Bait and Switch

I just got off the phone with my uncle Rich (Herb's brother) who had a message for my dad: (in very strong Boston accent) "Tell your fathah that I have an issue that needs to be settled: I know a girl who wants to get in to Saint Mike's and she needs your fathah to show her around. Now here's the thing: academically she's mediocre, but you should see her. She makes it up in looks and personality." My uncle Rich networks and uses connections better than anyway one else I know. He wasn't asking my dad for a favor but he's smart to use these connections anyways. He even went through the people-who-like-coffee-networks in my family for when I start selling coffee next month: "your uncle Glenn, yeah, he would like free coffee, and you uncle David, he could use a free cup, and I'm at Starbucks 365 days a year, every day. You don't believe it's possible but it is." Even though using connections could have helped me get my potential job, I'm sort of proud that I got it on my own. Looking back on my job search, one thing stands out that I've wanted to write about for awhile.

As difficult and annoying as the job search process can be, the worst part is that not only are there tons of crappy jobs out there to sift through, there are also the pyramid and ponzi schemes to watch out for. I had one such encounter with an entry level "no experience needed" job at Nova Marketing. This is Barbara Ehrenreich's classic "Bait and Switch." Perhaps I should have been warned by the job description:

[All openings are FULL-TIME and need to be filled A.S.A.P.!!
There is no experience necessary. If you are a new graduate, or someone who is aggressively pursuing a change in careers, please APPLY! ]

No experience? Should I be a good guy? How bout a team player? In fact, there was no job description, the base pay was "n/a," and the amazingly poor website playing techno music should have tipped me off that there was nothing of substance here. What does Nova marketing do, who are they? Of course it is just some random marketing company in Woburn, MA with a nice name like NOVA. Fortunately at the top of a google search on the company I found two people complaining about them. I decided to go the interview (getting one the day after I sent my resume in - with no cover letter) anyways just to see for myself and to make things interesting. Sure enough, I got there and while I waited, about 20 other people must have been called in with the receptionists: "well, the sooner you can come the better. We have lots of openings." Surprisingly, I did not get a group interview but got to meet the president herself: Kate Malone. Kate talked a mile a minute while her fingers snapped on keywords like: "We work with DARE (snap), 100 other national (snap) businesses, etc." After only 10 minutes of speaking with perhaps one of the most fake people I have ever met and not being asked a single question about my past or who I really was she asked me when I would be ready to start. But first, it was my turn. I asked how much the salary was and she said that we would talk about that in the second round interview (the one where you work an entire day for them for free). I then said that I was a poor college graduate and needed to have an idea of how I would live my life working for NOVA. She said that most people make about $30,000 their first year but the second they can, not all the time, jump up to $65k! "Wow," I said, "that's great." But unfortunately when I asked about the base salary she said we can't discuss that at this time and then asked with a frown whether I had a problem with working on commission?

I suppose all of my questioning didn't get me called back for the second round but it was an experience to remember and I'm glad I went. I still don't know how this job got on career builder.com