I had my resume posted on careerbuilder and received a call one day from Alliant Promotionz aka Boru Enterprises Inc stating that they saw my resume and would like me to come to a preliminary interview. Not knowing too much about this company other than the name, I jumped on the internet and researched. The company allegedly did a lot of event based marketing and sponsored many prestigious and successful companies. I was desperate for a job and wasn't having any luck through careerbuilder so I made an appointment.
I found the office and on the door read, "the marketing group". I walked in to notice about seven other people all there to interview. I filled out paper work, made some friendly conversation and was sent in to interview. Mike, who was supposedly the president of the company was very laid back, nice, and was excited about describing the job to me. I was told that it was event marketing based, and if you love people you will love this job because you can interact with them with no pressure what so ever to sell anything. I was told that you go out with a team to live events and you market to people. Mike had painted this appealing image in my mind. I envisioned exactly what he was describing:
A fun atmosphere, live events, interacting with people, doing live product demonstrations, having a blast, and making new friends. The main thing that I was drawn to was the no pressure to sell factor. I am persuasive but I DO NOT like being pushy, so I was extremely excited when I was offered a second interview to go on site the following morning from 7am-3:30pm. It was then revealed to me that Mike does up to 75 interviews a day. I was proud of myself for being one of the few who made the cut to the second interview and assumed that the reason they were so picky was because the job paid extremely well and was looking for the right people.
The following morning, I showed up to the office along with a handful of other people. Mike, cheerful and upbeat assured us that we were going to have a great time and to be prepared to do so. I immediately met my fellow 2nd interviewers and in about twenty minutes we all piled in vehicles and were on our way to our "event". As we were driving, Mike explained that today we will be promoting FW1, a car cleaning product. He explained that we will be showing off the product to people and having fun while doing it.
We arrive to our destination. 51st Ave and Peoria, at the Chevron GAS station. We unload the cars with all the tables, bottles of car wax, towels and other nonsense. Later I was introduced to my "trainer", this twenty year old young girl with a fowl mouth and very unprofessional demeanor. Still, I kept up my positive "student mentality" and attempted to reassure myself that this job will be JUST like I had initially expected. During that horrible day, I was trained to walk up to people while they were pumping their gas and demonstrate the effectiveness of the FW1 Car Wax product. We were even taught the "Law of Averages", stating that even in the worst case scenario 1 out of 10 people will buy. I nervously and awkwardly approached about 40 people myself and only sold ONE bottle. I was embarrassed but didn't want to give up. Luckily, I had made a friend who was also there "interviewing" and having her there made the entire scenario far less painful.
To make this horrid story short, I was at that gas station in the 110 degree heat for seven hours and found out many awful truths. 1. There was no base pay 2. There was no pressure to sell BECAUSE you only earn commission. 3. The advancement opportunity to get beyond the entry level shenanigans could take up to eight months. 4. The work attire was black pants, black shoes, and a thick polo shirt. 5. I had wasted my day and was completely mislead.
I must admit, I could have went home, and there was no pressure for me to stay at the event all day. I even went back to the office and went through my 3rd interview where I was offered the job and told to come back the next morning, Saturday, at 6am. Were told that it would only last from 7am-3:30 so my boyfriend patiently waited in his car for me until 6pm, when we REALISTICALLY were let out.
Awful awful awful. Needless to say, although I was desperate for money I did not show the next day. No one should have to work like that. I would rather work at a greasy fast food place. There at least I would get a hourly pay and not be avoided like the plague.
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