Does This Sound Familiar? Part II, or "The Day of O"

The next morning you get showered and put on a nice suit or dress and the "comfortable" shoes you were instructed to bring. You're thrilled--you might finally get a real job and a big paycheck!

You walk into the office again, looking your very best and trying not to look nervous. Strangely, there are around 10-15 other people in the office despite the fact you were told very few people made it to the second round. Sitting down, you notice people walking in and out constantly, and hear loud music blaring with cheering and clapping the next room over. Maybe they're having a party, you think.

Finally, after an hour or two of waiting, a guy about your age comes out to greet you and tells you that you will be "shadowing" him for a day. This is your Day of Observation, or "Day of O". You follow the guy you are shadowing to his car (usually, an old and beat up car which will make sense later) and he begins to drive off. He tells you that you will be going to Home Depot (or possibly door to door) as a walking, talking advertisement and selling or generating "leads". He speaks to you about the "law of averages", which means for every 30 "nos" there will be one "yes", and its important not to let the many "nos" let you down. You nod and take notes, thinking this is very weird but could make sense later.

You arrive at a suburban Home Depot and walk inside, where the guy you are shadowing signs an official looking (but in reality, fraudulent) vendor list to give what he is doing a sheen of respectability. He then proceeds to go around badgering shoppers to sign up for a "Free" offer of a kitchen or deck design. He explains to you that for every "yes" he gets, he makes $20.

Starting to sound quite different from an "Entry level management" position, huh? Its really a glorified door-to-door or business-to-business sales job!

After four hours of seemingly endless walking the guy you are shadowing takes you out to lunch at a taco stand or fast food joint. Sometimes he will pay, sometimes not.He then goes onto explain the structure of the company--you will be a "distributor" while he will be your "team leader". In order to get promoted to a "team leader" you will have to make on average five sales a day for a week (including Saturdays!). Saturdays are "optional" but in reality required if you want to eat. After being promoted to team leader, you must hire and promote five new distributors to "team leader" and have at least one of those distributors also become a "team leader". After that, its onto Asst. Manager where you will finally make a (modest) salary of $1,000 a week plus a percentage of what the people under you sell. After 1-2 months of this, you can be promoted to manager.

He will tell you that you will make six figures--THIS IS A LIE. I repeat, managers do NOT make six figures. In fact, most of them are as broke as the low level distributors because they have to pay totally out of pocket for rent, supplies, receptionists, etc. In addition, the manager can only make money by taking it out of the pockets of people lower on the pyramid. See where this is going?

He then says he will give a good recommendation to the "manager" even though in reality any sucked with a pulse and an IQ of 70 can get a job in this business.
You follow him around some more until 8pm, and get back to the office exhausted with aching feet. Once again contrary to your better instincts, you do your best to pass the bogus "quiz" and the manager calls you in and tells you how great you are and that you are now hired and must start tomorrow.

You pause for a moment, thinking of all the red flags you have seen, but then you think how much it sucks to be unemployed. You shake his hand, and say you will be in at 9:30.