It's a New Year, and I've decided its time to tell you about my experience at one of my previous employers. I think its important for some people to know what this company really does.
I used to work for a company called N-Force Tek. It's difficult really to label it as N-Force Tek since we used different company names on daily basis such as:
C2K Technologies
N-ForceTek
N-Force Tech
Azul Tech
Firefly Tech
Firefly Technologies
N-Cube Tek
L&B Tech
LnB Tech
Turnkey Tek
Turnkey Tech
These are all essentially the same company, some may have separate corporations, but they're all working out of the same office in Culver City, with a San Mateo mailing address. All of these companies are owned by the same woman, she goes by multiple names such as:
Tina Fox
Florentina Fox
Tina Lupu
Florentina Lupu
Tina Collins
Florentina Collins
You may be asking yourself, why does someone need so many different names? I'll let you decide for yourself.
We were told by Tina that the reason we had different company names was because each company over time had created a bad name for itself with various companies so hopefully we pitched those companies with a different company name and they wouldn't pick up on the ruse. It was rare that potential client said we won't work with company XYZ for XYZ reasons, but it did happen from time to time.
The reason for this blog is to inform all potential clients and employees of the inner workings of N-Force Tek and Tina Fox's other businesses. You may have a good experience with her, you may not, but this is what you can expect, or at least what's going on behind the scene:
For potential clients:
The Tina Lupu/Fox/Collins method is this: We were instructed to go through craigslist job listings and regurgitate the ad back to the executives of said company. So if a company is looking for C developer with 8 years experience with x, Y, and Z technologies, we were told to add 3 years to the experience and email the executives saying I'm working with a C developer, with 11 years experience with X, Y, and Z Technologies, would you interested in speaking with him?
If the executive replied yes, then send them an agreement and get on Monster, HotJobs, or Careerbuilder, find some candidates, clean up their resume to look better, clean up employment dates, clean up relevant technologies, remove irrelevant technologies, and send it over. If the executive replies that he wants to see a resume first, then we were instructed by Florentina Fox/Collins/Lupu to go into our pool of old candidates and find the best possible resume for that position, it didn't matter if we talked to the candidate, or if they were breathing, we just needed the best resume possible to get the agreement in place.
Once the agreement is in place if the executive asked for that candidate, and the candidate wasn't available, we were told to reply stating the candidate isn't interested or he took another offer. Surprisingly this works, and I can imagine this has made Tina Fox/Collins/Lupu alot of money in the past. With better management and people skills she would be able to keep employees around for more than 2 weeks.
Whether or not this is good, bad, or unethical isn't for me to say, but is this worth paying 10,20, or 30 thousand dollars for? That's your call. She's tell you that she has a 10 year old database of candidates, but really, what good is a passive candidate from 7 years ago whom she can't contact?
For potential employees:
Tina Fox/collins/Lupu is one of the most ruthless employers I've ever dealt with. She's a shark who is only interested in making as much money as possible for herself. She's abrasive, judgemental, and she keeps everything very secretive. She refuses to tell anyone what their commission splits are until you've actually placed a candidate. At which time you'll find out that you've been busting your ass for 1-3 months just to get a 10% split. That's right, you take a client you found on Craigslist, and a candidate you found on Monster, put them together, and Tina Collins/Fox/Lupu keeps 90% of the money for giving you internet access. To make matters worse, you'll have to fight with her just to get paid, since she changes every single agreement she makes with you at any given time. Tina Lupu/Fox/Collins will tell you 30% with a 5% or 10% team bonus and then when payday comes she'll come up with an excuse as to why you're not getting a bonus and you're only getting 10%.
I'm still in contact with many former employees (and there are probably 100 former employees, yet last I heard there were 4 or less current employees) While I worked there i received paychecks from at least 2 different company names, and i've heard stories of paychecks bouncing do to lack of funds in the company account. Former employees have also told me that the Los Angeles County Sheriff came in and spent the day in the office looking for funds and assets to seize to collect payment on a lawsuit from a former employee. During my short time there most of the new hires quit within 2 weeks because they realized what was really going on.
I'll post more information here as it comes in!
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