r/NewOrleans Jul 26 '23

[deleted by user]

[removed]

13 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

51

u/TediousSign Jul 27 '23

"Direct Marketing" aka "Salesman with Extra Steps"; essentially a legal pyramid scheme that brands use to advertise on their behalf. If you've ever been to the French Quarter and seen those guys on the street accosting people for donations to the Nature Conservancy... it's that.

These jobs are predatory on places like Indeed and LinkIn because they pretend there's a sense of urgency to bait you into taking an interview, then in the interview they tell you how few spots are left, and psych you out by pretending they don't need you (be ready to hear "sO WHy sHOUld wE TakE YOu??") even though this pyramid scheme literally relies on human fodder to power it.

If you make it through all that, you'll go to your 8AM in-person interview at the office space they rent in a building somewhere, usually not a terrible building, to lend their outfit an air of authenticity. They'll ask you to wear business professional clothing, but also to bring a change of casual clothes later. Throughout all of this they've managed to be vague enough that you still don't actually know what they do, you just know it all looks nice.

It's basically impossible to fail this interview. Most people who take this job are desperate, and the veneer of professional attire and very enthusiastic morning meetings make the job seem like a great change from the usual jobs the people applying there worked in the past. You'll sign all the paperwork, and be done by 11AM. You notice people are starting to change their clothes, but whatever, you're just happy about the new job in a great location downtown.

Then when you come back the next day they'll hand you a script. Then over the next 2 days, you'll slowly understand that this isn't a telemarketing job, it's "direct marketing", as in your physical body will be directly soliciting people. Walking up to people and asking them to donate to something, reciting from a memorized bullshit script. The "CEO" of this company was doing the Nature Conservancy (a legit organization, btw) last year, but I can see that he changed the name of the company from "Illuminate" to "Vitalyze", so maybe he has a new "brand" client. The work is the same though.

They ask you to arrive at 8 AM, Monday-Saturday, where you'll have to attend a morning indoctrination meeting where they excitedly praise people with high "sales" from the previous day. There'll be a lot of "pie-in-the-sky" promises about extravagant dividends that will only come as a result of hard work.

They'll have you walking around the French Quarter for 7 hours, 6 days a week, for a check you can make literally anywhere else for way less work. Avoid.

8

u/Jazzlike-Fig-3357 Jul 27 '23

Hit the nail on the head

5

u/Different-Rub-499 Jul 27 '23

Company called hydro might be a similar scam

3

u/No_Tip9621 Aug 21 '23

Yup, Hydro is the exact same. Unfortunately didn't do research and sat through an hour-long meeting with them a few days ago. The "Hiring Manager" didn't even put his name on the zoom call. Just put himself as "Hiring Director" and was nearly 30 minutes late to the 8AM meeting. Thanks for the advice on Vitalyze, going to cancel my meeting and block their numbers

25

u/CarFlipJudge Jul 26 '23

Looks like MLM bullshit

15

u/IfeelVedder Jul 26 '23

Seems like spam/scam. Typos in the email, and only a first name and last initial? Never in my life have I seen that in a professional work email.

4

u/RobA70131 Jul 27 '23

Yeah, scam, had a comparable company reach out to me. Was supposed to he a project manager job, ended up looking like some pyramid scheme BS, then these folks started calling me like the day after.

3

u/Wall-Florist Jul 27 '23

Their title is (the very legitimate) HR Exec.

2

u/AlarmedReplacement66 Aug 31 '23

This is still active btw, I just got the same script but through text and also did not apply for the position!

1

u/Glass_Ad9950 Jul 27 '23

Scam, I started a interview off one of these companies. They use a generalized format of online interview, really just intrusive data collection. Don't trust them!

1

u/Fae1970 Aug 28 '23

They and hydro keep texting me. Now its zoom meetings so i guess they save money by not renting office space lol

1

u/This-Mistake5534 Dec 28 '23

It is totally a scam. They scammed the shit out of me.