Where to start... I found this "company" on good ol' Careerbuilder.com (which has been infected by many "companies" of this kind). The description said something like "ENTRY LEVEL MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY", which to any college grad looks appealing; so I sent in a resume and hoped for a call. I received an e-mail from the company at 5:30A.M. Confirming that they had received my resume and I should call Nancy about an interview. I proceeded to call Nancy. When the company answered the phone, I asked for Nancy, they acted like they had never heard of her and said "Is this about an interview?" I said it was, so she promptly set me up an interview for the next day at noon. The whole phone call was very jumbled and incoherent... I later found out why.
When I got there the next day for my interview, I walked into an "office" with the radio literally BLARING "Three Days Grace's I Hate Everything About You" (which would explain why the phone call was so jumbled and hard to understand. I walked into a room with a receptionist desperately trying to fight aging, who handed me a 1 page paper that I had to complete. The questions were very "sophisticated", such as "Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 on your 'people skill'", very classy... There were also about 10-15 other applicants filling out the same sheet I was.
One by one we were called in individually to do an interview, that consisted of "why do you think you'd be good" and "how much of a people person are you" and my favorite "are you looking for a job or a career". After the interview, they said "well, if we would like you back for a second interview, we will give you a call tonight". To me that sounded a bit fast, but I wasn't going to complain. They never really said what they did... That came later.
That night I get a call and they told me that I had beat out SEVERAL candidates for a possible career. They told me to come back the next day for a observational day in which I would go out with a rep to an "EVENT" (I stress the word event). They told me to clear the day, so I did and returned the next day, after buying $80 worth of new clothes, because I was supposed to, again, dress professional.
Well, apparently several other people had beat out SEVERAL other candidates as well. I arrive at 9:30 the next day to another room full of people, the same people as the first day. I eventually get invited back into Brian's office (the guy who originally interviewed me), he told me I was going out with one of their top reps to an "event" to promote D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) I thought everything was going good. (I did find it odd however that I was not supposed to ask the rep ANYTHING about salary or benefits).
The rep seemed pretty legit, we talked on our way to the "event" about sports and many other things. On the way to the "event" I was thinking along the lines of pre-game at the Twins or something where we would be promoting D.A.R.E., Oh, no... We get to a grocery store in Fairfield and set up a 5 foot table and stand there all day trying to sell D.A.R.E. Coloring books, T-shirts, and sticker books. The rep suddenly turned into a VERY pushy salesman, even prompting one potential customer to call him a "smart-a*", which I agree with. Not to mention, the whole time, the rep had a huge dip of chewing tobacco in his lip (while, we're promoting D.A.R. E-makes sense right?) We stood there from about 10A.M. To 6:30P.M.in the hot parking lot and sold like 20 things... Which apparently is a 'good day'. All I got was a wasted day and a heck of a sunburn.
To all of you potential job seekers... Please avoid this "company", it is the biggest letdown since Wall Drug. I wish this experience onto nobody. If you like to be a pushy salesman who stands infront of grocery stores, Wal-Marts, Sam's Clubs, and other retail stores and try to sell things people aren't interested in buying, please, by all means apply. But, for all you normal people out there-please, please reconsider—you can all do better.
Mike
Clarkfield, Minnesota
U.S.A.
0 comments