I went to an interview at atlantic consulting last week. It seemed like a legit company. It was in an office building near woodfield mall. The first strange thing I noticed was that the receptionist in the office never said the company's name when she answered the phone. After filling out a short questionnaire I was greeted by an employee of atlantic consulting. (I later found out he was the President of atlantic consulting and behind this whole scam). The interview was 10 - 15 minutes long.
He asked me normal questions that you would expect to hear in a first interview. The whole time while I was talking he was writing on the back of my resume. I guess he was writing down key things that stuck out to him. When I was finished talking he wrote the number 5 in the top left corner and circled it. I thought it was very unprofessional to be writing the entire time I was talking. And also very distracting. If this was a legit interview I would think that the person interviewing me would be intelligent enough to remember what I said after I left.
After the interview he told me that I would receive a call later that day if they decided I was a good fit. I got the call a couple hours later and they said I was chosen to come back for a second interview. They sent me an email that said:
"On behalf of Atlantic Consulting, it was a pleasure meeting you. Congratulations again on your interview, we look forward to seeing you again. As we mentioned previously, your second interview will be much more interactive than the previous, so please plan ahead for a full day's time commitment. As you will be shadowing one of our representatives to experience "A day in the life of", attire is business professional and please be sure to wear comfortable shoes.
As a reminder, please bring a copy of your resume, and I would recommend a notebook to take some notes. Once again, Congratulations on being selected for a second round interview."
I had a weird feeling about this company and the guy that interviewed me so I did some research. I found out that atlantic consulting use to be called Vigor Concepts or at least they have the same owner. You can see for yourself if you go to godaddy.com and use the WhoIS domain search. Type in "atlanticconsulting.org" and you will see that the owner of this website has a "@vigorconcepts.com" email.
So I researched Vigor Concepts and I found a lot of blogs about how this company is a scam. They invite everyone back for a second interview and on this second interview they trick you into doing DOOR TO DOOR SALES. (that's why they tell you to wear comfortable shoes). They say you're going to experience "a day in the life of" but they trick you into working for free.
I read a lot of blogs that talked about the second interview. These blogs say that they take you in their car to go "meet with the clients." But really they take you to some random neighborhood and do door to door sales. You can't leave because they drove you miles away from the office building so you have to spend the entire day walking around trying to sell their coupons. And since it's an interview they don't have to pay you!
Don't interview with this company! I never went to the second interview but after doing my research I knew that this company was not a legit marketing firm. Do your research before interviewing for a job! Also, a lot of these companies post their jobs on CareerBuilder and Monster. Be careful when applying for jobs!
0 comments