IPG and Associates have been advertising job openings on careerbuilder.com for the Greenville, South Carolina region. The ad reads, "Entry level sports marketing to management, " "Base Pay: $33,000 - $36,000/year" and "IPG is a promotional advertising firm geared towards increasing revenue for our powerhouse clients..."
Well, in my interview with IPG and Associates I came to get a better understanding of what exactly they meant by "promotional advertising" and "powerhouse clients" this actually means that if you get hired you will be selling coupons door to door in residential neighborhoods (this would be the promotional advertising they're talking about) and the "powerhouse" clients you are doing this for, "Pizza Hut." No kidding.
To be total honest my husband found an article about IPG and Associates on this website (usacomplaints.com) after they had called me for an interview. A young lady divulged in her worst nightmare coming true. Her 2nd interview with IPG and Associates was her being dropped off in an unsafe neighborhood in Atlanta and doing door to door sales for 9 hours.
Let's just say I went into my interview with IPG and Associates armed with the knowledge of the lady from Atlanta who experienced a day in hell on her 2nd interview with IPG and Associates.
My interview started off with a "questionnaire, " as they referred to it. Really it was just asking for my general contact information and previous work experience. I did however, find it odd that they were asking for my Social Security Number. This was after all, my first interview with them. Why on earth would they need to do a background check after the first interview? I was especially concerned about giving them my Social Security Number since he (my interviewer) was so open about the fact that there would be a second interview.
Ah, the beloved second interview he so politely mentioned but made a point not to go into detail about. I stopped his ramble about the company and hiring process and started asking questions about the second interview. He said that I would be shadowing someone from 11-8 (what a coincidence that is exactly what the other lady wrote in her article). I asked if we would be in the office or out in the field. He told me we would spend some of the day in the office and the rest in the field. My next question was, "give me an example of a typical day in the field." This my friends is when he went into the Pizza Hut example.
"Essentially, you will be in a neighborhood knocking on doors asking people if they eat a lot of pizza and whether or not they might be interested in buying some coupons for X amount to save them X amount on their future purchases."
My second question (out of pure curiosity at this point) was, "so this person you hire would start off with a base pay somewhere between $33,000-$36,000 per year for going door to door?" His reply, "No, actually the person we hire will not have a base salary, just commission." "But, we set you up for success."
They will also tell you that in 6-8 months you could be promoted into an assistant manager position and that it is really easy to move up.
Wow, I am so glad I went to college so a company like IPG and Associates could recognize my strong work ethic, intelligence and education. Unfortunately for them those three things were what prepared me for being wise enough to know that this company was indeed a sham.
I told the interviewer that there was no need for us to continue because I knew that this was not what I wanted to do. I wish that at that point I had the courage to tell him that their advertisement for the position was false, misleading and that I was angry for wasting my time.
Why is it that a college degree is no longer respected? Does IPG and Associates think that college graduates are really that dumb?
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