Axis Advertising has been known as many different names, Hyphire, Landers group, Pinnacle solutions to name a few.
I was drawn to this company from jobbing.com, it said in the ad that:
Our Management Training Program is recognized as one of the best in the advertising industry! Imagine representing the best clients and receiving FULL PAID TRAINING to jump start your career!
I should have known this was too good to be true the ad went on to say:
Receive world-class training with pay
Excellent pay structure / earn bonuses and incentive travel
Apply a proven business model
Represent an amazing portfolio of clients
Now this company is legit and they do I'm sure make money but their deceptive hiring process makes me skeptical that I would be making money right off the bat.
Also their "training" consists of 2 hours in the class room before you go out the first day to SELL to customers.
So here's the deal they call you after you send in your resume to interview. You go in to a room full of people in a small office where people are coming in and out of 2 doors. There are tons of interviewees all shapes and sizes filling out paperwork coming in and out. The first interview takes about 5 minutes they say that they cannot hire you on paper and then get you back for another interview the next day which is 4 HOURS long!
I unfortunately thought that this was a good sign, but oh was I wrong. So the next day I came in at 12 after the "trainers" class and was taken out with one girl the "trainer" and another girl who had just gotten hired yesterday.
So I was told to drive my own car, because they would be there a full day and I only needed to be there till 4.
So we get to home depot (one of their clients which I have to say is a pretty good). The thing is though that they aren't really affiliated with the store. They go in there and try to sell cabinet resurfacing to random people in the store. They go up to someone trying to buy tools and trick them into setting up a free quote for cabinet resurfacing. The sales person never asks them if they want to they just go through the motions.
Once they talk about it they ask the customer for their area code and call some call center in Florida to see if they are doing free quotes for cabinet re-facing in that area code and if they are they get the customer on the phone to give the person on the phone their info for the free quote. One guy we went up to was like "I don't want this! Why are you bothering me?" and handed the phone back to the girl.
The trainer I was with told me that they went to everywhere in the store but the cabinet area to find people because they might not know it was an option. She made it seem like she was doing people a favor. She also said that they needed to talk to 100 people a day to get 6 sells.
After all this I started to think WAIT I did not sign up for sales I signed up for ADVERTISING!
It was all so weird. I also did not think they would want me to go around to people in home depots and pester them about getting something they didn't even come to the store to get in the first place.
She told me that each sell I would get $35 and if I could get 6 a day I would make $55,000 a year. This was working 6 days a week for 10 hours a day!
Now I am not saying this isn't impossible and that for some people this may be a great opportunity but for most of us "Entry-level graduates" we want a salary with benefits. This had no salary, no benefits until you become "Manager." And you are not even guaranteed that because it takes 4-6 months to become a manager.
And the managers make a portion of what the new people make so I'm assuming they make commission too based on how well the people below them perform.
Its basically a Pyramid Scheme. The company is hiring many people to promote to managers who can then hire their own people to make them money. So basically the girl who I went to home depot with is trying to recruit other people so that she can train them and make them work for her. I'm sure she did not think this was a scam and it sounded good but that is what they are doing. Then they go off to other cities with the people they recruited and start the process all over again because they have maxed out their resources in the other city.
So anyway after going out with the girl I was sent back to the office to take a "test." Then I was taken back into the office answered a few questions and the guys said "Welcome to our team!" and stuck out his hand to shake it. I asked if I could think about it and get back to him because I had other interviews. He said the offer was on the table now and he had a lot of other interviewee's that he was going to hire. I was really caught off guard so I shook his hand and left. Then, later on in the day I called them back saying that I would not take the offer and the lady was like "Okay, bye" that was it!
I just hope that for people who want a real career and want to do something worthwhile do not waste their time with this company. Its a shame that during this hard economic time people can try to exploit the need for a job. This company will hire just about anyone and right now people are really needy for a job. I just hope that people understand what this company entails and if you are going to get involved you know what you are getting yourself into.
I fortunately looked at this site after my second interview and found many complaints about this company. People had the exact same experience as I did and that made me understand it more. People even had the same experiences in other sates!
My advice is to keep looking and beware of companies like this one! Good luck out there it's tough but keep your head held high and realize every hard time must come to and end.
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