I went in for an interview in early July after reading a rather compelling ad in the newspaper..."no sales involved", "management trainees" were just two of the phrases used. I called the number listed and was told that the hours were Monday through Friday, 8-6, and optional Saturdays. Sounds good, right?
So I drove 25 minutes and sat in the lobby for about five minutes, before being shown in. Seated at the desk was an attractive young guy who introduced himself as Dave Levin, manager of Image Imports, Inc. He looked over my application (which requested no really personal information, just name/age/address/and hobbies) and after a five minute perusal and a question or two invited me back the next day for a "9-5 interview." I was told it was to show me what the business was all about and then to go from there as to whether it'd be mutually beneficial to proceed.
This 'interview' consisted of spending all day with two people I'd never met before, and walking all around a town (in my case it was North Reading MA) trying to sell toys to people. Kids laptops and squirtguns, to be specific. Oh, and don't forget the massive remote control cars. Add to that that it was raining, I was wearing cute shoes (because I'd had no idea I was going to be walking all day), and it was pretty miserable. But I was told nothing remotely negative - just that the opportunity was fabulous, advancement was rapid and the possibilities were endless. I was told that not everyone I'd seen out in the waiting area was going to be hired, just the "good eggs" with "the most positive attitudes". I had been a cheerleader. So I took the bait.
I get told to be at the office the next day by 7:15. Not exactly the 8am I was told, but okay. I walk in and there are about fifteen people, including the two girls I'd been with the day before, milling around talking (it looked like talking anyway - what they were really doing was getting their salespitch down so they could properly confuse people into buying their products). This girl walks over to me with her hand raised, high-five-style and introduces herself. A couple other people follow suit and then Dave Levin walks in and says "Hey guys?" EVERYONE responds, "Hey what?!" And this happens all the time. Creepy, but if it gets ya pumped...
You spend time in there and it gets to be routine. It's not Monday through Friday, 8-6, but Monday through Saturday, 6:30am-7:30pm. They lead you to believe that it's towards a greater goal though, so it's okay. Your "leader" is the person you went out with on your "Day of O", which means Day of Observation, when they see if you're naive enough to believe the pile of crap they throw at you. You go down to the Woburn office pretty much every Saturday and spend time, gas money, and energy down there doing the "Saturday Cruise" that was "invite only." Which really means, they want you to think you're special for begging to spend your Saturday hawking the same crap products you've been hawking all week.
Over the past three days, I made MAYBE $120, before gas which was $35. We have a website with a picture of a manager, but not our manager. I have no idea who it is. We weren't allowed to talk to people we saw waiting in the office, not even a hello, nor were we allowed to take the demos of our products out through the front lobby.
This is not to say that there aren't good people involved in this. I went on a road trip to another office, and it was full of absolutely amazing people that I grew rather attached to in the brief time I spent there. This is in no way a slam to the seperate leaders in the offices I visited, this is just a desperate attempt to alert them to the risk involved here. This entire business is built on lies - I found testimonials from people who say they were told to lie about having families, about how much they made, and about how much you can make in what's commonly referred to as "the business"... It's scary stuff. I just want people to know the truth.
Tara
Manchester, New Hampshire
U.S.A.
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