Abbi Agency, Las Vegas Abbi Holtom Whitaker The Abbi Agency and Abbi Hotom Whitaker Don't Hire in Vegas Las Vegas, Nevada

WOW. I never thought I would see a PR company in Vegas that is so blatantly terrible at (ahem) Public Relations. The Abbi Agency takes the cake being two sided not just in private like most PR Firms and Agencies, but also towards the public, risking their reputation someplace where they are brand new: Vegas.

Vegas has a terrible economy. That much is known. After being unemployed for several months I applied for a part time position with the Abbi Agency after coming across an ad to work at a PR firm just moving to Vegas. New office, maybe opportunities to advance, right? I could not have been more wrong about the abbi agency. How deceptive!

Before I get into this let me say that I apply and get turned down for a lot of jobs. I don't always do this, however this was particularly insulting and unprofessional of the Abbi Agency, and I am not appreciative of the fact that they are just moving into town trying to take business from local PR agencies and then doing this to job applicants. Basically, they steal work, publish it without permission and post it on behalf of their clients. Clients that include contracts for thousands of dollars with the Nevada state government.

For my part, I was a sucker for buying the line that the Abbi Agency is just a small firm and can't afford to offer benefits or good salaries to their employees. Check out their website. Obviously they can afford a professional photographer to photograph their firm. Google the Abbi Agency or Abbi Holmes Whittaker and you will find that they are quite well established. The Las Vegas Sun even posted about their $100,000 Project Vesto contract that they have with the state of Nevada.

That's right, at least $100,000 in taxes from the state of Nevada is going to the Abbi Agency to promote small business and they can't afford to pay a college educated professional more than $10 an hour. Whatever. Their employees look pretty well dressed. The very week after the interview they flew Nicole Rose Dion to Texas to attend a fancy conference. Not to mention whatever they are spending flying their employees back and forth from Reno because they all hate Las Vegas so much that they would rather spend that than move here or just hire someone qualified out of the local economy. I guess that UNR/ UNLV rivalry is just that bad?

The state of Nevada by the way should be ashamed. It's not a huge secret that the majority of the population of Nevada is located in Las Vegas and thus, most of the state taxes come from employees and tourists here. It doesn't say much for project Vesto or the state that they hired The Abbi Agency at such a ridiculous price when they could have had a Vegas agency for cheaper, and they could have at least had someone that stuck to the values that they state that they are promoting. Money speaks louder than words, which is why it is pretty unbelievable that Leah Scherschel, an account executive at The Abbi Agency stated: It fits with our goal of helping Nevada. when talking about moving the Abbi Agency offices to Vegas. I hope she got the full $10 for that hour?

Read more about the Abbi Agency stealing tax dollars and pretending to care about Las Vegas: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/mar/11/joe-downtown-reno-pr-firm-opening-satellite-office/#ixzz2O2WxD5mu

Way to selling out Las Vegas taxpayers, state of Nevada. I guess we can all keep searching for underpaying jobs in vain.

The interview with the Abbi Agency for their posh new office in Las Vegas went very well and the interviewer asked me to do "a test" and create posts for the Visit Fallon Nevada social media channels. I did this and promptly emailed her these, for a TEN DOLLAR PER HOUR PART TIME POSITION at the Abbi Agency, mind you. I got no response but watched as the content I had written was published on The Fallon Nevada social channels on their Facebook and Twitter pages. I guess I got the job, right? Wrong. 

Two weeks later I got an email from the Abbi Agency telling me that they filled the "position" in their new Las Vegas office and that I was "encouraged to reapply". Why? So you can steal more work and publish it without permission. If anyone from http://visitfallonnevada.com reads this, I hope you aren't paying anyone more than $10 per hour at the Abbi Agency for work that myself and other applicants did FOR FREE just to get a terrible job in this terrible Vegas economy. 

In case you care to check out what $10 per hour stolen work looks like, check out the Fallon Nevada facebook page at http://facebook.com/visitfallon

Shame on Fallon Nevada for supporting this kind of terrible business. It hurts individual job seekers and these practices are poison to the industry. I only hope Abbi Holmes Whittaker and her TERRIBLE PR for The Abbi Agency pays back in the loss of expensive state contracts in favor of businesses who play fair in the Las Vegas market.

I have interviewed for several agencies in this area and none of them have stolen my work like the Abbi Agency has done... Including those in the fancy LV Arts district. It would be one thing if the Abbi Agency was practicing the same terrible business as all the other PR firms, but they obviously are not hurting as badly. GO BACK TO RENO ABBI AGENCY! 

See the other PR Agencies that are actually from Vegas ended up not hiring ANYONE in each case. They also did not publish anything I shared with them. The Abbi Agency, however, hired one recent UNR graduate to work in their Reno office. And one PR intern... also to work in their Reno office. They made a big to-do about both hires on their social media channels. So it's not that they didn't hire anyone.

In fact, the email I received said that the position was filled. So there you go, they found some poor Vegas fool to fill the position running the ENTIRE ABBI AGENCY OFFICE IN VEGAS for $10 per hour. They didn't even post about that poor sucker on their social channels. I guess lowly Las Vegans aren't worth the mention, especially when you are forcing them to do all of your social media posts for your social media clients that are paying you thousands of dollars to do it for them. Looking at you, FALLON NEVADA. I guess no one from Las Vegas should visit Fallon, not that anyone cares to.

Overall the Abbi Agency is smug and unprofessional. Abbi Holmes Whittaker must be some piece of work to employ a bunch of idiots that would act like this in the Advertising world, for crying out loud. Hiring idiots that steal is not just a PR blunder, it is a failure of intelligence, Abbi Whittaker. I don't know how your firm succeeded in Reno, but I hope it fails in Vegas, you can have Reno. Stop stealing tax dollars from the state though, you cheapskate! I guess Vegas is great as long as you can sucker more cash out if like everyone else. Screw you if you live here, though, right?

Maybe stolen work is what you get for $10 per hour, but I think the state of Nevada can do better, honestly. I just read your filtered Yelp Reviews. Turns out in Reno they say you hire fools that have no experience. I guess that shows what a true PR failure you really are Abbi Holmes Whittaker. The Abbi Agency is a disgrace and I hope it goes out of business ASAP. At least in Vegas.