Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Does This Sound Familiar?

So you are searching for your first, real professional career and you decide to use an online service such as Craigslist, Monster, or Careerbuilder. While scanning through the job offers, you come across something similar to this:

COR Concepts is hiring for entry level sales and marketing positions. This job involves one on one sales interactions with customers.


We are hiring to train ENTRY LEVEL account reps for management positions. Our advancement policy is 100% promotion from within, so every candidate begins advancing from the same position. www.corconcepts.net

A combination of our client's demands and our proven track record lead to 300% growth in the last 36 months. We plan to double in size again within the next year. We currently have offices in the DC, Philadelphia, and New York markets. www.corconcepts.net

WHAT WE EXPECT FROM YOU:

• Work ethic that is second to none

• An integral team player with a desire to succeed

• Career-oriented individual with the ability to multi-task and problem solve in an ever-changing environment

• Commitment to integrity and excellence

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM US:

• Accelerated growth from entry-level to management while learning all aspects of the business (Sales, Marketing, Recruiting, HR, Leadership Development, Strategic Planning, Administration, Finance and Operations)

• Hands-on training aside the industry's top up and coming executives

• Projects with a few of the world's most successful and admired companies

• A work environment fueled by energetic, motivated individuals committed to success


Wow, management and no experience required! Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? So you submit your resume to them online, then go watch TV for an hour or two.


Then the phone rings. On the other end of the line is a cheerful sounding young woman who only gives you her first name and tells you that you can come in for a preliminary interview the very next day. You think its a little odd you got a response so soon with your limited experience, but at this point you decide to go to the interview just to see what its all about.


The next day, you walk in around 3 pm into an innocuous looking, if weirdly sparse office inside a typical suburban office park. Sitting at a cheap looking desk is the young female receptionist you spoke to on the phone. You say you are there for the interview, and she hands you paper work to fill out. After that's done, you wait about 10 minutes and then are called to a back office to meet with the "Manager".


As soon as you sit down the "manager" tells you how direct face-to-face marketing is the wave of the future for one reason or the other, and then talks incessantly about how fast his "company" is growing. He shows you an impressive looking map with little pins in it representing all their "offices" in the United States and the world. Even though you are barely to get a word in edgewise, he tells you you seem ideal for the job and would like a second interview. A second interview, tomorrow.


You are stunned this is being offered so quickly, after a mere 10 minute interview where you hardly spoke, but not wanting to miss a chance at a career agree against your better instincts to come in the next day.


So you walk out, happy, thinking you must have really impressed the "manager" to get closer to an offer so quickly. You go home and plan to come in the next day.


Of course, that's when your seemingly innocuous job opportunity begins to morph into a living hell. But you don't know that yet, of course...

2 comments:

Matt B said...

Oh my God, this was like you had watched a video of the interview I went to with one of these schmucks. SO glad I turned it down.

Seriously, it was like you were recounting the memory for me in almost PERFECT detail.

Anonymous said...

Smart circle is just one tentacle of the global direct sales cult known to some as Devilcorp.

If you go to http://thedevilcorp.wordpress.com/
you will find a wealth of information.