Beware! This is a SCAM!!! I recently interviewed with Marketing Concepts in Gahanna, Ohio. I submitted a resume through my university's career center where they had made a posting. They made the job seem really cool, ideal for someone looking to break into the business world.
I then got an email saying I was an ideal candidate. I called in to set up the phone interview as requested to do through the email. The first red flag, I had to call them for my phone interview. As in, we set up the date and time, and they said, "Oh but we don't call you. So make sure to call into the office."
I go through the phone interview and am invited into do a job shadowing. I thought this must be a pretty extensive interview process, because they kept stressing that only if I do well in the job shadowing would I be invited to do the third round interview.
I get to the office on my scheduled day, and am surprised to see 12 other candidates sitting in the "lobby" where they had rock music blaring. One by one they call us back, where we are briefly introduced to one of their "top account representatives" who are going to take us into "the field" where we can see how their sales are done.
I meet the lady who is going to be taking me around, who is nice enough. But then we walk over to her beat-up car that we would be driving to our sales locations. When we got in the car, she got out a bunch of papers and started doing my interview.in the car. Yeah, I was a bit weirded out to be doing a formal interview in a hoopty car, but I digress.
She then tells me she is going to do some sales calls that are really fun. She kept stressing how she's taking me to a really fun sales location. While we drive, she started asking me awkward questions like - What is your most embarrassing moment? She told me the street we are looking for and told me to keep my eyes peeled for the street. I see a business that identified itself by the street name and point it out to her, however, we pull past the business (where I thought we were going) and park on the side of the road. I was obviously surprised when we began to walk in the pouring rain toward the residencies. We begin to go DOOR TO DOOR and try to sell some AT&T service to homes. So when they advertise their Fortune 500 clientele, keep in mind you will be peddling cable services to unsuspecting homes.
She then tells me shes going to take me out to eat so she can teach me more about the business. We go to McDonalds. She made me ask a ton of questions, give her a sales pitch, and then do another set of interview questions, all in the comfort of the local Micky D's. She explained that you start out as a trainee, but move out of training in 2 weeks, and start pounding the pavement door-to-door selling AT&T services. You then become a "leader" and start training others.
After your leadership role, you become an assistant manager. Then manager. Once you are a manager you get to open up your own branch anywhere you want and hire your own unsuspecting staff. Throughout the entire experience she stressed that only about 10% of the people who are brought in for second interviews get a third interview. I made a comment about wanting to go somewhere where I could utilize my degree that I've spent the last 4 years working on. She made a comment that the great thing about this job is that someone with a Bachelors could be working alongside someone with a GED - Need I say more?
I went back to the office and filled out a questionable, and sat down with a manager who was planning on opening his own office soon. I answered a couple quick questions and he told me he'd give me a call if I made it to the third round of interviews.
I was surprised to get a call about two hours later saying they wanted to offer me a job. I questioned whether I needed to do another interview, and he just kind of laughed and said, "Oh no." I told him I would need to think it over.
I called my parents who heard about it and said, "It sounds like a pyramid scheme to me..." I agreed. So I called the guy back and began to ask about pay and benefits, etc. He seemed jarred by my questioning these things. He said that employees make $500 a week plus commission. I asked what the commission rate was, and he said vaguely that they don't have a set rate it's based on merit. What does that even mean?
I called the next day and declined the offer. They seemed really confused when I said I wasn't interested.
Don't fall for their scheme! It's door-to-door sales! It's companies like this that give salespeople bad reputations!
0 comments