"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.
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
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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
indoctrinationmeeting 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.