Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Pyramid Scheme
I think I almost fell for a pyramid scheme.
I was contacted through Career Builder about a job in sales for Lionheart Assurance Solutions. After coming off of my previous interview, I was open and willing to interview for companies simply for interview experience not necessarily interested in the position itself--bad idea.
I responded to the interest email with optimism and eagerness to interview for a job with seemingly great potential. In response, I immediately got an email scheduling the interview where I pick from interview time slots--1st flag. But I thought nothing of it because my college internship interviews were formatted the same way.
So, come interview day, I started to calculate my lunch break and how I could maximize the commute to the interview office, the interview, and the commute back to the bank on top of preparing my answers to all the interview questions I expected. As I drove, I prayed that I wouldn't be late and was passing through traffic with anxiety. When I went through the doors, I was a little proud of myself for making it at 1 on the dot. Once I went in, there were several people waiting to be interviewed--2nd flag--I thought I was going to be interviewed by the person who interviewed me.
Turns out it was a "group interview." The man asked each of us to introduce ourselves, tell why we were there, and what is our best asset. I went first--and after all that was done, he started to explain the company, the job, and the commission. I was thinking, great, good background information, he'll probably be 5 minutes and we'll start interviewing. Boy, was I wrong. He was speaking for 10 minutes, I began to ask myself if I was supposed to engage in conversation with him as some of the other candidates were. But even then, he was on the soapbox.--3rd flag-- But that subsided as he mentioned that what he was saying was necessary for the second part of the interview. So, I focused on what he was saying about the product. While he was explaining the company and the product, I felt like he was selling us the position--as if to persuade us to purchase a product. And in the end, that was exactly it. After an hour and a half of listening to this man talk, it turns out the position was not a position at all. He was selling a business that we would have to front on our own and pay for the product through Lionheart! He asked us to write down our interest and that would determine if we would proceed to the "real" individual interview. And I actually considered it!
But knowing my circumstances, I couldn't take that risk. So, I said no thanks--not knowing it is a scam.
Note to self: speak to a rep before interview.
I was contacted through Career Builder about a job in sales for Lionheart Assurance Solutions. After coming off of my previous interview, I was open and willing to interview for companies simply for interview experience not necessarily interested in the position itself--bad idea.
I responded to the interest email with optimism and eagerness to interview for a job with seemingly great potential. In response, I immediately got an email scheduling the interview where I pick from interview time slots--1st flag. But I thought nothing of it because my college internship interviews were formatted the same way.
So, come interview day, I started to calculate my lunch break and how I could maximize the commute to the interview office, the interview, and the commute back to the bank on top of preparing my answers to all the interview questions I expected. As I drove, I prayed that I wouldn't be late and was passing through traffic with anxiety. When I went through the doors, I was a little proud of myself for making it at 1 on the dot. Once I went in, there were several people waiting to be interviewed--2nd flag--I thought I was going to be interviewed by the person who interviewed me.
Turns out it was a "group interview." The man asked each of us to introduce ourselves, tell why we were there, and what is our best asset. I went first--and after all that was done, he started to explain the company, the job, and the commission. I was thinking, great, good background information, he'll probably be 5 minutes and we'll start interviewing. Boy, was I wrong. He was speaking for 10 minutes, I began to ask myself if I was supposed to engage in conversation with him as some of the other candidates were. But even then, he was on the soapbox.--3rd flag-- But that subsided as he mentioned that what he was saying was necessary for the second part of the interview. So, I focused on what he was saying about the product. While he was explaining the company and the product, I felt like he was selling us the position--as if to persuade us to purchase a product. And in the end, that was exactly it. After an hour and a half of listening to this man talk, it turns out the position was not a position at all. He was selling a business that we would have to front on our own and pay for the product through Lionheart! He asked us to write down our interest and that would determine if we would proceed to the "real" individual interview. And I actually considered it!
But knowing my circumstances, I couldn't take that risk. So, I said no thanks--not knowing it is a scam.
Note to self: speak to a rep before interview.
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