The Capital Group, Inc. And Chris Colaluca
Misleading job postings, interview procedures, and deceptive job prospecting

Recently, I contacted The Capital Group, Inc. Regarding job openings for account representatives posted on such job websites as craigslist.org, Monster.com, careerbuilder.com, et cetera.

First of all, the absolute saturation of the job-seekers marketplace with postings (one literally every weekday on craigslist) tipped me off that I ought to be very wary of this company and its dealings. The gimmicky, unprofessional capitalization and usage of punctuation is a dead giveaway: something is very wrong at "The Capital Group, Inc."

A little bit more about the details of these postings: the salary ranges fluctuate wildly on their postings. For the same "entry-level" positions, I saw salary ranges of $26,000-$42,000 in the span of three weeks. These ranges are qualified with the inevitable "DOE", leading one to believe that someone with more than the "NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!!!" work history could make more money.

After seeing this, I decided to investigate further, though I had no intention of ever working there: I submitted my resume for review. At approximately 11:30 PM that night, I was contacted by a person named Kristal Rodriguez, an individual claiming to work at The Capital Group. A simple investigation into the root of her email address - "@ccaea.com" - led me to www.ccaea.com. The company is CCA Enterprise & Associates, a recruiting company.

As an aside, this company's website includes horrendously simplified generalizations across the board. Click on "Clients", and you'll find zero actual company names listed. Click on "Testimonials" and you'll find "Coming soon..." So, this likely means that one of two things are true: (a) they haven't the manpower to staff the business properly and keep their site up to date, or (b) they haven't had a single user who was happy with what CCAEA did for them.

Sound promising? Keep reading.

Back to our friend Kristal: an obvious employee of CCAEA, she responded to my inquiry with the following:

"We appreciate your interest in a career with The Capital Group Inc! We have just acquired two new clients in the home improvement field. After reviewing the resume that you recently submitted to us online, we feel that you could be a potential fit for either our account representative position, or management training. These are entry level, full time positions.

The managers would like to sit down with you in person for a one on one interview to discuss these openings in further detail, as well as which position would be the best fit for you.

Please give me a call as soon as possible to set up an interview.

We do need to fill these positions immediately, and I can be reached at 1-888-823-0232.

Congratulations again for being selected in our initial screening. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks and have a great day!

Kristal Rodriguez
The Capital Group Inc

1-888-823-0232"

*NOTE: Email was edited only to remove my name from public view.

Wow! They sure did their initial screening quickly. After all, I responded to a posting that was created that morning. This tipped me off that their screening process was really thorough. Wink.

You'll notice Kristal signed her name as an employee of The Capital Group. Perhaps this is one of CCAEA's policies. Well imagine my surprise when I found a rip off report created regarding CCAEA.

Deciding to take it one step further, I called to schedule an interview. I asked for any availability during the following week, and was told that Kristal only had "the manager's" schedule for today and tomorrow. Why the insistence on getting this done so quickly, and why the reluctance to give me any name of any person at the organization? Clearly, the Capital Group had something to hide.

I scheduled an interview and was linked to the website. If you haven't been convinced by this report thus far, just wait until you see this: www.thecapitalgrp.com.

You may not be immediately taken aback. Go ahead and read the mission statement. "Our vision is of a group of people so committed to a common set of values and beliefs, that in order to succeed they are willing to change everything about themselves except for those values and beliefs." Interestingly enough, Adolf Hitler had a similar belief for the superiority of the Aryan nation. Later, the company states that "it is about truth and the use of truth in business". I literally laughed out loud when I read this, considering the web of lies I had been navigating through over the past 24 hours. The rest of it is equally inane, nonsensical brainwashing language turned corporate.

For all its faults, the website definitely serves to impress you when you read its list of clients. I mean, anyone with the "Washington Capitols" in their portfolio is a big deal, right? Take another look at that: the word is "Capitals", not "Capitols". I'm really convinced that they represent them at this point.in fact, I'm so convinced that I'm in the midst of speaking with the management of the Washington Capitals to find out if they're actually represented by this company or if this company is fraudulently claiming to be partnered with the Caps. I'll update then when I know more.

By the way, I did go in for an interview. I walked into the office and found music blaring, two random girls at a front desk (one of whom appeared to be in training - either a ruse or a poor sucker), and an office in disrepair. The entire building looked like a hub for pyramid-scheming low-lifes. I proceeded to fill out an application, which was handed to me in mechanistic fashion by one of the girls at the desk, who had clearly done this too many times. When I had finished, I handed it to the receptionist, who walked into an office with that and a copy of my resume. She spoke in low tones for a while, too low for me to hear, to a man in the office. The radio was there for a reason.

Finally, Chris Colaluca emerged. He is exactly as described by other complaint filers: fat, unprofessional on so many levels, dressed far more cheaply than an owner of any reputable company would ever be. Think Bill Gates dresses down? Those sweaters and khakis cost more than most of us make in a day, I promise you that.

Back to Chris Colaluca: I'd love to resort to name-calling here, but I won't. We met for literally five minutes. The questions he asked about my resume were completely and utterly ridiculous. "Did you ever play college sports?" What? No. And what the hell does that have to do with anything? You don't have any college sports teams in your portfolio. "Willing to travel?" Yes, just far enough to get home and away from you. He shows me a map of the world, with pushpins scattered across the country and Europe. The Capital Group is expanding, he says. Fifteen new offices in the next six months. We will need quality people to run them. No further details are given. I know that this is on purpose.

Now, it is my mission to contact each and every property listed on The Capital Group's website to find out if any of these organizations actually deal with the Capital Group. If so, I will inform them of their grossly deceptive hiring practices, link them to reports made by other honest individuals such as myself, and urge them to consider using another group or handling efforts in-house.

If anyone has any further information regarding Chris Colaluca aside from what has already been posted, please post it here. Additionally, if you know more about the Capital Group from a similar experience, or from work experience (I feel for you), then please speak up. I received his business card and will attempt to gain more information as actively as possible.

Justice Will Be Served
Baltimore, Maryland
U.S.A.

Company: The Capital Group, Inc. And Chris Colaluca
Country: USA
State: Maryland
City: Bethesda
Address: 5272 River Road, Suite 530
Phone: 3019861034

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