I recently responded to an add in the Cleveland "Plain Dealer", to be a Talent Scout. The job, described as an energetic position for someone who wanted to make their own schedule, sounded great. After leaving 2 messages, a girl named Jewels called me back. (Later I would find out her real name was Mellisa May Pierre.)
I was told to arrive on Tues at 10am. The interview/training would last about 6 hours. Then it would continue for every day that week. (I later found out that this goes on every week.)
Ok. Day one. I walk into the warehouse in convert to an office building. There are about 30 other people all dressed in professional attire, waiting to find out about this wonderful job. Everyone is greeted by the Scout/Office Director "Jewels", real name Mellisa Pierre.
Now considering this a talent/model scouting business you would expect to be working with well dressed professional looking people. This was the not the case. "Jewels", walks up to the front of the room; with grown out half blond half red hair, with 2 inches of black regrowth at her roots, a pair of ratty pinstriped pants a tank top that looked like it had been through the wash a million times and a holey pair of socks stuck into a pair of beat up backless slides. Now, no one says that everyone has to have fashion sense, but the fact that this main player for the company looked so incredibly bad made me uneasy.
Blah Blah Blah for about 3 hours, she explains the company and how it works with switching from paper comp cards to digital cards. There are about a million questions about pay that she says she will save for after our lunch break. After our lunch break, half the people return. She explains the pay and says that none of us will get paid until after we bring in 25 enrollees. However there is some small promise of comission off of people we enroll until we hit 25. She says that it usually takes three weeks to get that level, however we could probably make it in a week. Which would make us salaried at $600 a week.
At the end of the day, she pulls the remaining 15 of us into her office individually. Where we can discuss our options with the company. I walk in she doesnt look at my resume and says "Great I'll see you tomorrow".
I decide to go back the next day. Mostly because I am intrigued with the fact that this is turning into a scam. When I arrive at the building, there are only 2 other people sitting with "Jewels". No one else has returned. She seems completely undaunted by this.
We meet with the franchise owner. His name is "Sam". He doesnt make any sense, talks to fast, and boasts his ego all over the table about his sports this and that and blah blah blah. He says the reason they need more scouts is that all of the old scouts were supposedly promoted to other offices. The scouts that he names in his stories all have ridiculous (obviously made up) names. For example Francoise, Isabellinia, Marco. Sorry you're not going to find three people in Cleveland all working together with such names.
Ok, so now we are supposed to go out together to Tower City Shopping Mall to scout individuals. We are given cards to hand out to qualified talent (the cards have a fictious name on them "Chauncey Oakley" which stands for Cleveland Office) and tell them they have great bone and body structure. We are to inform them that they need to be at an open call this thursday at 7:00. These open calls happen every Thursday at 7:00pm and every Saturday at 1:00pm. However we are to inform them that this is the only one to attend.
Instead of taking one car, I tell the other 2 individuals that I am going to drive alone.instead to scouting I go home. Then later that night I scout 30 people. I finish at midnight. Lying to people about how they can be a model is exhausting. I leave a card on the table for my roommate to bring to the open call. I tell her to pretend like she doesnt know me, and to be there at 7pm.
I arrive at the building as scheduled two hours before the open call. "Jewels", tells us to sweep the floor, clean the bathroom, and basically clean the whole building before our scouted talent arrives. Uh, yeah right. I wasnt getting paid yet so I wasnt cleaning anything. The other two dumb scouts scurried around and did everything. Fools.
7:00 arrives. Out of 30 people 3 of my scouted people show up.including my friend. "Jewels" has me in the office with her learning to be a Talent Exec. (the one who actually talks the people into wasting their money on this). She sees my friend and says "oh god. What the hell is she doing here? Oh well I'll just tell her she can be a plus sized actress. A thousand dollars is a thousand dollars". I was shocked and not shocked at the same time.
Later the presentation. The wannabee models all listen to high energy dance music before watching a video on the modeling industry. Then they have exit interviews with "Jewels" and I; about how great thier bone structure is and where we can use them in the industry. Its such $hit. They are all told that they will either be rescheduled for a meeting with us. Or that corporate with call them.
After the open call was over "Jewels" wanted us to go scouting with her. She wanted us all to ride together. I wasnt up for it. I had scouted and been at training for 12 hours the previous day. I didnt have more than 3 people show up. It seemed like this design your own schedule job was a giant rip off and a waste of time. I told "Jewels" i was going to put some stuff in my car. I went to my car and left.
If you see an add in the The Plain Dealer, Scene Mag., or on Monster.com for Talent Scout ignore it.
These are some key points of my experience
-associates are using fake names "Jewels, Sam"
- Jewels real name is Mellisa May Pierre
- Mellisa claims to have modeled for Wilhelmina when she was 12, which is hard to believe. She has none of the designated qualities. Except looking anorexic.
-Cleveland branch claims all the old scouts have been promoted to an out of state office.
-they talk about the pine sol lady in the opening orientation.
-they make you sign a contract without you knowing how your job will work.
-you may be asked to do other work for free. Ex. Filing, phone calls, cleaning etc.
-they claim to have "just" moved into 5200 prospect street. That is why it is a mess.
Hopefully someone in cleveland will read this and report it to the local news. I am in the process.
Nicole
cleveland, Ohio
U.S.A.
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