I'm a recent business school grad looking for a job in the Metro Detroit area. I see an ad on CareerBuilder for a company called "Boss Advertising Group" in Auburn Hills. They mentioned a management training program, so I picked up the phone and called for more information. I spoke with someone and they scheduled a time for me to come in and interview.
So the next day I go to their office in Auburn Hills. One of the managers takes me into his office, asks me the basic interview questions, and then invites me to come back the next day for a "day-long interview" where I will get to spend the day with one of the company's best sales reps (you have to start out as a rep and then they will put you in the management program later) and get a hands-on feel for what the job is like. So I agreed, and he told me to be there at 11:30 the following day.
I show up the next day at 11:30, and I find out that this stellar sales rep I'm spending the day with is a 20-year-old kid (I'm 24 myself) who hasn't even finished college yet. I was getting a bad feeling at this point, and it only got worse from there. Me and Mr. Super Rep go out to the parking lot and get in a car with another recently-hired employee (also not a college graduate), and start driving. They explain to me that the entry-level sales and marketing position involves driving out to neighborhoods in the metro area and going door-to-door trying to sell people coupon booklets.
Yeah, coupon booklets.
There is NO HOURLY WAGE, there is NO SALARY, and there are NO BENEFITS. The only way you make money off of this is by selling the coupon books. The books sell for $30, and you keep $15 from every sale.
Now, if you're good at talking people into buying stuff, then maybe this is your dream job. The point I want to stress here though, is that this is NOT the legit professional job that they make it out to be. You don't need a college education to go door-to-door and "politely harass" people into buying a coupon booklet. If I wanted to do that, I would have started years ago instead of wasting my time and money on getting a business degree.
The real sham about this type of business is that the company "Boss Advertising" really doesn't exist in any form other than a name. Every "employee" is considered an independent contractor (hence no compensation or benefits of any kind other than a cut of your sales). This type of business model is referred to as "multi-level marketing, " and it completely absolves the company of any legal responsibilities.in other words, if you screw something up and it somehow results in a lawsuit, that lawsuit GOES ON YOU AND NO ONE ELSE!
This type of setup also allows the managers to be completely devoid of any responsibility concerning your training and development as an employee, and ultimately of your success with the company. They will tell you things like "your success here is completely dependent on how hard you work." There are two big problems with that:
1.) It's not exactly true. Yes, if you push more coupon books than someone else on a given day then you will make more money, but what happens if you end up in a neighborhood that's already been hit up by solicitors several times that week? What if you have the greatest sales pitch in the world but still don't manage to sell any books? In that situation, you're actually going to be in the red as far as income goes, because not only did you not sell anything, but you've also spent money putting gas in your car to get to the neighborhood in the first place.
2.) If you do end up failing (and most of the people who take these kinds of jobs do), your failure is going to be billed as completely your fault. The managers really have no responsibility to help you succeed because you're an independent contractor, not an official employee of theirs. They don't care if you succeed or not; if you can't sell the coupon books they can find ten other suckers through Monster and CareerBuilder to send out in your place.
The "management training program" that was high-lighted on their ad is a sham also. Here's how it works: Every employee is technically in the management training program. Once you get to the point where you're consistently selling 50 coupon books a week, they make you an "assistant assistant assistant manager" (I can't remember what the first level is actually called, but it's just a title that means nothing). After that, you keep moving up through these various levels according to how much product you're pushing every week.
The point I'm trying to make is that their "management training program" really provides no managerial training whatsoever, it's just a title system based on how much you sell. At a certain point they do let you assemble a team of new hires that you have to train (despite the fact that you really aren't qualified to be training anyone), and then they base your managerial titles off of how much your team sells.
Eventually, if your team sells so much there is the possibility that they will let you open your own office of independent contractors. Only like 7% of people who start out as sales reps actually reach that point however, so this means that more than 90% of people who take this job will either stay as sales reps (with a variable weekly income and no benefits) or will fail and quit the job.
Basically what I'm saying is the odds that you will actually succeed at this job (despite what they will tell you about working hard = success) are EXTREMELY LOW. This is NOT a legit sales job for somebody who went to college, so don't let them sucker you into it.
I think that's half the problem here honestly; they present this job as a very professional opportunity when in reality it's not. Because of the presentation however, I think it really appeals to young people who either dropped out of college, or never went at all, because it seems like a professional business career without the "requires a bachelor's degree" caveat.
Also, let me say this. If you do happen to make it to the point where you are managing an office, the majority of your salary is going to come from "residuals." Residuals are a cut of the sales that the people under you are making. If you make it to a point where you're managing a team of contractors, a majority of your time is going to be spent trying to sucker people into singing on with the company, because you depend on them to sell the products, and because most of them will fail, you need a steady stream of new employees to replace them.
This is just another example of how the company is NOT professional at all. Legitimate companies put their HR resources towards attracting and retaining a core group of talented employees, not on getting as many suckers as they can through the doors and out into the field because they know that 95% of them are going to fail.
Here's one final example of how unprofessional this place was. After I wasted my entire day walking around on dirt roads in my dress clothes and shoes, we went back to the office where I had a short interview with one of the head managers. The guy wasn't much older than me, and had no college education. He asked me, "if we were to offer you this job, when would you be available to start?" I told him, "well assuming that I were to accept, I would certainly want to give my current employer two week's notice."
At every job I've ever had, I've always given two weeks notice before leaving, and it was always very much appreciated by the company I was leaving, and strongly encouraged by the company I was signing on with.
But no, not Boss Advertising! This guy was put off by the fact that I wanted to give my current employer two week's notice! It was like he couldn't understand why someone would want to do that! If you can't understand the professional courtesy of offering an employer two week's notice, then you aren't very professional yourself...
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to provide several examples so hopefully anyone who reads this will be able to recognize these kinds of employers and not fall into the Multi-Level Marketing scam. It really is a crap shoot and I hope none of you waste any of your time on it.
If you have any questions please feel free to leave a rebuttal. I'll answer or elaborate on anything that I can.
Thanks for reading!
Ben
Brutalben83
Oxford, Michigan
U.S.A.
0 comments