Red Flags:
- Job didn’t even fit the job description. They put up many different titles such as “Public Relations Representative, Marketing and Business Communications Internship, Junior Brand Manager”, etc. but it’s all for the same position - an “entry-level” position which involves DOOR-TO-DOOR selling.
- Seems like they were fishing for me (calling, emailing, and texting me) instead of me trying to reach them. No real company would cold-call and ask you to be interviewed.
- The receptionist is ALWAYS on the phone calling people to schedule interviews. You can see that on the computer is just a list of people's names and phone numbers.
- Small office spaces with no one in them. You can tell that most people do not work in the office.
- Walked into a room filled with 10+ other people waiting for interviews and it was a GROUP INTERVIEW.
- Interviewer recited many CLICHES: “We are growing fast and want more positive go-getters who want to do more than what is expected”
- Most of the interview focused on the “Growth Track”, the CHAIN/PYRAMID organized into four “ranks” with complex rules and pay schedule that leverages the pyramid. This stature is designed so that large numbers at the bottom must always lose in order for a few at the top to “win”. MONEY GOES TO THE TOP.
- EVERYONE will get a job offer if you show a “go-get-em” positive attitude and don’t say anything stupid.
- The website and brochures are filled with stock images of RANDOM people working in an office.
- “Great work ethic, strong student mentality, positivity, and professionalism” act as the business’s commandments. This is how they start to control every aspect of your behavior.
- CRAZY HOURS, usually 6 days a week 12 pm-8pm. The first two hours, you’re in the office for “training”. The rest of the time is going from DOOR-TO-DOOR. How are you supposed to have WORK-LIFE BALANCE?!
- Positive reviews on Glassdoor are generally suspicious and seemingly generated by the company themselves with the same wording: “great opportunity, potential growth”, etc.
- Training is designed to make it stand out from any other job you’ve had. Daily meetings include reps writing out information on a white board. You must learn every word, in exact sequential order.
- Everybody is standing, there are no chairs. BEHAVIOR CONTROL. Team leader uses classical conditioning to gain attention.
- First makes it seem like it doesn’t matter how many sales you make in a day, but it does at the end because it’s all about commission. NO SALE=NO SALARY.
- “Anybody outside the company can be seen as a threat. The only people you should be talking and listening to are inside the company.”
- Cults of greed - “if you follow their special program for success, you will become very rich”
In the end, it’s about the bottom man growing as quickly as possible. As long as you’re willing to be the 0.01% who scrape by with OVERWORKING and UNDERPAY, then you can probably become the “Branch Manager” someday and be rich. If you don’t think you can thrive in a pyramid scheme, don’t come here.
