I have been on the job market for the past few weeks here in Columbus, Ohio. The pickens for college-grads, management-types, and the upwardly mobile are terribly slim. The DailyKos has had quite a few excellent diaries on the best ways for folks like myself to maneuver the dry terrain that is our nation's job market in these tough economic times. This diary is my humble addition to that pile.
The most popular career sites on the web have become a hotbed for a relatively unknown and underexposed scam in our country's job market. It involves a practice that should be illegal if it isn't already. I nearly fell into it until I used my friend Google to do a little research.
Follow me over the jump for a complete expose and analysis of this nationwide scam.
Here's the ad. It's used in numerous formats nationwide to lure in unsuspecting and often desperate career-seekers from every corner of our country.
ABOUT US:
We are a promotional marketing company that specializes in marketing and promotions for one of the most exciting and well-known Fortune 500 companies in the world today. Our direct methods are capable of reaching 90%-99% of our client's specific target market and are personal, powerful and provide an upstanding image in the marketplace.
With the commitment we've made to our clients and the use of our direct methods, it continues to lead us in only one direction: towards growth and expansion.
We have the following opportunities available:
* Sales - Promotions Representative
* Marketing
* Account Management
* Managers
* Customer Service
Who We Want:
The ideal candidates will possess a "second-to-none" work ethic, strong desire to advance and grow with the company and an unbelievably positive business attitude. Our office is comprised of very driven, self-motivated individuals that are very serious about their careers.
This is a perfect opportunity for someone trying to get their "foot-in-the-door" in the marketing field. All openings are FULL-TIME and need to be filled A.S.A.P.!!
NO TELEMARKETING, NO DOOR TO DOOR, NO BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
There is no experience necessary. If you are a new graduate, or someone who is aggressively pursuing a change in careers, please e-mail your resume to for review. You can also contact Sarah at 614-XXX-XXXX to set up an immediate interview with our hiring manager.
Requirements
Since positions are being filled immediately, Columbus and Central Ohio area residents are preferred. We regret that we will be unable to respond to all resumes; only those selected for preliminary interviews will be contacted.
This advertisement would be great if it properly represented the company itself and what they're really doing.
I sent my resume to this company on Friday evening and left a message for the hiring manager expressing my strong interest in the Account Management positions they have available. I received an e-mail today (Sunday) inviting me to call and schedule an interview- but oddly, the e-mail was from Google's domain, and not from that of the company. (Ie... company@google.com). Since the e-mail arrived on a Sunday and appeared to be mass-distributed, I decided to check out the company online. You might imagine my suprise when I discovered that a company with such "high profile" clients doesn't have a website and was only registered with my Secretary of State within the past couple of weeks.
I also found it odd that the phone number in the e-mail matched that of another company on Careerbuilder with very dissimilar job openings. Worried that this might be a fly-by-night company with ill intentions, I googled the name of their company along with the phrase "marketing promotions scam" and found a forum full of job seekers like myself from all over our country that have already been duped out of hours of irretrievable labor and hundreds of dollars of their savings.
Here's the lowdown on the scam...
- You respond to their job posting.
- They invite you in for an interview. You attend at the designated time.
- You participate in what feels like a real interview. (Some reports state that the interview process is relatively short and non-specific, which ought to be a red flag, but often isn't).
- You leave. They call you in for a second interview which will involve you shadowing one of their current employees. You are told that you're going to help "set-up a promotion for one of their clients."
- That employee drives you to a remote location, which can be several hours away from your vehicle, to demonstrate your "sales" or "marketing" skills in shopping plazas or in front of gas stations. You are told to put your heart into it because you want to prove your worth in the field. YOU ARE PROVIDING UNPAID LABOR.
- At the end of your six to eight hour day, you return to the "home office" to be critiqued by management and to be offered a position with the company. This is when you're told that the salary that has been advertised is paid on a commission-only basis. You are also told that your stellar sales/communication/recruitment/administrative skills will make their "opportunity" the best fit in the world for you.
- If you're crazy enough to report back, you work on a commission-only basis with hopes of earning 30K to 50K per year and working your way to the role of "Manager" or "Recruiter." Most people don't stay beyond a week or two, which is why these positions are always open. The bottom line is that someone gets a week of free labor out of you that begins with the first day when you unwittingly agree to their "interview-by-experience" activity. You get to spend your gas, money and time on nothing.
These companies are said to trace back to a company called Quantum Marketing. Here are some real-life accounts of people who have fallen into this scam. Please excuse the grammatical errors in some of the posts I've chosen to block quote.
Please watch out for the other companies they are involved with such as nova, 195 marketing, and others. I was very upset with how they took me two hours away to use me as free labor. I don't know how they get away with this crap.
From Rip Off Report dot com
I worked for East Coast Events in New Brunswick NJ. The owner [Name Removed] and the Assistant Mananger [Name Removed] were both liers. They would lie to the employees about how much money we would make on certain projects. [Name Removed] was part of a project where we would go to collge football games and have people sign up for credit cards. When we asked how much we would be paid for each credit card application they said $8-$9 when in actuality it was only $1.25!!! I asked another employee who was friends with [Name Removed] why they had lied about it and she said [the managers] lied because they knew we wouldn't do it if we knew how much we would get paid.
[When representing charities], we were told to avoid the question of how much of the money goes into helping the charity (20%). We had to stand outside of 7-11, WaWa, K-mart in the rain or shine and even when it was cold out. It was a complete waste of my time, I would never make the same mistake twice. If you see an ad promising $40-$50/yr for an entry-level assistant manager, WATCH OUT. EAST COAST EVENTS and all of QUANTUM MARKETING IS A SCAM!!!
There are additional accounts of unethical behavior by these companies on another rip-off site. These stories are written by former employees who were never paid their commissions and of people showing up to work only to find that their employers had "moved." According to Rachel Zupek, a CareerBuilder.com writer, the following are "red flags" of a job scam:
Many (although not all) "work-at-home" jobs are scams, as are positions in sports or entertainment sales, marketing and promotions. And, there should be no start-up costs associated with a real job.
When you feel a job may be a scam, the Federal Trade Commission recommends asking the following questions:
- What exactly will my roles and responsibilities be?
- Will I be paid a salary, or will my pay be based on commission?
- Who will pay me?
- When will I get my first paycheck?
If you believe you’ve identified a scam, report it.
Better Business Bureau
Federal Trade Commission
National Consumers League
Good luck on your job searches. Don't be duped by these "work-your-way-up" fly-by-night marketing firms.