Competitive Marketing Concepts - Competitive Consulting - Kismet Concepts deceptive/purposefully vague interview process/pyramid scheme pay structure Austin, Texas

First off, I'd like to echo every other sentiment found on these reports, I experienced exactly the same thing, right down to the same confused/sad individuals who were interviewing me.

I had seen their ambiguous sales/management trainee hook posting on several sites (I responded to a posting on Craigslist and read that others had seen it on Careerbuilder/Monster) so was slightly confused about it but wanted to take a chance, especially given how difficult it was to find a good job. 

I showed up for the interview and noticed several others waiting, which I view as a good thing given that there should be competition for a job otherwise it's not going to be worth anyone's time, but in retrospect I just feel sad for the other people who were also convinced to show up.  After filling out a generic questionnaire which asked little beyond what was already on my resum, I was brought in by the head of the company who told me that my resum/extra curriculars looked great and very fitting for the job.  I was flattered, of course, but immediately started to become suspicious because (not going to lie) I'd just finished my Bachelor's in English Lit and had little to no extra curriculars whatsoever. 

I asked quite a few questions about the nature of the business and was told that they believe in a grassroots approach to business, which I can respect.  I didn't know this meant going door to door and they purposefully avoided telling people until the second round - field work, I assumed, meant business to business and not cold calling people in the middle of the hot Texas sun.

I hesitated when my team manager (or some other title they give to those crazy enough to stick around) and a few other people were all planning/arguing about who needed to waste gas this time to drive to the field, but went with it.  I didn't have anything else to do and am a decent salesman so I figured I could try it.  I was desperate for a job.

What followed was one of the most hellish 6-8 hours of my life.  Between my team manager arguing with his girlfriend on his cell phone over 50% of the time and the fact I was wearing a suit to my "second round interview,"  by the end of the 0 sale day I was pretty frustrated.  At lunch, talking with the other employees I realized that the majority of them did not have college degrees, which immediately made me feel like I was either wasting 8 hours listening to this nonsense, or that I had wasted 4 years continuing my education.  I decided the first was more appropriate. 

Meanwhile, this was also the portion of the "interview" where I learned how the pay structure worked, which ultimately they guestimate how much you might make the first week, after you've progressed to team lead/after you've been working their 2 years and get to open your own version of this scheme in another state.  I asked them what the difference was in pay structure between the first and second tiers and they couldn't give me an answer (hint: there is none) beyond more experience yielding higher commissions which led me to conclude that this was the worst pyramid scheme ever - the suckers at the top are just as big of suckers at the bottom.

As far as the actual work-knocking on people's doors and begging them to upgrade to a different cable package, I had never seen such aggressive and rude salesmanship.  I am generally a very polite person, so when I hear "No, I am not interested" I understand and respect that, but my team leader (as I imagine some do in this 100% commission situation) continued to press the issue, going so far as to insult a few customers (to their face, more than that behind their back once we had passed that house) who were only justifying their reason for trying to get us to not come to the door at dinnertime.

After walking around suburban neighborhoods for 6 hours we headed back to the office for the 3rd round interview, which was basically just a pop quiz/few remaining questions to see how much I had payed attention.  Unfortunately, there was little about my manager's relationship problems on the quiz, so I BS'ed the majority and wow, I was hired.  Amazing.  I declined the position, respectfully, and thanked them for giving me a chance at the interviews.

I don't have a problem with this type of work, I imagine a lot of their employees do quite well and feel fulfilled, but the ambiguity and deceptiveness of the interview process frustrated me to no end.  It wasn't the job I was looking for, and if I had been able to decide that without wasting my and their time we'd all be much better off.