search pages - which is how I got to your site.
One of the articles I read sounded like my experience. I hope that the three young people that were there realized what was going on - It made me very uncomfortable and had been bothering me for the past few days. I was tempted to call them and confront them until I came across your web site and chose to try this way instead.
I hope you get these guys because they are attracting kids right out of college. Having a daughter in her third year of college makes it very important to me to get rid of these types of companies! They are really targeting College Grads and parents pay too much money to send their children to college and companies like this causes them to be students of "Enron Managment" that destroys lives!
By the way, the number that I gave you for Elite Marketing is the number that appears on their web site this week. The number when they called me last week was 410-710-7878 and I spoke with "Shauna" - I am not sure it is her real name because when I called on Monday before my interview, I asked for Shauna and she seemed kind of hesitant and said "oh - that would be me".
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