Recently, I submitted my resume to Stafford Business Solutions (SBS) in response to a Monster.com job listing. The listing was really vague, but I figured since I was looking for a job it would be wise to apply to everything that would be even remotely related to the field that I am most experienced in, Marketing.
I got a phone call from Stafford Business Solutions the day after submitting my resume. I was told that the President of the company had hand-picked my resume from a stack of 300 resumes and that the person calling me was instructed to contact me for an interview immediately. The person on the phone spoke quickly and not very clearly. I asked what the position was that I would be applying for, but was told that I was being considered for multiple positions and that it would be best to come in and meet with the hiring manager. Since I was looking for a job, I figured that it could not hurt to check this company out.
When I got to SBS there were a lot of other people in the lobby and from the office part, which I could not see, there was a lot of cheering and yelling. The managers of the place (the President of that particular office and the Assistant Manager) kept coming into the lobby saying hello and trying to act like we were all great friends. At one point, the President came into the lobby and said something like "Has anyone here read anything negative about SBS?" No one said that they had so the President continued by saying "Well if you did, just ignore them, this business was confused for another bad business but we aren't that business so just ignore whatever you find on the web Really, no one heard anything bad?"
After waiting for 30 minutes I was brought into the President's office for my interview. I was asked only a few questions, but still was not told anything about the position I was interviewing for except that SBS was looking for quality people that could excel to Management quickly. After my interview was completed I was told that they liked me and wanted me to come in the next day for an all day interview. I was then escorted out quickly so there would be no time for questions. Again, since I was looking for a job I decided to come back the next day with the hopes that I would get more information.
So I showed up for the second interview and found that only about four people from the day before were there. We were getting paired off and I saw these people leave. I was then taken into a small room and introduced to a man named Cory. I was told that this man would be the person who would do my all-day interview. Cory was dressed in an obviously cheap suit and a dress shirt that had ink stains on it. I was told to follow Cory so I did. Not knowing what in the world was going to happen, but assuming that we were staying in the office, I walked out of the room that I met Cory in and headed toward the main office area. I was corrected and told that we were not going into the main office. SBS is located in a business park, so I figured that the main office was maybe a smaller meet and greet type of office and that I would be led to a bigger office within the business park. However, we kept walking and walking and eventually went outside. We walked to Cory's car, which happened to be old and beat up.
I tried to find out where we were going, but was told that it would be best to keep my questions until lunch time. So I got in the car assuming that we were going to a headquarters or office in the city as I, at that point, was told that the position would be for Corporate Business to Business sales. Before starting our journey, Cory needed to stop and buy gas for is car. When we parked at the gas pump, I saw Cory take out his wallet and noticed that Cory was worried about not having money to put gas in his tank. With further inspection, Corey had only about ten dollars in his wallet and could only afford to get two gallons of gasoline in his car even though I would find out that we had a long journey ahead and saw that he was going on empty. Nonetheless, we continued onward and I figured that we would have appointments with various managers at multiple high level businesses. We kept driving and driving and eventually made it to an exit for Chester. For those of you not in Philadelphia, Chester is known as the most dangerous suburb of Philadelphia. I could not believe that I let someone lead me to Chester, Pennsylvania! Regardless, I tried to stay positive (since I was stuck there) and see what was in store for the day.
We got out of Cory's car and walked into this run-down diner. I had no idea why we were there and concluded that we were going to grab a quick cup of coffee before starting our day. Wrong. Cory and I walked in and Cory asked to speak to the person in charge of the phone bill. The owner came to us and Cory asked to see his Verizon bill. Before that, I had no idea that we were representing Verizon. Anyway, Cory told the owner that Verizon had changed its rates and were sending Account Managers to various businesses to make sure they were being charged appropriately. Cory determined that the business owner was paying too much and wanted to make changes to his Verizon account. The business owner was skeptical and said "No thank you", but Cory was persistent and kept trying to get the business owner to change his mind. I was so embarrassed and knew it was past time for us to leave and even more humiliated realizing that we were essentially bum rushing this business as we had no appointment. Walking into the next run-down business, I realized our whole day would be like this.
Eventually, lunch time came around.in my past professional experience, anytime that a lunch or dinner was required, I have only gone to nice restaurants that are at a minimum level of an Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday.in fact, for all lunches and dinners that I have been involved in while recruiting, the restaurant was always much nicer than an Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday. Not for SBS though. Nope, we went to a McDonald's and I had to pay for my own meal! This may seem like a silly point, but I believe this shows a lack of quality in a company and a lack of professionalism.
While at lunch, I made it a point to pick Cory's brain thoroughly. He told me that SBS was a subsidiary of a company called Cydcor. I was told that I would make a base salary of $20,000 a year and that for the first four weeks I would make in addition to my base salary roughly $200-400 a week in addition to my base salary, this level was entry-level. After four weeks I would go to the next level called Leadership and would make $600-800 in addition to my base salary for a period of 10-12 weeks. After that I would become an Assistant Manager and would make $10,000-$12,000 a week in addition to my base salary. I was told the Assistant Manager level would be in affect for 6-8 months. After all that, I would get my own office with my own campaign and would move to the Manager/President level. I was told at that level my base pay would be $90,000 a year plus commission. I wondered why Cory had such a crummy car, a cheap beat-up suit, and worries about paying for gasoline if he was bringing in all this money. This sounded too good to be true.
Cory also talked about the non-importance of a college education and talked about how the President discouraged him from going back to college. Now, I am not trying to imply that non-college graduates are stupid or lacking, but I do question a company that frowns upon higher education. Cory talked about spending all his time with his co-workers and how he could not talk to his friends or family anymore because they could not understand him or his job. Moreover, he gave me more insight to the noise I heard when I first came into the office. The noise is all the employees role-playing at the beginning of their day and then giving each other pep talks. He called this 'atmosphere'. He also told me about a bell ceremony that occurs at the end of each day. There supposedly are different sized bells and the level of money you made that day indicates what size bell you would ring at the end of the day. It just sounded like a lot of mumbo jumbo to me.
After lunch we went back to the door-to-door routine and eventually got to go back to the office. While going to the various businesses, Cory would tell these business owners that he worked directly for Verizon, could make all sorts of changes to their accounts, could check on complaints with the phone, etc. When we got back into the car I asked Cory if he could really do all those things he promised and he told me "no, but that he [I] does whatever it takes to get out the door". As the afternoon passed we walked to more run-down businesses where we were obviously not welcome (really, there were people yelling at us to get out of their businesses and Cory was not leaving). We did not get back until about 5:45 PM.By that time, I was exhausted, my feet hurt because no one told me that I would be walking all over Satan's backyard (I would not have worn the heels that I had chosen the night before, but would have chosen more reasonable flats if I would have known we would be walking all day), I was hungry since it had been hours since we ate, and I still did not know too much about SBS.
Once we got to the office I was handed a one page questionnaire as to why SBS should offer me a position. Cory disappeared and talked to the President about our day and his impressions of me. I was then led into the President's office where I was offered a position with SBS. The President asked me when I could start. I told her that I would like a week to consider the position. She obviously did not like this and asked me why I would need a week to consider. I had told her that every job I have had in the past the hiring manager would encourage me to take, at a minimum, a day or weekend to consider the offer. The President continued with an obviously ticked off tone and said "Okay, so let's say you take the job, when can you start?" I told her that I would like a week to tie up lose ends. She then looked at me with a grimace on her face and said "Why would you need a week?" I found it so absurd that she was asking me such a personal question that I responded by saying "What do you mean why do I need a week?" to which she said, "I just don't understand why you would need a week to start a job". Then she repeated the question. I told her that I was not sure exactly what needed to be done, but that I would like a week before starting, IF I even chose to take that position. To that, again in a crappy tone, she said "Well, why don't you just call me Tuesday and let me know what you are doing" (this was the Thursday before the Memorial Day holiday.
Still trying to be professional and polite, even though this company had obviously robbed me of a whole day, I told her I would call with my decision on Tuesday and thanked her for her time. She then insisted on having Cory walk me out of the office and out of the business park. Once outside, Cory gave me his number to call in case I had further questions.
I did not know what the heck had just happened to my whole day or why I got into a car with a complete stranger, but I did. After getting home and having time to decompress, I did research on the internet only to come across consumer complaints.com only to read various other stories similar to my experience and past Cydcor employees' experiences working at that company. If you get a call from a 'Marketing Organization' offering entry-level positions, it is probably too good to be true.
J.B.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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