I applied through a job board advertisement, I believe Zip Recruiter. The very next day I was called by Victoria to come in for an interview within the week. When I arrived I was first very impressed by the young, hip atmosphere. All employees that I saw seemed in their mid to late 20s, creating a fresh atmosphere. I interviewed with one of the branch managers, Marc I believe was his name, and he made me feel very at ease and energized about a new employment opportunity. I was asked to come in for a second interview, the same day. This floored me and their speed and also made me excited.
I returned to the office for a second interview with a team leader and his trainee. He explained his own background, in exhaustive depth, and talked briefly about how the business worked, getting people to sign with the company Empire was representing and meeting people in their homes. This was my first gut feeling of unease. After this interview I met with a primary branch manager and expressed a desire to join the team, though I subconsciously had some trepidation.
That evening I received the call at 7:30pm saying I had been selected among the various candidates and asked when I could begin training. I said immediately, and was asked to come in the following morning for orientation and then I would have a full day or training following an hour break.
The next day I finally got the answer to the question I had asked repeatedly, but they shirked on numerous occasions: Is this door to door sales? Answer: Yes.
I had increased unease but wanted to see what the afternoon start-up meeting was like. Upon being introduced and congratulated for coming aboard, they began with "hoo-rah!" type activities to get everyone excited for the day, shared sales techniques (which, in my not-so-humble opinion are more like mental-manipulation techniques) and talked about how to keep numbers up.
Almost immediately afterward I was informed we were going to be going out for a full day of selling..... which is where I decided to pull the plug. I grabbed my coat and belongings, left to go out to my car and drove home... and never came back.
I did, in fact, accept the offer, but that was to give the job a chance. But once I learned that I was, in fact, door to door sales (dead of winter, mind you), I held no more interest.
The interview process itself was easy and everyone was very pleasant and inviting; however, the fact I had to dig several times to discern what the nature of the work involved was gave me some red flags.