Man oh man, where do I start. I came to the interview in suit and tie, I should have known something was a little fishy when I came in for my first interview and there were 5-10 people already in the waiting room thinking the same thing I was thinking. On top of that the "HR Manager" was making countless calls scheduling even more people for interviews. I probably waited 30 minutes past my schedule time until I actual got to meet with the "Manager" Eric which only lasted maybe 5 minutes and was told I would receive a call later in the day if they wanted to further the interview process. Long behold not even a few hours later I receive a call asking me to come in the next day for the 2nd round which consisted of basically driving around with one of their employees while he bragged about how "Direct Marketing" is such a success and all the money to be made in it. Be aware that direct marketing is just a fancy word for door2door. I was pretty much sold after being told I could open my own office in less than a year and be making $4,000 a WEEK. Keep in mind the employee i was with was already there for a year and a half and was still on commission base pay which raised a few eyebrows. PYRAMID SCHEME.
I ended up getting hired and being told "I was one of the few to make it" just to make me feel special. The week before I started I actually had bought 3 suits because I was thinking I would be working in business attire everyday. But to find out that definitely was not the case. What a waste of my money or I guess you could just call it an investment. So I came in for my first day of work in my Sunday best ready to start my first job out of college. When I walked in they had people still coming in for interviews which seemed kind of weird but I didn't let it bother me "RED FLAG". I talked with the manager Eric for a few about how he had been so nervous on his first day and what made him so successful. He told me I would receive a $150 training bonus for my first 3 days (which I never saw, go figure). If you think about it, that's not even minimum wage for 20-30 plus hours of so called training since each day was in actuality a 10 hour work day.
I was told I would be training with the same employee I was with on my 2nd interview which was cool since we were pretty comfortable with each other. And then SURPRISE SURPRISE. I was handed some dingy collar T-shirt with a star energy patch on it as if that was who I was working for and was told I would need to change into it. They also asked me if I had brought extra clothes and some comfortable shoes. Wish they would have told me that before hand. Keep in mind that I'm in a $300 dollar suit that I haven't even been in for less than an hour. I was never told that I would need to bring extra clothes or nothing. I was baffled. I ended up changing into the shirt but being forced to wear my brand new dress paints and leather shoes since I had no other choice.
Long story short, me and my "trainer" end of driving 50 miles all the way to Dayton, OH in the "INNER CITY" knocking door2door trying to get people to switch over there energy. Out of the 100 or so houses we went to, we received 2 people that were actually interested. On top of that me and the guy almost got chased by 2 viscous looking dogs off their leash. WTF? The guy I was with vouched that he gets at least 5 sales a day so I thought well maybe this is just a bad day I guess. We walked around in blistering 90 degree heat while I basically sweated out of my dress pants for about 5 hours. Around 8 pm we drive all the way back to Cincinnati just to change back into our suits for the 5 minutes we will be in the office. What a waste of time I thought.
The next day I came prepared with a spare pair of gym shoes and dickies to change into once we went into "THE FIELD". We make that 100 mile round trip commute to Dayton once again but this time to a much nicer neighborhood. I figured to myself today should be a much better day. Boy was I wrong. Out of the 75 or so houses we went to, we barely got 2 people to sign up for the new energy plan. And that was the least of the problems. I could tell how pissed people were every time we would show up to their doorstep. Some were in the middle of dinner while others might have been just getting off work and wanting to relax. Even when people blatantly told us to go away my "trainer" would urge them to just see their bill and get them to sign. The worst part of it all was the hurricane type thunderstorm that came through in the middle of our day. And YES we walked door2door in the freaking rain and lightning looking like a bunch of ducks. Dripping wet I thought to myself "Man i did not got to college for this, I rather sweep peanuts than do this BS". On our way back I told the guy I was not switching back into my suit soaked the way I was already. He very much agreed. I thought about how much money my "trainer" had made seeing he had got only 4 sales in the past 2 days. At $35 a customer that''s only $140 PRETAX! I was thinking man your better off working at McDonald's. At least you wont be walking in the rain, sleet, snow and worrying about the neighborhood dog running up to you.
Now I do not want to discourage anyone from working here, all I am saying is "KNOW WHAT YOUR GETTING YOURSELF INTO". I have never quit anything in my life and I have worked plenty of odd jobs from hard labor warehouse work to sweeping peanuts in the nose bleed section at Red's games. At least I knew I was going to see a paycheck at the end of the week. They would have saved me a lot of time if they were upfront and honest from the get go about what the job consisted of and not trying to sell it to young, naive college grads and dropouts like myself. This job isn't for everyone and you pretty much would have to "Drink the Kool-Aid" to buy into it. I hope this review saves a lot of you people time from going to places like these that false advertise the job title. Thank you and have a nice day!
