I recently applied for a job at a company calledEntertainment Advertising in Livonia, MI. The job posting which was oncareerbuilder.com seemed legit and very interesting. They tried to lurepeople in by saying stuff like no experience neccessary, you would be involvedwith sports advertising and marketing of professional teams in the area, country clubs, basically anything that someone right out of college would findinteresting.
Then they bring you in to their office for an interview which they try toschedule that same day or the next day. The office is run down but theexcuse is that they just moved there and opened that office. I waited inthe "waiting room" or whatever you would call it for the owner tocome out. His name is Brad Rice. He seemed like a good guy and gavea description of the company similar to the job post which got me even moreexcited. Then they asked me back for a second interview/job shadow thenext day and asked me to clear my schedule for the whole day from 8 - 6. I am also told that by the end of the day I will be required to make mydecision on whether or not I want to accept the position or not (pending anoffer).
At this point I am excited about everything and when I get home and am askedwhat the job entails and I realize I couldn't fully answer. Well the reason isbecause I was never told. Brad tried to tell me as much as he couldwithout telling me exactly what I personally would have to do. All I knewwas that everyone starts out doing the exact same thing.
The next day comes and I wake up still excited and put on my nice Ralph Laurensuit and my nice dress shoes and go in for what I figured to be a day in theoffice learning about the operations of the company. When I arrive I am askedto fill and sign a piece of paper that had a few paragraphs on it about how Iam not an employee and what not, which was probably a hidden waiver and thenwaited about 20 minutes. Finally the leader that is going to be"showing me around" comes out and introduces himself with Brad andthey send us out the door. Keep in mind I still do not know what is goingon. I find out that we are going to be traveling to businesses to talk tothem about our product. I figure we are going to scheduled appointmentsat offices, man was I wrong.
The next 8 hours of my life were complete hell. I get in the car and findout we are selling pistons tickets door to door in the ghetto of outsideDetroit. I also find out that this job pays 100% commission, they don'tpay for your gas, and they do not have any benefits. At this point I amstuck in the car driving farther and farther from where my car was. Needless to say it was 9 am and I was already furious. We arrive and parkin the middle of no where and start walking down the street in my niceclothes. We walked over 6 miles total that day and went into every singlebusiness that we came across unannounced.
We went in gas stations, strip clubs, diners, restaurants, fast foodrestaurants, grocery stores, dentists, optometrists, mechanics, anything youcan think of literally we went to between the hours of 9 and 6. I debatedhaving someone come and pick me up but out of principle I decided to stickthrough the day and just be a man. When the day was over we drove back tothe office where I met with Brad again.
I find out that my leader had given me a good recommendation (bigsurprise... Not) and that I had been offered a position. I already knew Ididn't want to take the job but didn't want to tell this guy to his face. I told him I couldn't make my decision today because I had to think about the100% commission aspect of it. Lets just say he was more than rude afterthat getting very defensive about everything. I stayed as professional asI could as I told him we should part ways here and thanked him for theopportunity. If i had it my way I would have left him laying on theground with a broken nose, but luckily I have restraint.
By the end of the day my feet were blistered, my shoes were ruined, and I wasvery unhappy. I just wanted to share this with anyone who will read itjust so they can avoid making the same mistake that I did. There aresimilar posts for a company called Boss Advertising, now known as DBadvertising out of Auburn Hills, MI. I had an interview scheduled therebut luckily never had to go after this experience. They do the exact samething as this company and have caused people just as many problems as they didmyself. Please take the time to read the posts on Boss Advertising and DBAdvertising and know that it will be the same at EntertainmentAdvertising. Hope this helps!
Joe
Livonia, MI
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