Dream paying job here I come!! Even though I knew this might be too good to be true and in the back of my mind I was thinking it might be a job scam, I still had an open mind and wanted to believe this job was legitimate. So here I was thinking about all the bills I was going to pay with my new found summer job.
I was so excited that I lost track of time and was running late. I called them to let them know I was on my way and they asked the manager and he said they were having another interview meeting at 5 p.m. Great!! I thought, now I can plan on what to say on my interview.
I decided to invite my brother to go with me because I still was skeptical especially since it involved selling knives...lol! You just never know what may go wrong when knives are involved even if they are kitchen knives..lol!
As soon as we arrived to the location, I recognized the place and remembered their was a hair salon located in the same rented place. There was a paper sign placed on the door that only said Vector Marketing. Me and my brother looked at each other and were speechless for a second, then I said "I guess this is the place, should we go in? " Something didn't feel right but I thought what the heck we are already here.
As we entered the door we immediately got greeted by very young receptionists. In fact, it seemed as though they were high school students or freshman college students and were dressed very casual. We were asked to fill out a form with our contact information.
My brother refused to fill out any forms even though they were not asking to sign anything. It was just a form in which you put your contact information and answered a some questions about why you would be the best candidate for working with vector marketing and your college schedule and when you would be available to work depending on your school schedule. Their were more people their that were also their for the interview.
I have never been to these type of group interviews except when I worked as a migrant farm worker when we had a meeting before we started to work. The majority of interviews are done individually. Everyone was staring at my brother. I think they thought he was my bodyguard because he didn't fill out anything and he refused to sit anywhere and was just standing close-by as if waiting for something to happen..lol!!
After we were all settled in we were greeted by a young man who seemed like he was the manager but it turns out he wasn't. He explained that the manager could not make it. He started the so called interview by showing us a PowerPoint about the goals and plans of the company and their products. It seemed like if they were trying to sell us a product more than an interview.
As he continued his talk I couldn't help but notice all the posters that were up. One in particular said "sell on summer, teach the next summer" and they even had a website www.vectorconnect.com for information regarding field training info. Another thing I noticed was that it seemed as though they had just moved there and they were not planning on staying long which makes you wonder if its a legitimate business if they're constantly moving.
Anyways, I stopped myself from thinking much of it and convinced myself to believe that maybe it seemed like a temporary placement for their business since they only offer employment during the summer.The interview host continued his talk about the history of the company and who founded Cutco Inc. and the origins of Vector. I felt like I was in a history class..lol!
He went on to address certain issues about the company product, market, sales, training, pay and the perks. I was excited but I couldn't help but feel awkward that they seemed to be selling us a job rather than offering us a job if that even makes sense. Something that I found interesting about what he explained was when he gave out the reasons why they targeted students rather than other individuals to work with Vector Marketing and he clearly pointed out that students are easier to train and they were more likely attracted to pay and experience. (DING DING DING DING RED FLAG!!) (OR NOT)
In my opinion here's how I interpret what he said " Students are easier to control and brainwash because they are so young and naive and they are broke so they are easily attracted to anything that involves making money and they will settle for any job even though they do not have much experience." Does that make sense? But anyhow that's just my opinion. I'm not trying to bash them but I just don't trust anyone or anything that seems to good to be true.
HOW DOES IT WORK? (according to them)
So you might still be asking "what is this job about besides selling knives and how does it work?" Well the way they he explained it like this
-market target consists of 30 to 60 yrs. old&married because they are more financially stable
-non door sales (appointment only), word of mouth
-convenient schedules, setup your own schedules
-UPS delivers product being sold, guaranteed paid regardless of outcome
-Training 3 days (non-paid) Weekly Meetings (also non paid)
-Daily Phone check-In
-Base Pay/Incentive
-Scholarship opportunities/Contest prizes
-They lend you $343 worth of product to show potential customers
THE CATCH/DEAL
-They choose what they feel is best for you in regards to getting paid. They decide whether they want to pay you base or incentive pay.
For example to calculate a base pay they use formula (15 appointments) x $15(base pay) = $225
An incentive pay would be calculated in percentage of sales such as 1000(appointments) x (%10) =$100+125=$225 with the potential to grow the percentage of pay based on the more appointments you make. If you setup appointments over 1000 then your percentage would be 15% instead of 10% and so on.
Sounds good right? That's what I thought and then just before the meeting was over a young man who appeared to be around 12 yrs. old walked in with a big smile on his face wearing a very professional suit without even expressing any words to us. The host said "Oh By the way here comes the manager. He just came back from his meeting".
I didn't know what to think at this point. Everything that was happening was surreal but at the same time it was expected because I had done some research before I even showed up to this interview. I still kept my mouth shut and decided I would just pretend to actually believe everything they were feeding to us.
I was not surprised that many teenagers were actually believing everything they said. After all they even mentioned that in the beginning that they like to target students because they are easier to train but what some of them saw as a compliment, I saw as an insult even though I was not one of those teenagers.
I should of taken my mom with me and have her apply for the job to see if they would feed her the same lies. I mean don't they know that anyone can be in college of any age but only the younger college students are the ones who actually fall for these job scams. The only reason I even showed up was because I was curious.
At the end of the meeting we were told that they would call us to see if we had been accepted to work with them. That same day they called me to say I had been accepted to work with them and to show up on a certain day and to dress professionally. I accepted the offer and said I would be there.
IS VECTOR MARKETING A JOB SCAM?
When I arrived home I was thinking to myself "this can't be a legitimate job. but what if it is, I might be missing out?" and then I had another voice in my head saying "come on are really going to believe that?"
Seriously, its hard to believe that a 12 yr. old can be the manager of a so called successful company. I know its possible but I just didn't feel comfortable answering to a 12 yr. old. It would be like taking orders from my kids. (That's just me..lol) I mean a 12 yr. old is not even legally allowed to even enter contracts let alone run a business unless they are considered emancipated which is extremely rare!
Another issue I had was how expensive the knives would be and who would actually purchase these knives. Personally I am not going to sell a product I would not feel comfortable purchasing myself and I would never in my life buy a knife for $200 even if I could afford it.(I'm just not a knife person..lol)
Plus I don't have time or gas money to go to the non paid training meetings. A legitimate job offering that offers training is usually on the job and most of the time its paid. I decided not to show up to the meeting. Not because I was 100% sure it was a scam but I was 98% sure something wasn't right but I couldn't completely figure out what it was, I just knew it wasn't for me.
Like the saying goes "Time is money" and all that time that I'm wasting doing something that I'm not passionate about and provides no guaranty of security for my family, I could be spending it on looking for my real Dream Job. I'm sure its out there and it will eventually find its way to me but until then I will just continue this journey.
At the end of the day I'm just sharing my experience and opinions based on my interview but if you feel like this would be a good job for you and you feel very passionate about knives then by all means don't let me stop you!! (LOL) I'm not saying Vector Marketing is a scam or not because I didn't spend enough time trying to figure it out. This job just is not for me and I tried to follow my instinct and not waste anymore time than I needed.
Do you have experiences with Vector Marketing that you would like to share? Did you attend a job interview and was your experience similar to mine? I'd love to know you thoughts or opinions regarding Vector Marketing.
This guy actually claims to have worked with Vector and he believes it is some sort of scam. What do you think?
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