Thursday, August 24, 2006

workin' up under my patience like a little tick

Haha, it's been an interesting day so far, and it's only half over.

Being the unemployed individual that I am, I couldn't help but notice the roughly 8 billion yellow flyers I saw posted all over campus declaring "Work For Students". I pulled off one of the little tabs and decided to check out the website when I got home. The site was extremely vague about what kind of work was involved, other than saying that it was for a company called Vector Marketing. I assumed this meant it was some telemarketing company, and considering how much I hated being called by crazy disgruntled people, I had even less interest in calling them in their own homes. But I figured there wouldn't be any harm in filling out their online application, although I became more skeptical when I saw how simple the application was (not even asking about prior job experiences or references) I became even more skeptical. Then within half an hour, someone calls me back about setting up an interview (which is 6pm tomorrow). As soon as I was off the phone, I decided it was time to check up on Vector.

It seems Vector Marketing has a long, controvertial history of ripping off students. They send students out as independent contractors to sell Cutco knives. This is after your unpaid training and the deposit and have to put down to work there. Doug told me Jon used to work for them, and he ended up losing money. There's even a group formed by former student employees called Students Against Vector Exploitation. Since they didn't give me any way to recontact them, I guess I'll be skipping that interview tomorrow.

And the job search rolls on.

1 comment:

Vernors Lover said...

I'm sorry that you didn't give Vector Marketing a chance. I spent 8 summers working for Vector in college and graduate school. For me,it was perfect. I got out of it what I put into it.

I realize that's not what some people look for in a job, but it worked great for me. I didn't have to show up at an office each day at a specific time. I set my own hours, made my own appointments with clients, and reaped the benefits at my pace.

I think that most of those Vector Marketing scam reports are from people who were expecting a traditional job with traditional hours in a traditonal office and a traditional boss. That's not what Vector is all about.