Short terms and long cons.
NOTE TO JOB SEEKERS WHO FOUND THIS ENTRY VIA GOOGLE SEARCH: "DFDS SEAWAYS" AND "CLAUDIA WELTMANN" ARE A SCAM, A SCAM, A SCAMMY MCSCAMMERSON. RUN AWAY AND REPORT THEM TO WHOEVER YOU FEEL YOU MUST.
Holding the dubious title of Job I Hated So Much I Couldn't Quit Fast Enough was a temp assignment I had the summer of my freshman year of college, a variant on telemarketing in which we individuals manning our state-of-the-art telephones and reading off our carefully prepared scripts weren't attempting to sell a product over the phone, no, we just wanted to invite you to attend this upcoming seminar so that somebody else could attempt to sell you a product. The assignment was for four hours an evening, from 4:30 - 8:30, and was meant to last at least two weeks.
I told the temp agency that I did not wish to continue the assignment after the second evening. The combination of repeated and occasionally furious rejection and my complete empathy for their reaction was bruising my psyche in ways that not even adolescence had managed to accomplish. I have never done any cold-calling since and I'll go so far as to say that if you ever hear me speak aloud or read in this journal that the idea of such a job "doesn't seem like such a bad idea now that I think of it," please hit me over the head, wrap me in leather straps, and forcibly commit me to the nearest psychiatric facility, because what I'd really have been saying would be that jumping off the nearest tall building "doesn't seem like such a bad idea now that I think of it."
In a close second place, after the above nightmare, was the month I spent learning how to sell Cutco knives to my family and neighbors, and the one sit I managed to set up with a family friend. I stammered nervously throughout my presentation, knowing that even though I trusted the product itself, I felt rotted to my core to subject somebody I liked and respected as a person to this sales pitch, knowing that they were doing me a favor by even agreeing to hear the pitch.
Also, with the wisdom of experience, I now know that one should be wary of any job that requires you to purchase a lot of equipment as a condition of the hiring. For the Cutco job, I'd been required to purchase a $200 knife set and transport case, which I was assured would "pay for itself" after I'd made the incredible number of sales I was sure to make.
I'm certain that some of the other young men and women in the program did wonderfully with their Cutco jobs and made enough bank that summer to purchase dozens of such knife sets. This was not my temperament or talent. And after I handed my knife set back to the sales manager I felt nothing as much as shame for not having this temperament or talent.
Most of the job opportunities I've been receiving in the past three weeks, since making a concerted effort to get my resume really the hell out there, have been from insurance companies, who, in their defense, see only that I spent three years working in insurance, and cannot see that by the time I was fired I had grown to dislike the work environment, the culture of the company, and many of the people involved including myself, yet another micro-organism in the pond water of the industry. There's no place on the resume, really, to state that without damaging the rest of one's professional image.
There was a four-day ray of light two weeks ago when I believed I had managed to get my foot in the door as a professional medical transcriber. I was contacted by a company in Florida and went through several email exchanges and a transcription test that I passed with flying colors. The work was explained to me in great detail, and I was told several times that the amount of money I could make was limited only by my own abilities. As I am both a cognizant listener and highly proficient in the written English language, I grew very optimistic about the possibilities. I received confirmation that my test results were very favorable, as well as confirmation that I had been approved to be hired into the contractor pool.
Oh, but you'll need to purchase this $500 software package first, before you can start working for us.
At which point I ran their name through the website of the Better Business Bureau, and came across a host of complaints declaring this company to be a scam of the highest order.
To say I was crushed was to put it mildly. I was devastated. I was Bikini Atoll. I felt like I had been born every minute. And I knew, my fists pounding on the desk, my eyes filled with Nalgene bottles of type universal donor, that the reason they considered me such a prime mark was due to my desperation and the desperation of others sharing my anxiety. That even though they would likely have trouble finding a lot of people willing to stretch their straining budgets, they would find enough.
So now I have a question for you, those of you still reading, any of you with either an educated opinion or a strong gut feeling.
I was contacted a week and a half ago by DFDS Seaways, a Danish transportation company (that is, a transportation company based out of Denmark, not a company that transports danishes, ha ha, that joke will never get old), who said that they thought I might be interested in this position, a work-from-home administrative job dealing with communications and finance. I have been corresponding for some time now with one Claudia Weltmann, who claims to be a manager with the company, and I was recently "approved as Representative in the State of Illinois."
And, well, here's the rest of Claudia's last correspondence:
All requested forms about yourself are filled by "DFDS Seaways" Inc. Job Dept and should be reported to the "Secretary of State IL" as it require by the Federal Law of the United States. This verification process usually takes 2-3 business days. Once this step is done you will receive thru email an "Article of Incorporation" under your name as Representative of the "DFDS Seaways" Inc. in the State Illinois.
Then, after reception of "Article of Incorporation", you should, as Representative in the State Illinois, open a Business checking account at the bank near your home. While an "Article of Incorporation" is on process in the "Secretary of State IL" please inform what exact Bank you will use to opening a Business account (for example: Bank of America, Wachovia, Fifth Third, Wells Fargo).
I'll be awaiting of your message with requested information regarding the Bank Branch.
I don't know what to make of this. On the one hand, the company has so far seemed very much on the level, but the particular hoops I am jumping through in order to procure this (lucrative, I'll point out) position are incredibly unusual, at least compared to any other job for which I've applied.
They have given me a federal tax ID number that I was unable to verify by running it through a web-based FEIN-search service, although that service did state up-front that their database is comprehensive but not necessarily complete. They have given me an international phone number that I cannot call because my plan does not have an international calling component.
All I seem to have left is you. So I ask: am I getting taken for a ride here? Do I have the word "pigeon" stamped across my forehead yet again? Has anybody else had experience with this sort of work or know somebody who has, and if so, was it as good a job in real life as it has so far seemed on paper?
Holding the dubious title of Job I Hated So Much I Couldn't Quit Fast Enough was a temp assignment I had the summer of my freshman year of college, a variant on telemarketing in which we individuals manning our state-of-the-art telephones and reading off our carefully prepared scripts weren't attempting to sell a product over the phone, no, we just wanted to invite you to attend this upcoming seminar so that somebody else could attempt to sell you a product. The assignment was for four hours an evening, from 4:30 - 8:30, and was meant to last at least two weeks.
I told the temp agency that I did not wish to continue the assignment after the second evening. The combination of repeated and occasionally furious rejection and my complete empathy for their reaction was bruising my psyche in ways that not even adolescence had managed to accomplish. I have never done any cold-calling since and I'll go so far as to say that if you ever hear me speak aloud or read in this journal that the idea of such a job "doesn't seem like such a bad idea now that I think of it," please hit me over the head, wrap me in leather straps, and forcibly commit me to the nearest psychiatric facility, because what I'd really have been saying would be that jumping off the nearest tall building "doesn't seem like such a bad idea now that I think of it."
In a close second place, after the above nightmare, was the month I spent learning how to sell Cutco knives to my family and neighbors, and the one sit I managed to set up with a family friend. I stammered nervously throughout my presentation, knowing that even though I trusted the product itself, I felt rotted to my core to subject somebody I liked and respected as a person to this sales pitch, knowing that they were doing me a favor by even agreeing to hear the pitch.
Also, with the wisdom of experience, I now know that one should be wary of any job that requires you to purchase a lot of equipment as a condition of the hiring. For the Cutco job, I'd been required to purchase a $200 knife set and transport case, which I was assured would "pay for itself" after I'd made the incredible number of sales I was sure to make.
I'm certain that some of the other young men and women in the program did wonderfully with their Cutco jobs and made enough bank that summer to purchase dozens of such knife sets. This was not my temperament or talent. And after I handed my knife set back to the sales manager I felt nothing as much as shame for not having this temperament or talent.
Most of the job opportunities I've been receiving in the past three weeks, since making a concerted effort to get my resume really the hell out there, have been from insurance companies, who, in their defense, see only that I spent three years working in insurance, and cannot see that by the time I was fired I had grown to dislike the work environment, the culture of the company, and many of the people involved including myself, yet another micro-organism in the pond water of the industry. There's no place on the resume, really, to state that without damaging the rest of one's professional image.
There was a four-day ray of light two weeks ago when I believed I had managed to get my foot in the door as a professional medical transcriber. I was contacted by a company in Florida and went through several email exchanges and a transcription test that I passed with flying colors. The work was explained to me in great detail, and I was told several times that the amount of money I could make was limited only by my own abilities. As I am both a cognizant listener and highly proficient in the written English language, I grew very optimistic about the possibilities. I received confirmation that my test results were very favorable, as well as confirmation that I had been approved to be hired into the contractor pool.
Oh, but you'll need to purchase this $500 software package first, before you can start working for us.
At which point I ran their name through the website of the Better Business Bureau, and came across a host of complaints declaring this company to be a scam of the highest order.
To say I was crushed was to put it mildly. I was devastated. I was Bikini Atoll. I felt like I had been born every minute. And I knew, my fists pounding on the desk, my eyes filled with Nalgene bottles of type universal donor, that the reason they considered me such a prime mark was due to my desperation and the desperation of others sharing my anxiety. That even though they would likely have trouble finding a lot of people willing to stretch their straining budgets, they would find enough.
So now I have a question for you, those of you still reading, any of you with either an educated opinion or a strong gut feeling.
I was contacted a week and a half ago by DFDS Seaways, a Danish transportation company (that is, a transportation company based out of Denmark, not a company that transports danishes, ha ha, that joke will never get old), who said that they thought I might be interested in this position, a work-from-home administrative job dealing with communications and finance. I have been corresponding for some time now with one Claudia Weltmann, who claims to be a manager with the company, and I was recently "approved as Representative in the State of Illinois."
And, well, here's the rest of Claudia's last correspondence:
All requested forms about yourself are filled by "DFDS Seaways" Inc. Job Dept and should be reported to the "Secretary of State IL" as it require by the Federal Law of the United States. This verification process usually takes 2-3 business days. Once this step is done you will receive thru email an "Article of Incorporation" under your name as Representative of the "DFDS Seaways" Inc. in the State Illinois.
Then, after reception of "Article of Incorporation", you should, as Representative in the State Illinois, open a Business checking account at the bank near your home. While an "Article of Incorporation" is on process in the "Secretary of State IL" please inform what exact Bank you will use to opening a Business account (for example: Bank of America, Wachovia, Fifth Third, Wells Fargo).
I'll be awaiting of your message with requested information regarding the Bank Branch.
I don't know what to make of this. On the one hand, the company has so far seemed very much on the level, but the particular hoops I am jumping through in order to procure this (lucrative, I'll point out) position are incredibly unusual, at least compared to any other job for which I've applied.
They have given me a federal tax ID number that I was unable to verify by running it through a web-based FEIN-search service, although that service did state up-front that their database is comprehensive but not necessarily complete. They have given me an international phone number that I cannot call because my plan does not have an international calling component.
All I seem to have left is you. So I ask: am I getting taken for a ride here? Do I have the word "pigeon" stamped across my forehead yet again? Has anybody else had experience with this sort of work or know somebody who has, and if so, was it as good a job in real life as it has so far seemed on paper?