Is This a Real Job Opportunity?

So yesterday at work this guy came up to me and started talking to me about how the company he works for is looking for "sharp people" and asked me for my name and number to set up an interview. He was really vague and didn't tell me anything other than that I could make more money. Today he called to set up the interview, and again he was really vague, I had to play 20 questions with him to even find out what the interview is for. I guess it's a sales rep position for a company that sells financial products and does financial consulting for struggling middle-class families. It's commission based and supposedly I would make $2000 to $3000 a month. Unfortunately I didn't think to ask him what the name of the company is.

I'm really suspicious, but I need a new job and I don't want to pass up a good opportunity. Does anyone have any experience with this type of job recruiting? Is it real or is it a scam?

It might not be a scam, but it does not sound like a reputable job. Then again, if you don't have to pay him any money and you are desperate, it might be worth a shot.

Sometimes people are cagey about financial or sale jobs, they don't want people to know they're hiring.

They have to tell you before you sign a contract.

Just be careful what personal info you give away.

Smells like a scam - or very shady at best.

Same thing happened to a former manager of mine. She went there and it turned out to be a pyramid scheme. So arrange a meeting I guess but be extremely sceptical.

How can struggling middle class families pay for financial products that will allow you to earn $2000-3000 a month? Doesn't add up. Even if the job is real, I have a feeling that those families are being ripped off. Like those door-to-door salesman targeting elderly/isolated people.

Probably not. Granted I'm a network tech and not a sales rep, but it seems that having a one on one phone conversation should have been the point at which you would have gotten as much information as you needed. Especially if he was only trying to be cagey, it was the perfect chance to be open about the company's requirements and expectations of you. No method of hiring i've ever gone through from interviews to being flown in as freelance has ever been so needlessly vague, especially in regards to what it is i'll be doing when i get there.

Recruiters go out of their way to be painfully clear about their requirements, and to provide you with information based on their business. The fact that he's looking for "sharp people" and then dodges every attempt to pin him down sounds more like he's fishing for a mark than an employee.

You do what you want to though, OP.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I decided I'm going to call the guy and cancel the interview, it's probably just a multi-level marketing scheme.

Whatever you do, make sure you don't give them money. "Commission based" jobs include scams where they get you to buy something from them, and then they tell you to turn around and sell it yourself... except you can't, and they won't let you return the product. It could certainly be something legit in sales or telemarketing, but I would say the odds are against it and as such you should be very careful.

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Originally Posted by Tuuvi

So yesterday at work this guy came up to me and started talking to me about how the company he works for is looking for "sharp people" and asked me for my name and number to set up an interview. He was really vague and didn't tell me anything other than that I could make more money.

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Now maybe I am just being Dutch, but when it comes to my long term financial security I am somewhat risk averse. So worth of mouth is okay, but not if the guy doesn't tell me upfront what he is looking for. He does not need to tell me why I should want this: we'll get to that eventually, I am not signing up in a heartbeat. He needs to tell me why he bothered to came up to me at work, and why specifically me? That story had better be convincing.

Taking it from there:

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Today he called to set up the interview, and again he was really vague, I had to play 20 questions with him to even find out what the interview is for. I guess it's a sales rep position for a company that sells financial products and does financial consulting for struggling middle-class families. It's commission based and supposedly I would make $2000 to $3000 a month. Unfortunately I didn't think to ask him what the name of the company is.

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If he doesn't want to tell me what it is for, he cannot be genuinely enthusiastic about it. I mean take the inverse: would you hire someone who does not know what job he is applying for and pay him $2-3K a month? So to my mind there's no way that this is the sort of job that people might bother to put out a job advert for, and commission does sound ominous in this context. Sales reps normally do work on commission but AFAIK that tends to be on top of a baseline wage, with clearly and explicitly defined sales targets and so on. It's all part of the contract, and this guy is clearly doing his utmost to make sure you don't have a clue as to what contract you sign. I don't see that as acting in good faith, I mean if it really is a sales rep position he could at least pitch the company you're supposed to be selling?

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I'm really suspicious, but I need a new job and I don't want to pass up a good opportunity. Does anyone have any experience with this type of job recruiting? Is it real or is it a scam?

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I do not see a good opportunity. I see a business, if you want to call it, that does not want to be pinned down on anything as such claims would then turn into obligations or provide you with legal safeguards and rights that the business does not wish to be bound by. This strongly suggest, to me, that this business is either not "stable" (it could be that it's a sort of undead entity à la SCO) or operating on the margins of the law (whether that be the way they like to treat their employees or the actual business itself).

Scam

Where are you located?

It is common for shady companies in the US to approach young people and make them offers of travel and money, and basically cornhole them into some door-to-door magazine scheme 3 states away, where basically if the kid walks his contract he has to find hiw own way home.

When I was 22 I got involved with an "political" group that was supposed to be about conservation of wildlife refuges in Oklahoma and the midwest, and found out it was nothing more than canvassing for signatures and donations, with the donations shoddily tracked, the supervisors taking a large cut, and neighborhoods filled with dumb college kids and/or senior citizens were targeted. I made the mistake of going to another town with these guys before being clued in completely on the job, because the "director" was a somewhat reputable activist and was supposed to be having an event. They dropped us in a nieghborhood and told us to start canvassing and they would be back at 7pm, it was total horse crap. A group of us walked to a Dairy Queen and chilled all day, and called a local news station to have them come do a story on us and expose these crooks. Oh, my brush with fame. I was skinny then.

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Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump

Where are you located?

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In Utah. I called the guy, and canceled the interview. He asked if he could call sometime next week, and I said yes. I'm not going to answer when he calls, but I wish I wasn't so bad at saying no :shame:

I think he is trying to lure you into one of the travelling sales/promotions jobs, they are typically advertised in the manner that this guy approached you.

Yeah, if you already cancelled once and he still insists, this is likely a scam. Generally, prospective employers aren't that desperate.

If it is scam, how would they be scamming you.

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Originally Posted by Fragony

If it is scam, how would they be scamming you.

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I already explained it above. They recruit people to be travelling sales or "promotions", which turn out to be crappy jobs, but you don't realize they are crappy until they either have you in a contract where you will have to pay back "training costs" if you breach the contract, or you will be so far away from home and have to pay your own way back

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Originally Posted by Gregoshi

Smells like a scam - or very shady at best.

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I concur. I'd recommend staying far, far away from this one.