My OperaJob hunting - A few geek tips to help everyone
Monday, February 8, 2010 7:38:49 PM
In this post I am going to detail a few tips for how to make job hunting a little easier, this is a social hack ;]
In today's economy it seems everyone is looking for work. Ready to take advantage of the high unemployment rates are companies that don't want you to work for them, they want you to pay them so that you can say you are working for them. Read on for how to avoid such scams using nothing more than a phone number and a search engine.
I have nothing against sales jobs, the thing that starts to bother me is when they post up under things like "Customer Service Positions! $15/base" On Craig's List and Career Builder, and other similar sites. I have found a few ways to weed out these negative postings though, and I'm here to share with you how Google, and a phone number, can keep you from applying for the wrong job.
Earlier today I found a job that had that exact title on CL. I called and set up an interview for 6:30 this evening. I've personally never had an interview that late, but hey, why not. I had heard the company's name before though "Vector Marketing" I thought to myself "Hmmmm, where have I heard that before" Well, a Google of Vector Marketing quickly pulled up scam report after scam report. Before I even read one of them, it hit me; my brother worked for them for about a week. He had to go around to our family trying to sell knives, and then ask if the person he was demoing to knew anyone else who might be interested in these knives. I read up a bit more and post after post was the same thing. They sell Cutco cutlery, but only after you buy a sample kit to demo out. You pay $145.00 out of pocket for these things. I called back and canceled my interview. The woman I spoke with was not the same woman I had spoken with earlier, not really a surprise.
Then another posting caught my eye. "Call Center Reps" Ok, I love call centers. I called them. I couldn't quite make out the street name the woman had given me, but I had heard this address before also. Armed with their phone number and Google at my disposal, I quickly searched for the number on Google. This is key, if you find yourself doing this, make sure to include the area code, so search xxx-xxx-xxxx in Google. This yielded me a number of results stating the number belonged to KB Promotions. A number of the posts were actually complaints about this company also being a scam company.
Needless to say, I am not employed by either of these companies. If they ever read this site, I may never be employed by them, but I'm ok with that.
This is how I am trying to help others. If you have to pay a company to work for them, they aren't worth it. Always research a company prior to an interview; this way you don't waste your gas, and your time.
If you find a company has changed numbers, update the scam boards to keep others aware.
Note: I tried searching on Bing, man, that thing gave no results that were helpful. All of Bing's listings were whitepage results that had near nothing listed, not even a company name. So, I stuck with the handy Google.
Socially yours,
PiklesOnFire
In today's economy it seems everyone is looking for work. Ready to take advantage of the high unemployment rates are companies that don't want you to work for them, they want you to pay them so that you can say you are working for them. Read on for how to avoid such scams using nothing more than a phone number and a search engine.
I have nothing against sales jobs, the thing that starts to bother me is when they post up under things like "Customer Service Positions! $15/base" On Craig's List and Career Builder, and other similar sites. I have found a few ways to weed out these negative postings though, and I'm here to share with you how Google, and a phone number, can keep you from applying for the wrong job.
Earlier today I found a job that had that exact title on CL. I called and set up an interview for 6:30 this evening. I've personally never had an interview that late, but hey, why not. I had heard the company's name before though "Vector Marketing" I thought to myself "Hmmmm, where have I heard that before" Well, a Google of Vector Marketing quickly pulled up scam report after scam report. Before I even read one of them, it hit me; my brother worked for them for about a week. He had to go around to our family trying to sell knives, and then ask if the person he was demoing to knew anyone else who might be interested in these knives. I read up a bit more and post after post was the same thing. They sell Cutco cutlery, but only after you buy a sample kit to demo out. You pay $145.00 out of pocket for these things. I called back and canceled my interview. The woman I spoke with was not the same woman I had spoken with earlier, not really a surprise.
Then another posting caught my eye. "Call Center Reps" Ok, I love call centers. I called them. I couldn't quite make out the street name the woman had given me, but I had heard this address before also. Armed with their phone number and Google at my disposal, I quickly searched for the number on Google. This is key, if you find yourself doing this, make sure to include the area code, so search xxx-xxx-xxxx in Google. This yielded me a number of results stating the number belonged to KB Promotions. A number of the posts were actually complaints about this company also being a scam company.
Needless to say, I am not employed by either of these companies. If they ever read this site, I may never be employed by them, but I'm ok with that.
This is how I am trying to help others. If you have to pay a company to work for them, they aren't worth it. Always research a company prior to an interview; this way you don't waste your gas, and your time.
If you find a company has changed numbers, update the scam boards to keep others aware.
Note: I tried searching on Bing, man, that thing gave no results that were helpful. All of Bing's listings were whitepage results that had near nothing listed, not even a company name. So, I stuck with the handy Google.
Socially yours,
PiklesOnFire
