Sounds exciting right?! Let me explain. You know those direct marketing companies that hire anyone? Well, one responded to my resume on Indeed and told me they were looking for managers to join their team. They said I looked like a great fit and that they love people who have a wealth of education and experience.
They told me to wear corporate business attire to the interview and when I showed up I did an interview with a guy with a receding hairline wearing a spiffy suit in a relatively well-decorated office. He asked me all the typical questions that you get asked at interviews and then asked me to come in the next day for a follow up and an observation day to see how things were done around there.
I was pretty excited. I bought a nice suit and the next day showed up at the observation. Then as youngish guy with no sales experience (who used to be a carpenter, apparently) took me to Tim Horton's and tried to sell me the job. He told me about the intense earning potential. He explained how he now made close to $4000/week and basically could do whatever he pleased because working for this company was like being self-employed. It was a great sales pitch... he used my name many times (almost a creepy amount) and paid for my coffee and then in the end offered me the job.
I felt uneasy.
I went home and researched the company and read hundreds of reviews from ex-employees who never got paid for the work they did, and found that they don't even offer benefits, let alone a base salary.
So I didn't end up taking the job. From the offer of a manager position (which actually turned out to be a complete load of crap) to the cultish regurgitation of the sales pitch given to every single applicant, regardless of education level or experience, the whole situation reeked of creepiness.
Being unemployed is difficult sometimes. While I am focusing on my thesis right now, I still want to be bringing in a bit of an income and a job like the one offered to me would have been great, if it weren't completely disturbing. After doing my own research I found that direct marketing sales jobs like this are increasing in Canada as companies outsource their marketing to similar firms; these firms offer little to no base salary, demand regular attendance of their "employees" at unpaid training and group bonding exercises and seldom offer any benefits to their workforce. They reel people in with a convincing sales pitch and "employ", primarily, undereducated youth and young adults with little to no sales experience or education - i.e. the underemployed - who are more easily drawn in by the creepy, aggressive sales pitch offered by an almost pyramid-scheme type business model.
Part of me wishes I had the vulva to join the company, just to see how it operates and maybe write a shocking tell-all... but sadly, I just don't have the patience.
So, instead of having a job, I've been working on a paper for the ECPR conference at the end of the month and daydreaming about the amazing balcony garden I'm going to grow next year! Here are two of my favourite ideas I've found on the web:
I like how clean and simple this first one is, but at the same time, I really want to grow as many veggies as possible in a tiny space...
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| Image borrowed from fitnesstreats.com |
...which is why this one is so amazing. We are moving to the apartment above us and will have a really small walk out porch (like...only a couple feet), so the hanging bags and pots would be perfect!
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| http://newgardendesigning.blogspot.ca/2014/08/container-gardening-designs.html |
This summer isn't nearly over and I'm already dreaming about next spring.
Well, that's it for me.
Happy Thursday!
-J
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