Showing posts with label JOBS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JOBS. Show all posts

Monday, January 2, 2012

I NEED A JOB!!! Where Can I Find a Job? Are there any jobs out there for College Students?



Don't you think its ironic that a college student with a degree can't find a job in America? Well, unfortunately its true. Our economy is suffering big time and unemployment continues to sky rocket regardless of what the media/news feeds you. 


If people with a college education can't find a job, can you imagine what it must be like for other people without an education. I mean, here we are told that college graduates are more likely to succeed in life and earn a higher pay salary throughout their lifetime than a person without an education and then we are faced with the realization that there is not enough jobs for everyone not even college grads. 


Its like a stab in the back and the realization that things are headed for the worst. I've been struggling to find a job(yes a woman with a college degree can't find a job..lol). The economy must be bad if even I can't find a job. There's plenty of jobs available that don't require education but no one will hire me because I'm overqualified. Wow! The tables have turned. 


Today it seems like the statistics regarding job income for college vs no college are not the same as they used to be. I am starting to think I wasted time in college but its too late now. It seems like the jobs available now are either underpaid or we are overqualified. I wonder if I can omit my college education and if it will increase my chances of getting a job. I just want a job,any job is ok but since this is not working out, I decided to start an experiment and see if it works.  

I Will be self-employed and I will write and publish for a living online. 

If you've been following or reading my blog articles, you can see that I don't publish often. I usually write from 2 to 3 articles a month or less, but I still managed to make a few bucks with Google AdSense. 


If you don't know what Google AdSense is, I suggest you read this book called 


Essential: About Google Adsense !  


Add caption
Google AdSense is not a get-rich scheme, you have to work very hard to  make any money at all and you usually only make money when people click on your ads.














I've heard from other bloggers that in order to make a living out of writing online, you have to make a commitment to do it like if it was a regular 9-5 job. You have to write everyday or at least update your website or articles everyday. You have to be extremely active online with participation and dedication. I haven't exactly done this and this is why I believe I haven't been successful as a freelance writer and poet. 

I don't want to monetize what I love doing but I am a single mom and I need to feed my children and this is the best way I can think of that will allow me to share knowledge and my love for poetry, music, and information with others while still having the job of my dreams. Self-employment is almost every good mom's dream.  

I Will continue answering and asking questions at WebAnswers

In case you don't know what this is, WebAnswers.com  is an information Beta website in which users get to answer questions and if the answer gets chosen as the best, then you earn from the ads. In other words you help other people by answering their questions and sharing your knowledge and you get paid. Another way to make money with WebAnswers is to ask questions. It's a good way to earn money. 


In fact, since I joined, I've seen some increased changes in my online earnings. You do not need to have a Google Adsense account to join WebAnswers, however, after you answer 50 questions, you are given the option of applying with Google Adsense.  


To learn more you can go to www.webanswers.com and start helping others with your knowledge and information. The great thing about webAnswers is that you choose what questions you want to answer and you can even ask any questions you want.
I Will focus my attention on Rich Content

Most of my articles consist of songs or poetry that I write. I will continue to write as much as I can and write about other things that are on my mind or that can help people. I do admit though that I don't like to stick with one topic so my articles vary from each other but most of my articles have rich original content. 


I try to express my opinions and views on life as much as possible on my articles. As for my poetry, it doesn't get any personal than that. In fact, my poetry and music is a reflection of who I am as a person and what my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs and views are.


I Will expand my Content and expand my writing


Since I started writing online, I have only written on my blog and made a couple of youtube videos but nothing major. My plan is to write for other webpages such as wordpress, hubpages, online magazines, forums..etc..anything that will allow my content to expand. I will continue updating, writing, and building up my blog The Vane D Dayz but I don't want to limit myself to this blog only.


I Will Invest in my Online Self-Employed Business


What I mean when I say "invest" is that any business needs advertising of some form without being annoying to others. By investing in forms of advertising such as AdWords, it will help my websites to be indexed at the top of the search engines. I either invest with money or I invest with time such as using free tools to drive more traffic to my website. 


One great tool that has already helped bring traffic to my site is Pingomatic.com. Everytime I make changes to my blog or I post a new article, I enter my url and it automatically sends a message to the search engines that my website is updated. This helps to index my website and blog so that people can find my blog when they search for a particular topic.


I will Be more Serious and Take Action


When I first started my blog, my purpose was to share my music, poetry, songwriting with the world. I never even thought I could make any money with my website and I didn't take it that serious. It wasn't until a few months after starting my blog that I realized I could make money online and I noticed that the more effort I put into it, the more revenue I generated. 


Of course there has been times when I don't make anything at all and that has gotten me discouraged several times but I am not known to be a quitter. I will give it all I got and if I fail it will not be because I didn't try. I owe it to my children to at least give it a try and if I succeed it will prove that hard work does eventually pay off.


I Will read and learn as I work


One of the greatest things about being human is that we never stop learning. Even when we feel we know what we are doing, there is always something new we need to learn and improve. The web keeps changing every minute so learning and staying up to date with everything will help in building up an online business.


 Even Attorneys don't know everything and they must constantly keep up with the fast changing laws by practicing law and keeping up with changes for as long as their career is active so why should it be different for anyone else.


I Will Be More Social


As a busy mom, I rarely have time for making friends or meeting people outside of my home. Its very lonely to be me..lol..and there's times when I just feel like giving up on my social life and continue writing but I know this is hurting me more than anything. How are people going to know who I am if I don't socialize more. 


It might seem impossible but I know I could put more effort into going out more and meeting with other people that have similar interests as me. This will not only help me develop healthy relationships that may last a lifetime, but it will also enrich my writing as I am exposed to different experiences and a different atmosphere.


I will not forget my Main Purpose 


My main purpose for this online journey has and will always be to share my poetry, music, and information with others that may inspire or help others. I feel as though the only way to make this possible is if I dedicate my time to do just this but I must remember that its not about the money at all. All that I want is to be able to provide for my children while still following my dreams and goals in life. That doesn't make me a bad person that just makes me normal. 


If it was up to me, money would not exist and everything would be free. Unfortunately it was a generation of humanity that let this happen and in order to fix this we must learn how to be self-sustainable. In the meantime, these bills keep piling up and someone has to work to pay for them. We could go on and on about these social political issues but that's a whole different topic that should be included in another article and believe me, I will soon. I have alot on my mind that I need to share with the world and I know the best way I can communicate is through writing, poetry, and music. 

Thursday, July 14, 2011

VECTOR MARKETING $15/HR JOB SCAM OR NOT!!!

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?





Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I GOT A JOB INTERVIEW $15/HR IN THE RGV!!


I was browsing through some jobs when I came across Vector Marketing Company that offered students summer jobs at $15 an hour. Obviously it seemed too good to be true but I decided to fill out an application with them anyways. I mean I have nothing to lose right? 

I filled out a basic online application that didn't ask for much except my contact information, name, and a question of whether I liked working with people. I decided to enter my previous experience of working with customers in my other jobs. 

After I filled in the application, I got a message that read "you need to contact the office to setup an appointment for a job interview"  I decided to do some research about this company so I could better prepare for my job interview. I searched online and found several articles about Vector Marketing Company. I found out that Vector Marketing Company was a knife selling marketing company. 

Yes, I said that Right!! KNIFE SELLING marketing company. I thought to myself well this is interesting. It turns out that they sell knifes from CUTCO CUTLERY. Not surprising that I found most articles about Vector Marketing scams. Supposedly they target high school and college students that are too naive to know any better and make them believe that they can actually get paid $15 and hour with them but there is a catch. 

The next day in the morning I received a phone call by a girl who claimed to be Jennifer and she presented herself to be from Vector Marketing. She said she was calling to setup an interview appointment. I was already skeptic about this company so I asked lots of questions. 

Some of the questions I asked her were if I was going to be required to purchase anything and she said "no its a guaranteed employment opportunity but we only have until today so you have to come in today only". She did mention that it was a door to door sales job so I asked if I will get paid for each sale I make or per hour like it stated in the job offering. 

She proceeded to explain that the job was hourly based and I was guaranteed a job but only if I came in today. I decided to accept the interview invite. One thing I did notice about this lady that was strange was her voice was almost like if she was whispering. It was very low toned and not like her voice was like that but when you purposely lower your voice when you don't want anyone to hear what you are saying. 

I decided to keep my appointment anyways. What do I have to lose? I saw this as an investigative adventure..lol! I'm already aware that it could be to good to be true and there might be a catch but its interesting to find out what this is about. Besides whatever happens, I can always blog about them and expose the TRUTH..lol.

I will go to the interview to do some investigation but as soon as they ask me for any type of money or for me to sign anything, I'm out the door!!! Keep up with my blog and I'll keep you posted about how my job interview went. Wish me luck!!


Update: Want to know how my Job Interview went? Click here to read more.