So, lets recap over my last week, and the one before that. A week before today, I went to an interview for a company called Vector Marketing. I had initially been referred to it by my buddy Ethan, and then later saw an ad in Craigslist. Although I'm going into an Engineering program, the 17 dollars or so hourly/per appointment pay seemed pretty darn good, and I couldn't really find anything relevant to what I was going to study for a summer job. rolleyes Anyways, as soon as I got in there, a few things seemed off. First of all, one of the current employees was having a dispute with the management. neutral When he eventually stormed off pretty pissed, he passed through a room that only I was in, filling out a form. After giving me what i thought was a little odd, and maybe misguided anger, but what turned out to be good advice thrown in with a bit of foul language, I was starting to have my doubts. What I was told over the phone and at the office was that I would not be doing any door-to-door selling, or "cold calling." While this was technically true, it turns out to be not much different from what you actually do at Vector. So, after an interview with about 10-15 others, I got a job, one of several people there. A week later, I attended the first training seminar, with about 30 other people. It was free, but they didn't pay you for it wither, which was a little annoying, but I still figured I could learn something from it, after the five hours it went on for. Afterwards, I was a little less doubtful; selling cutlery, as it turned out to be, didn't sound so lame anymore. I might've just been gullible, but it sounded not too bad for a summer job. and I was supposedly going to make $17.25 for every appointment I went to, regardless of if I made a sale or not. So, here's where it got interesting. As an "assignment," the trainees had to think of as many people that they knew, anyone at all that they had known, and write their names down. We were all kind of reassured that it didn't have anything to do with the sales, just practicing people skills or communication, or something. And, as I was still under the impression that the company supplied pre-set appointments with people you didn't know, I figured there was no harm in this. The next day, we had to take out this list we made, and check off everyone who fir the cutlery selling demographic. "Aha!" I thought. "So this is why they had you do it, to sell to people you know." So apparently you sell cutlery to your friends and relatives at Vector. go figure. I didn't even think it was that big of a deal, and I even had a few appointments lined up at the end of the seminar, but when I got home, I checked out the company on the web on my mom's advice. What I got, from SEVERAL websites, was this: "Vector is dishonest." Although many sites also complimented the quality of the products they made. However, it seemed as though the company mostly hired college students on vacations, and got them to sell to their friends and family. Not really that big of a deal, if you don't mind trying to get pity money by embarassing yourself in front of people you know. So, once i found this out, I decided to not attend the third seminar, and quit. I really didn't like how the marketing was run, they didn't tell me everything up front. and Sales isn't really my thing. Anyways, the lesson learned from this experience is simple: Trust your instincts. If something seems fishy or too good to be true, it probably is. Or at least has some kind of catch.
Bios, OUT!
Bioshazard Community Member 
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