Dodgy
I just had the strangest job interview experience ever. It was so bizarre that I just had to document it somewhere, so I guess I’m bringing my journal back to life, even if only for today. Here’s the story…
Last Friday I get a call from The Niko Group. They say they found my resume on Monster and were wondering if I was still looking for a job. I tell them I am, and they schedule me for an interview on Monday. My interview time was noon; I arrived at around 11:50. I walk in and feel like I have just entered a doctor’s office. There is a waiting room with 10 chairs and a receptionist sitting behind a little glass window. Five ‘patients’ are reading magazines while waiting for their names to be called. I tell the receptionist who I am, and she hands me a clipboard with some forms to fill out. If not for the fact that the other five were all wearing suits I would have been sure I’d entered the wrong office. I fill out my papers, return them to the receptionist, and take a seat. I think to myself “Great, he is running late and I’m going to be here for hours while all of these people are interviewed.”
A girl comes out of a door and leaves the office. A man appears and calls another girl in. She reappears five minutes later and another patient is called in. I think to myself ‘Man, she must really be dumb to only have a five minute interview.” Five minutes later the same thing happens again, and then again. I find it very strange that these interviews are only taking five minutes. Finally I am called in; I too have a five minute interview. Eddie asked me very general questions about what kind of career I was searching for and then told me I sounded like a good match for his company. He says his company does all of the marketing for Cingular and Bell South. It is all outsourced to them. I thought this sounded great, marketing is what I want to be doing, and these are huge companies that I already know a lot about. He goes on to say that he was just doing a general screening that day and anyone he liked was going to be invited back for a second interview the next day. He asked me to come back, and I agreed. I left at 12:25…35 minutes after arriving, and after seven complete interviews had taken place. I thought the ‘screening’ thing was a bit odd, but figured maybe he just really wanted to give everyone a fair chance and see everyone in person rather than choosing a few to call in from a pile of 100 resumes.
I arrive this morning about five minutes before my 10am scheduled interview. There is one other person waiting. This is a good sign, at least there aren’t five... The other three shortly arrive. The five of us sit and wait. At about 10:10 Eddie comes out and congratulates us all for making it to the second interview. He says he screened 120 people and only us five were called back. (Yeah right, he probably had another five coming in at 11am) He tells us to please read a magazine and he will be with us shortly.
At 10:30 Eddie calls in the first person. One minute later he calls in the second. Wow, these interviews are even quicker than day one! Another minute later I am called in. I am introduced to Rudy, he will be interviewing me. We leave the office through a different door. I think we are going to another office to have the interview. He tells me we are going to Kendall (we were at an office in Hollywood). “Kendall! Why are we going to Kendall?” I ask. “Because that’s where I work,” a valid response, but still not making much sense. This was our conversation as we were leaving the office:
Rudy: Did you have breakfast today?
Alanna: Yeah, I had some toast.
Rudy: Oh you went out to breakfast! Where did you go?
Alanna: No, I ate at my house.
Rudy: Oh, you made breakfast at home, what did you make?
Alanna: I just made some toast…at my house…
He was a bright one. He told me to follow him to Kendall. I should have known that interviews for normal jobs tell you to meet where ever you are going to have the interview, but for some reason I agree to go with him to Kendall.
We arrive at a shopping center in Kendall just past 11:30. Let me just add that he was the worst driver I’ve ever seen. He went totally out of his way and made a giant circle, and then later cut across 4 lanes of traffic because he was in the left lane and needed to exit. He just really drove like shit. So anyway, we get there and walk into a Cingular Wireless retail store. I find this a bit odd, but follow him in. We go into the back where there is actually a pretty large office. I have a seat and he tells me he will be right back; he is going to change his clothes. He was in a suit up until this point. He returns in a Bell South polo shirt. This is just getting stranger and stranger. We go out to the sales floor.
He goes around telling all of the female customers how much he loves their shirts/purses/earrings/bracelets. Then we go over to his little corner of the store and he finally tells me what the fuck we are doing there. Bell South and Cingular have now merged, and since they are one company now Bell South is putting salespeople in Cingular stores to try to get customers to sign up for a new plan that will save them money. He tries to sell this new plan to everyone in the store while they are waiting for a Cingular rep. to help them. He starts out by introducing himself and getting their home number. He then calls someone, tells them the number, and they pull up exactly what is covered in their Bell South account, as well as how much they pay monthly. The average bill was about $32-$35 a month. Rudy was trying to get them to sign up for this new plan that would give them all of the same features plus more for only $28 a month.
Now I am a business major, and I know that when a company is making $35 a month from a client they would not hire a salesperson to go out and try to convince everyone to pay them $28 instead. There has to be some catch, because a profit seeking organization would never do that ‘just to be nice.’ Rudy promised the clients that $28 would be the rate forever, not just for an introductory period, but maybe he was lying, who knows. I don’t know what the catch was, but I’m positive there had to be one. The customers knew this too. We were there for two hours, and during this time he only got two people to sign up for this new plan. If it was really so great I think more people would have signed up.
He told me that the main reason why I was there was so he could observe how I interacted with the customers. A little past our half way mark he also told me that he was observing to see how I reacted when a client was negative, to find out what kind of attitude I had. There is one big problem with this whole thing-we were in Miami, and most of the customers didn’t speak any English. I was basically just standing there the whole time, smiling and nodding, while he had conversations with them in Spanish. I had no idea what they were saying, so how was I supposed to react to it? The whole thing was just really stupid.
During the times when there weren’t any customers in the store he was asking me random questions about my past jobs. They were stupid, pointless questions; not the normal questions I am usually asked at other interviews. One example: he asked why I left my position at Warner Brothers. I told him it was a summer internship and I went back to school. He’s like “No, but why did you leave, did you not like it? Did they not like you?” And I’m like “It was a summer internship, when the summer is over you no longer work at a summer internship. I was in college and I went back to school.” He was just dumb.
I tried to ask him questions during these times as well, but he just dodged around them. I never got one straight answer from him. Here is how some of our conversations went:
Alanna: So if I were to work for this company, would I be placed in a mainly English speaking region? Because clearly I can’t communicate with the majority of the customers here.
Rudy: Eddie is a smart man; of course he wouldn’t put you in the middle of Hialeah.
Alanna: But I mean, we’re not in Hialeah now, and still hardly anyone speaks English.
Rudy: You are really getting ahead of yourself, if you are offered a position you can discuss this.
(Gee…I thought things like WHERE YOU WOULD BE WORKING would be discussed during the interview…silly me)
Alanna: So I see this is more of a retail setting, I imagine it’s not a Monday-Friday 9-5 job. What would the hours be like?
Rudy: Monday-Friday, 9-5.
Alanna: Are those the hours you work?
Rudy: Why do you want to know when I work?
Alanna: Because you are working in the position that I am applying for, your hours could be my future hours. So when do you work?
Rudy: Well, because I am a trainer and have been here for a long time I get the best shifts.
Alanna: And what are those shifts?
Rudy: I still don’t see why you want to know when I work.
Alanna: Because I am applying for a job. Most offices are only open weekdays from 9-5. You are working in a retail store, obviously the hours are different. I want to know when I might be asked to work.
Rudy: They will go over everything with you if you are hired.
(Again, whatever was I thinking?? Wanting to know the hours I’d be working, how silly of me)
At 1:45 he said it was time to leave the store. Finally! I was really getting tired of just standing around while everyone spoke Spanish around me. He asked if I was hungry, I said yes, he said “Good, me too, let’s finish this over lunch.” There is a McDonald’s a few shops down. He asks if I want to go there. I’m like “Well we can, but I’m not going to eat anything there.” “Why not?” “I don’t eat food from McDonald’s.” “Why?” “I just don’t. I think it’s gross. We can still go there if you want but I just won’t eat.” “Well, it’s too crowded anyway, let’s go to this bagel place instead.” We enter a bagel place, order bagels and sit down.
He begins to tell me about the different position levels. Everyone is hired as an Account Executive. That is your title during training. After 2-3 weeks you move to either a Supervisor or a Trainer. After 6-7 months you move to Assistant Manager, and then at some point move to Manager. He told me that Account Executives make between $35-40,000 a year, and Supervisors and Trainers make $45,000. Here is the conversation that followed.
Alanna: So the account executives make $35,000 a year, and a trainer would make $45,000?
Rudy: Yes
Alanna: And after you are an account executive for 2-3 weeks you would move up?
Rudy: Yes
Alanna: Well this doesn’t really make sense to me. How do you go from making 35 to 45 in just two weeks? Why would they give you a raise this quickly? And why do you even bother saying it’s $35,000 for a year when it’s only going to last 2-3 weeks?
Rudy: No one has ever asked me that before. You are smarter than most of the people I interview.
Alanna: Thank you, but can you answer the question for me?
Rudy: Well, you might not move up after 2-3 weeks. That’s just how long is might take.
Alanna: So then how long could it take to move up?
Rudy: A month, maybe more. It depends on the person, when they are ready to move up.
Alanna: Alright, well I see that the target end position is manager, is that manager of an office?
Rudy: Yes
Alanna: Well, with all of the people you are hiring, it really doesn’t seem like you will need that many office managers. Does this position require relocating?
Rudy: Do you want to relocate?
Alanna: I would relocate for the right position. Does this position require it?
Rudy: It could. Would you relocate?
Alanna: For the right position.
Rudy: You are really getting ahead of yourself though. You haven’t even been offered the position of account executive yet and already you are thinking about relocating to become a manager. You should really wait until the time comes.
Alanna: But you are telling me that the goal of a new-hire account executive is to eventually become an office manager. Shouldn’t I be informed if this will require me to relocate?
Rudy: It might.
After this lovely chat he calls Eddie. Eddie is in a meeting, Rudy asks to have Eddie call him back ASAP. Then he asks me to tell him all about my trip to Europe, off the record of course. So I tell him all about it. That, of course, is one of my favorite topics to talk about, I can go on and on. He didn’t believe that you could fly from London to Barcelona for $50 round trip. I told him you could, and also pretty much anywhere else in Europe for about the same price. He told me that his family was from Columbia but escaped to the states when he was little because guerillas were trying to kidnap them.
After about 20 minutes he calls Eddie back. He tells me he is going to give his recommendation as to whether or not he thinks Eddie should hire me. I ask if I should leave for this. I though just maybe he’d rather me not be there while he is talking about me. He says “No, stay stay. This is a very open company. We let everyone know what is being said about them.” So he talks to Eddie and tells him he thinks I would be good for the position. Eddie asks to talk to me. He tells me I’m hired and to come back to the office at 9am the next day, before I can ever say anything else he says goodbye and hangs up. Rudy asks what he said, I told him he hired me, Rudy gets all excited and congratulates me. Here is our final conversation:
Rudy: So I’ll see you tomorrow at 9 then?
Alanna: Well, what is the pay like? I know you said $35,000, but is that straight commission? Is there a base?
Rudy: There is a base salary and commission.
Alanna: Well...now that I’m hired, how much is each?
Rudy: Everyone makes good money, they are easy sales. If you aren’t making sales and making money you’d be fired, so everyone makes good money.
Alanna: Alright, but what is the base?
Rudy: There is a base if you don’t reach a certain amount in commission, but everyone reaches.
Alanna: So it’s 100% commission if you sell over a certain amount?
Rudy: Yes
Alanna: And what is that amount?
Rudy: People usually make about $700 a week.
Alanna: But what is the base amount?
Rudy: It doesn’t matter. You will make at least $700 a week, if you don’t they’re not going to keep you.
Alanna: OK…fine.
Then we said our goodbyes and I left. From the time I got to the Cingular store I already knew I wasn’t taking this job. I’m not really sure why I stayed for so long. I guess I just wanted to see what would happen, and I was already all the way in Kendall, after driving so far might as well stay for a bit. I mean come on, I have a business degree from UM, and this is basically a retail job. UM business school graduates don’t get full time jobs in retail. This whole company was just so shady. The whole screening thing, and the coming back for a second interview in Hollywood and ending up in Kendall, that was just weird. And Rudy would not give me a straight answer on a single question I asked. It was almost like they trained him in how to dodge job related questions. Actually, they probably did, hahaha.
I got home at 3:30, six hours after I left. This is officially the longest job interview I have ever been on. As soon as I got home I searched the internet to try to find out what the hell was up with them. I found these articles:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff151993.htm
So I guess this is just what they do to everyone. What a fucked up, shady company. Obviously I’m not going to work for them, but I just wish I hadn’t wasted an entire day with them. Oh well…I guess it’s a story to tell. If anyone is looking for a job in the future stay away from The Niko Group / Niko Laos Enterprises!
Last Friday I get a call from The Niko Group. They say they found my resume on Monster and were wondering if I was still looking for a job. I tell them I am, and they schedule me for an interview on Monday. My interview time was noon; I arrived at around 11:50. I walk in and feel like I have just entered a doctor’s office. There is a waiting room with 10 chairs and a receptionist sitting behind a little glass window. Five ‘patients’ are reading magazines while waiting for their names to be called. I tell the receptionist who I am, and she hands me a clipboard with some forms to fill out. If not for the fact that the other five were all wearing suits I would have been sure I’d entered the wrong office. I fill out my papers, return them to the receptionist, and take a seat. I think to myself “Great, he is running late and I’m going to be here for hours while all of these people are interviewed.”
A girl comes out of a door and leaves the office. A man appears and calls another girl in. She reappears five minutes later and another patient is called in. I think to myself ‘Man, she must really be dumb to only have a five minute interview.” Five minutes later the same thing happens again, and then again. I find it very strange that these interviews are only taking five minutes. Finally I am called in; I too have a five minute interview. Eddie asked me very general questions about what kind of career I was searching for and then told me I sounded like a good match for his company. He says his company does all of the marketing for Cingular and Bell South. It is all outsourced to them. I thought this sounded great, marketing is what I want to be doing, and these are huge companies that I already know a lot about. He goes on to say that he was just doing a general screening that day and anyone he liked was going to be invited back for a second interview the next day. He asked me to come back, and I agreed. I left at 12:25…35 minutes after arriving, and after seven complete interviews had taken place. I thought the ‘screening’ thing was a bit odd, but figured maybe he just really wanted to give everyone a fair chance and see everyone in person rather than choosing a few to call in from a pile of 100 resumes.
I arrive this morning about five minutes before my 10am scheduled interview. There is one other person waiting. This is a good sign, at least there aren’t five... The other three shortly arrive. The five of us sit and wait. At about 10:10 Eddie comes out and congratulates us all for making it to the second interview. He says he screened 120 people and only us five were called back. (Yeah right, he probably had another five coming in at 11am) He tells us to please read a magazine and he will be with us shortly.
At 10:30 Eddie calls in the first person. One minute later he calls in the second. Wow, these interviews are even quicker than day one! Another minute later I am called in. I am introduced to Rudy, he will be interviewing me. We leave the office through a different door. I think we are going to another office to have the interview. He tells me we are going to Kendall (we were at an office in Hollywood). “Kendall! Why are we going to Kendall?” I ask. “Because that’s where I work,” a valid response, but still not making much sense. This was our conversation as we were leaving the office:
Rudy: Did you have breakfast today?
Alanna: Yeah, I had some toast.
Rudy: Oh you went out to breakfast! Where did you go?
Alanna: No, I ate at my house.
Rudy: Oh, you made breakfast at home, what did you make?
Alanna: I just made some toast…at my house…
He was a bright one. He told me to follow him to Kendall. I should have known that interviews for normal jobs tell you to meet where ever you are going to have the interview, but for some reason I agree to go with him to Kendall.
We arrive at a shopping center in Kendall just past 11:30. Let me just add that he was the worst driver I’ve ever seen. He went totally out of his way and made a giant circle, and then later cut across 4 lanes of traffic because he was in the left lane and needed to exit. He just really drove like shit. So anyway, we get there and walk into a Cingular Wireless retail store. I find this a bit odd, but follow him in. We go into the back where there is actually a pretty large office. I have a seat and he tells me he will be right back; he is going to change his clothes. He was in a suit up until this point. He returns in a Bell South polo shirt. This is just getting stranger and stranger. We go out to the sales floor.
He goes around telling all of the female customers how much he loves their shirts/purses/earrings/bracelets. Then we go over to his little corner of the store and he finally tells me what the fuck we are doing there. Bell South and Cingular have now merged, and since they are one company now Bell South is putting salespeople in Cingular stores to try to get customers to sign up for a new plan that will save them money. He tries to sell this new plan to everyone in the store while they are waiting for a Cingular rep. to help them. He starts out by introducing himself and getting their home number. He then calls someone, tells them the number, and they pull up exactly what is covered in their Bell South account, as well as how much they pay monthly. The average bill was about $32-$35 a month. Rudy was trying to get them to sign up for this new plan that would give them all of the same features plus more for only $28 a month.
Now I am a business major, and I know that when a company is making $35 a month from a client they would not hire a salesperson to go out and try to convince everyone to pay them $28 instead. There has to be some catch, because a profit seeking organization would never do that ‘just to be nice.’ Rudy promised the clients that $28 would be the rate forever, not just for an introductory period, but maybe he was lying, who knows. I don’t know what the catch was, but I’m positive there had to be one. The customers knew this too. We were there for two hours, and during this time he only got two people to sign up for this new plan. If it was really so great I think more people would have signed up.
He told me that the main reason why I was there was so he could observe how I interacted with the customers. A little past our half way mark he also told me that he was observing to see how I reacted when a client was negative, to find out what kind of attitude I had. There is one big problem with this whole thing-we were in Miami, and most of the customers didn’t speak any English. I was basically just standing there the whole time, smiling and nodding, while he had conversations with them in Spanish. I had no idea what they were saying, so how was I supposed to react to it? The whole thing was just really stupid.
During the times when there weren’t any customers in the store he was asking me random questions about my past jobs. They were stupid, pointless questions; not the normal questions I am usually asked at other interviews. One example: he asked why I left my position at Warner Brothers. I told him it was a summer internship and I went back to school. He’s like “No, but why did you leave, did you not like it? Did they not like you?” And I’m like “It was a summer internship, when the summer is over you no longer work at a summer internship. I was in college and I went back to school.” He was just dumb.
I tried to ask him questions during these times as well, but he just dodged around them. I never got one straight answer from him. Here is how some of our conversations went:
Alanna: So if I were to work for this company, would I be placed in a mainly English speaking region? Because clearly I can’t communicate with the majority of the customers here.
Rudy: Eddie is a smart man; of course he wouldn’t put you in the middle of Hialeah.
Alanna: But I mean, we’re not in Hialeah now, and still hardly anyone speaks English.
Rudy: You are really getting ahead of yourself, if you are offered a position you can discuss this.
(Gee…I thought things like WHERE YOU WOULD BE WORKING would be discussed during the interview…silly me)
Alanna: So I see this is more of a retail setting, I imagine it’s not a Monday-Friday 9-5 job. What would the hours be like?
Rudy: Monday-Friday, 9-5.
Alanna: Are those the hours you work?
Rudy: Why do you want to know when I work?
Alanna: Because you are working in the position that I am applying for, your hours could be my future hours. So when do you work?
Rudy: Well, because I am a trainer and have been here for a long time I get the best shifts.
Alanna: And what are those shifts?
Rudy: I still don’t see why you want to know when I work.
Alanna: Because I am applying for a job. Most offices are only open weekdays from 9-5. You are working in a retail store, obviously the hours are different. I want to know when I might be asked to work.
Rudy: They will go over everything with you if you are hired.
(Again, whatever was I thinking?? Wanting to know the hours I’d be working, how silly of me)
At 1:45 he said it was time to leave the store. Finally! I was really getting tired of just standing around while everyone spoke Spanish around me. He asked if I was hungry, I said yes, he said “Good, me too, let’s finish this over lunch.” There is a McDonald’s a few shops down. He asks if I want to go there. I’m like “Well we can, but I’m not going to eat anything there.” “Why not?” “I don’t eat food from McDonald’s.” “Why?” “I just don’t. I think it’s gross. We can still go there if you want but I just won’t eat.” “Well, it’s too crowded anyway, let’s go to this bagel place instead.” We enter a bagel place, order bagels and sit down.
He begins to tell me about the different position levels. Everyone is hired as an Account Executive. That is your title during training. After 2-3 weeks you move to either a Supervisor or a Trainer. After 6-7 months you move to Assistant Manager, and then at some point move to Manager. He told me that Account Executives make between $35-40,000 a year, and Supervisors and Trainers make $45,000. Here is the conversation that followed.
Alanna: So the account executives make $35,000 a year, and a trainer would make $45,000?
Rudy: Yes
Alanna: And after you are an account executive for 2-3 weeks you would move up?
Rudy: Yes
Alanna: Well this doesn’t really make sense to me. How do you go from making 35 to 45 in just two weeks? Why would they give you a raise this quickly? And why do you even bother saying it’s $35,000 for a year when it’s only going to last 2-3 weeks?
Rudy: No one has ever asked me that before. You are smarter than most of the people I interview.
Alanna: Thank you, but can you answer the question for me?
Rudy: Well, you might not move up after 2-3 weeks. That’s just how long is might take.
Alanna: So then how long could it take to move up?
Rudy: A month, maybe more. It depends on the person, when they are ready to move up.
Alanna: Alright, well I see that the target end position is manager, is that manager of an office?
Rudy: Yes
Alanna: Well, with all of the people you are hiring, it really doesn’t seem like you will need that many office managers. Does this position require relocating?
Rudy: Do you want to relocate?
Alanna: I would relocate for the right position. Does this position require it?
Rudy: It could. Would you relocate?
Alanna: For the right position.
Rudy: You are really getting ahead of yourself though. You haven’t even been offered the position of account executive yet and already you are thinking about relocating to become a manager. You should really wait until the time comes.
Alanna: But you are telling me that the goal of a new-hire account executive is to eventually become an office manager. Shouldn’t I be informed if this will require me to relocate?
Rudy: It might.
After this lovely chat he calls Eddie. Eddie is in a meeting, Rudy asks to have Eddie call him back ASAP. Then he asks me to tell him all about my trip to Europe, off the record of course. So I tell him all about it. That, of course, is one of my favorite topics to talk about, I can go on and on. He didn’t believe that you could fly from London to Barcelona for $50 round trip. I told him you could, and also pretty much anywhere else in Europe for about the same price. He told me that his family was from Columbia but escaped to the states when he was little because guerillas were trying to kidnap them.
After about 20 minutes he calls Eddie back. He tells me he is going to give his recommendation as to whether or not he thinks Eddie should hire me. I ask if I should leave for this. I though just maybe he’d rather me not be there while he is talking about me. He says “No, stay stay. This is a very open company. We let everyone know what is being said about them.” So he talks to Eddie and tells him he thinks I would be good for the position. Eddie asks to talk to me. He tells me I’m hired and to come back to the office at 9am the next day, before I can ever say anything else he says goodbye and hangs up. Rudy asks what he said, I told him he hired me, Rudy gets all excited and congratulates me. Here is our final conversation:
Rudy: So I’ll see you tomorrow at 9 then?
Alanna: Well, what is the pay like? I know you said $35,000, but is that straight commission? Is there a base?
Rudy: There is a base salary and commission.
Alanna: Well...now that I’m hired, how much is each?
Rudy: Everyone makes good money, they are easy sales. If you aren’t making sales and making money you’d be fired, so everyone makes good money.
Alanna: Alright, but what is the base?
Rudy: There is a base if you don’t reach a certain amount in commission, but everyone reaches.
Alanna: So it’s 100% commission if you sell over a certain amount?
Rudy: Yes
Alanna: And what is that amount?
Rudy: People usually make about $700 a week.
Alanna: But what is the base amount?
Rudy: It doesn’t matter. You will make at least $700 a week, if you don’t they’re not going to keep you.
Alanna: OK…fine.
Then we said our goodbyes and I left. From the time I got to the Cingular store I already knew I wasn’t taking this job. I’m not really sure why I stayed for so long. I guess I just wanted to see what would happen, and I was already all the way in Kendall, after driving so far might as well stay for a bit. I mean come on, I have a business degree from UM, and this is basically a retail job. UM business school graduates don’t get full time jobs in retail. This whole company was just so shady. The whole screening thing, and the coming back for a second interview in Hollywood and ending up in Kendall, that was just weird. And Rudy would not give me a straight answer on a single question I asked. It was almost like they trained him in how to dodge job related questions. Actually, they probably did, hahaha.
I got home at 3:30, six hours after I left. This is officially the longest job interview I have ever been on. As soon as I got home I searched the internet to try to find out what the hell was up with them. I found these articles:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff151993.htm
So I guess this is just what they do to everyone. What a fucked up, shady company. Obviously I’m not going to work for them, but I just wish I hadn’t wasted an entire day with them. Oh well…I guess it’s a story to tell. If anyone is looking for a job in the future stay away from The Niko Group / Niko Laos Enterprises!