Gibson Rose, Cydcor, San Francisco Marketing, EMERYVILLE, CAGIBSON ROSE, Mislead interviewees, 100% Commission, False Profits Emeryville California

First off, I should say that I did not work in or for the particular office in question at the top of this thread.

That said, I must say I'm actually surprised at the amount of replies that seem to indicate a lot of disonesty on the part of the Cydcor affiliates during the recruitment process.

I worked for almost 4 months at a Cydcor office, and they were incredibly upfront with the main features of this line of work; it's straight-commission, it's door-to-door, and it's ungodly hard work. I remember thinking how much I didn't really want the job at all coming from my second interview, but for some reason I decided to give it a shot.

For one, I didn't have to lie or deceive when it came to selling. Our office was selling the new Verizon FIOS service, which essentially offered a better product at a cheaper price for the vast majority of the consumers we sold (or tried to sell) to. Therefore, every rep made good money most of the time. The only trying part came during a two-week period when the "leads" we were given by Verizon dried up, and we all had to go into already heavily worked territory. I almost quit right then, and I'm still not sure to this day why I didn't.

I mostly stayed for as long as I did because the "workforce" was comprised of people just like me; young, hardworking recent college grads. Sure, a lot of the behavior during "atmosphere" was pretty retarded, and I can see how that coupled with the long hours can appear "cult-ish", but there were benefits to getting along with the coworkers, and all having the same mindset.

The best example I can give; despite the strict dress code and all, they were plenty of mornings where the vast majority of us would stroll in hungover and barely on-time (if not a few a minutes late), and what is the manager going to when his reps are barely able to stand up...fire us? Tell us to go home for the day? Not likely, especially if he's only going to make money if we do. Therein lies my other two cents; a Cydcor office is set up perfectly for mutiny if the reps want it.

The reason why I finally quit, and where my only real frustration lies, is in the "Crew Building" process, which is the essential fruit of becoming a manager, and of the whole business itself. You have to "earn" the right to get interviews, which is perfectly acceptable, however this is more dependent on the manager and his Administrator doing a good job on their end of bringing in first -day interviews and convincing them to stay on for that crucial second.

I don't how many times I was a top-3 seller for the day prior, only to come in and find out there was only one 2nd interview, if at all. The hardest of course is not actually getting interviews, but getting them to stick. I've had a few where I made good money on that day but they still wanted nothing to do with the business, and other interviews that were so giddy to have a job they took it anyway, but they were just horrible reps who quit or were even fired within a week.

In short, even though 4 months is well short of the "general" timeframe to become a manager, I saw enough factors that are beyond your control which must fall ever-so-nicely in order for you to seriously advance in the company, I decided to leave. My decision to leave was made more urgent when all the reps started making less money when the leads "dried up" again.

Yeah, the no gas money, no benefits and all is borderline terrible, but I was told this. It was just my own stupidity, I guess.

-R
-Nashua, NH

well it looks like enough has been written here already. but i just thought you all should know that i have never had a "boss" who cared about me and my family's well-being as much as Rich. and i probably never will again.

now.

does everyone become a manager? of course not.
99% of people who started at Gibson Rose knew that. as a matter of fact i told most of them to their faces while i was there.


do they still want to try and prove it to themselves? of course they do. its a good feeling to overcome something so difficult.

and of course many people have come and gone. even me. and MY office. to each his own.

now, since leaving california, i have had an unbelievable amount of success with companies and job offers yadayadayada. and i have Rich and Gibson Rose and Jason and SAS and mentors at CYDCOR to thank for my success today.

Best wishes.

Ryan
GMG

I'm a former Gibson Rose employee. I worked there for about 3 months on the UPS campaign, until I realized that it was complete BS.

Anyway, I was interested to read all these postings after I tried to call Gibson Rose recently to inquire about a reference check for a new job I'm applying for.

Their phone number is disconnected. Does anyone know what happened to them? I'd be interested to hear some stories...

Well "Rich" Im not sure which Rich this may be it certainly is not the owner of the company considering I speak with somewhat regularly.

First NO I did not go to Jail because I could not pay the Bills. (I dont even know if that is possible) (I did spend the night in the drunk tank for partying a little too much)

And no I don't ever think I was in a slump so bad that it was two accounts in 3 months. I will say and agree I was not the superstar sales guy on the hot sheet every week heck I was barely mediocar, But I learned a ton from working there.

1. I learned how to work my a** off. I have never had a position in my life that taught me to work so hard and I appreciate it everyday. In my current position I was being told how my first year will be very tough work and everyday I laugh at how this work is nothing near what I did at GibsonRose. I out work all my co-workers who dont know what a true "Full Day" is and I am reaping the benefits from it.

2. I learned how to comfortably speak with anyone. I was never a shy guy to begin with but If you have ever worked for a Cydcor company you will know that you speak with hundreds of people a day from all levels in the business world. In my current position when training I was able to hit the ground running. Our company recently hired a new guy and He just has not had that kind of experience and I can tell when I hear him speak with clients he just doesn't have that confidence yet.

3. 4,5's & 8's While working for GibsonRose I kinda always felt these were rather chesey but they do hold true. I use the 4s in my job I hear other people use them (they dont know them as the "4s" obviously) but it was an interesting concept that I still apply today. I have the 8's posted on my cubicle. I see when my co-worker looses his attitude that his day typically turns to s**t. These are cetainly things I would have most likely figured out but the drilled in and it has played a role in my success today and it will continue to in the future.

4. Taking Control: Gonna try and keep this short but it is a huge part of what I do now and still I am learning more about this

5. How to budget my money. Like I said I was never really that great at this business so I had to learn to be frugal.

6. I learned that Sketchers makes a supperior Business shoe that can withstand insane temperatures and intense prolonged walking with out causing pain to your feet.

7. I learned that time kills deals

8. I learned excellent time management.

Theres probably some more stuff if I really sat and thought about it.

To whoever wrote that response I did learn allot of things (unfotunately spelling wasn't one of them) and without the experience I got from GibsonRose I would not be in the position I am today. I feel bad that you were not able to take away anything positive from your experience. there.

I hope you are happy with where you are today and learning more.

My last statement again will be:

THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OWN YOUR OWN BUSINESS NOT A 9-5 WITH THAT SAID IT TAKES LOTS OF TIME, $$$$, RISK, AND HARD WORK. Not everyone will succeed and if you dont; learn from YOUR experience and use it to your advantage.

Blake, you are saying that you learned a lot. Please tell us how much money you made. I hear that you made 2 sales in 3 months. Is it true that you went to jail because you couldn't pay the bills?

I don't know why my response I wrote yesterday was not posted... I'll keep this one short.

First off no hate towards Rich he's just stuck believing all the hype he's been preaching for all these years. You say it long enough you'll believe it.

I was walking home from my office in the finacial district in San Francisco on 6/6/06 and saw T**** walking door to door obviously training some gal to peddle door 2 door. My question is why is she not in Denver realizing her dream like you said she would be Febuary 15th? From the personal attack on another thread by one of your monkies Jessy it seems that the Denver deal was a go! But the 'owner' is back here doing the same thing she was when I left. What kind of life is that? I mean you guys have been at this for a long time, when's it pay off? I mean you did it, but R*** failed T**** failed what's that 1/3 that's called a loss. And really Rich we know you made a little monbey here and there but I would bet your not doing that well. I would find it very hard to believe that you break 100k a year. That is not a lot of money according to the Cydcor timeframe for success. I would say that to keep up appearances you might consider living the lie. But I assume most of whatever savings you have makes up for the bad months and keeps the office running.

T**** once told me that you told her that you didn't have the 10k she needed to open the office in Denver cause you had to pay 16K for office furniture???? Why would you hold on to her money anyhow? At least Denver worked out for 3 months right?

I would say pack it up move on. There's no major companies that are run and operated by kids, so why would you expect to be part of some different revolutionary concept? It is a poor business model at best. You claim to teach people invaluable skills??? Come on people learn that job in 3 days. It's like your telling ice cream scoopers they will be CEO's some day!!!

Good luck I will bet one of my nuts that your life will have taken a totally different direction in 10 years. Hopefully for the best.

T,

Thank you for the advice. I think I won't take myself seriously.

Also, to the further up response.
Blake..."Vince Vaughn"... I got nothing but love for ya. Let's get together for lunch.

Rich

Rich,

You say "our intensions are not to mislead people." You took it as a compliment when "G" said you weren't an evil person. Yet you know perfectly well that the whole Cydcor/DS-MAX pitch is nothing but a fabric of lies. For example, how about all the phony ads that claim the job is a "management training program" or that it involves "B2B marketing?" What a laugh! Since when does a door-to-door, 100% commission sales job qualify as a "management training program?" Going from business to business hawking phone service is NOT "B2B marketing." But, nobody would even come out for a job interview so you can "spin" them if you told the truth, right?

I am not condemning you personally, nor even your mentor Jason Winkler who taught (brainwashed) you most of what you know. Both you and Jason are intelligent, and have many positive traits. However, I don't know how either one of you can continue to be party to the flimflam that Cydcor/DS-MAX promotes. Everyone on this board knows about it. The emperor wears no clothes.

Grow up. Stop leading people astray into a business cult. Try to stay within the boundaries of honest business practice if you even know how. Also, stop taking yourself so seriously--have a little fun, and go get a life while you're still young enough to do it!

Grey Weasel in Berkeley

In defense of Rich's office I must have looked at this in a totally different way... When I interviewed with the company it went just like any other interview I have ever had. They slowly tell you only as much as you need to know. I have been on plenty of interviews with many companies and its always the same you dont show them everyhting your doing right away. You show them step by step.

What I understood from my interview was that this was an oppurtunity to own my own business. I was told it was all commision. I worked a full day with me leader/manager and realized this is hard work. Any time someone wants to start a their own business it will take time, money, risk, and hard work. Just to use the statistics that were previously qouted 99% percent of people who want thier own business never try or fail at creating it and 50% of the businesses that get up and running fail within there first year. It has nothing to do with Cydcor or GibsonRose or how hard you worked or how "brainwashed" you felt Just sometimes the cards dont fall the way you want... when I took my interviews out I always explained everything to them very clearly that this is a way to own your own business and with that comes time, money, risk, and hard work.

So if people who worked for this company for a long time felt that thier hiring practices were immoral then it was your fault because when you took the guy out for his interview it was your job to explain the business...

I learned a lot from GibsonRose and all together it was a very positive experience.
5 things I can now put on a resume:

Sales Experience
Interviewing experience
training experience
management experience
recruiting experience

I got a lot of help from Rich and Ryan and all though I was probably one of the people who should have been let go earlier I still appreciate everything that I was taught there. And all in all they are great people and I miss seeing them in the morning.. Take care guys!!!

Vince Vaughn
Ps. I was gonna type "the song" for old times sake but I thought it might look wierd...

Rich,

First off, I'd like to say that I appreciate your response. I can understand why you would be offended by my posting, and I think that your response was good, and for the most part, fair. You took a couple of low-blows at me, but they weren't too degrading, which I think is the reflex reaction that most people would have. So, thanks.

You asked me not to write about your company, and I've said most of what I have to say, so I'll keep it short, but I do want to mention three things:

1. I don't have a problem with you, Rich. You're right, do come from similar backgrounds. I think you're a good guy who worked his a*s off to get where he's at, and I respect that. I don't respect what you do for a living, but that's okay with me. That is why I feel comfortable going to the apartment that you live in with friends of mine and saying hello to you on the street. I don't see myself as two-faced, just of having the opinion that Cydcor is not a good company. That opinion is backed up by several thousand other people on this site and others. I don't feel the need to come up to you in person to tell you that, but if that's the way you feel I should have handled it, then I guess we just agree to disagree.

2. My purpose in posting on this website was not to defame your company or you, Rich. Rather it was to just let people know what they are getting themselves into when they decide to work for a Cydcor office, since the managers themselves do not truthfully educate their employees as to how the company operates. My problem is with the company as a whole and the way that the individual offices (including yours) represent themselves to potential applicants. It's just not accurate. The profits that are quoted are not accurate, the ability to be a successful manager (or even make it to manager) is not accurate, and people are not made aware of what type of "job" they are actually getting when they are hired. While I worked for Cydcor, my guess is that over 150 people were hired in by your office. Of those, 1 was promoted to manager, and he failed within a couple of months. So much for a "great opportunity." With those odds (1 out of 150), people would nearly have a better chance of getting drafted by the 49ers than becoming a Cydcor manager! And these drawbacks are not readily apparent; unfortunately it took me months before I started to question some of the things I saw going on around me at your office.

3. I like your Huxley quote, Rich. The one I'd like to add is the one where "if you lie to yourself long enough, you begin believing the lie." Even on this site, you keep preaching that someone can become a manager in 10-14 months. Highly, highly unlikely. As are most of the other fantasies that Cydcor promotes.

Finally, I could really care less whether or not you email Jason these postings. As I've mentioned many times here already, I don't have a problem with the people who work for Cydcor, I don't like the system that the company promotes. I liked Jason; I think he's a great guy. But in my mind he epitomizes the Cydcor manager; he made a lot of money off the work of his field reps. He wasn't exactly rushing to promote the opportunity; you even said so yourself that his "recruiting curve" was bullshit.

I could keep going, but I've said enough. Funny that we haven't even mentioned that the products Cydcor reps sell are mostly rip-offs for the consumers. You even said to me yourself that you knew when you signed someone up for an AT&T account, that the customer was probably going to be screwed. I think that's when I realized that I definitely didn't want to work for this company. I wish you no ill will, Rich, but thank God I'm out...

In Response To G,

To G. Scott. You write pretty well. Now it is my turn. This is Rich Robertson, the owner of GibsonRose. For anybody who wants more info:

First of all, for those reading, there are some who are probably upset, those who are curious, and those who are learning about these companies. My advice is if you want a genuine performance based pay and promotion opportunity, and if you like or want to develop business sales and real management skills, then working for an affiliate office may be for you. I make these last comments because it is true that we were on commission. It is true that I personally (as the owner) get paid for the performance of my office. If I and my company didn't make money, we would not be in business. It is also true that Owners/Mgrs make more money by promoting more managers. This would make sense. More offices equal more customers for the clients. So, Managers are financially motivated as well as personally motivated to provide the same opportunity to people in their office that they were given. So, by helping people below you, you help yourself. Some may look at this as a negative. Why in the world? I have no idea. It's a win-win situation.

A little background of the past year of my company. The year that G worked. I had moved my office from Oregon to San Jose. Moving, however, was not mandatory for me as I chose to move. G was working in the office that I was originally promoted in. It's funny, G and I are sort of similar. Both English Lit. majors, from similar middle class families who work hard. I was promoted to the Mgmt/Owner position; G wasn't. Anyways, I truly believe he could have been. But over the course of that year I was his Mgr for 6 months. You see, my original Mgr, Jason, who is now a dear friend, was his employer for the first 6 months. (G, I can't wait to email Jason your ripoff report; I'm sure he'll be surprised.) In that year, G had two Mgrs and worked on 4 campaigns. AT&T, UPS, First Horizon, and IMS. Now, our company and org. is challenging enough just having and learning from 1 management style on 1 campaign. So, my hat is off to G because he did well with the 2 mgrs and 4 campaigns, which is why I believed he could have been a great Mgr. If you are reading, understand that what we do has to be very challenging because we are preparing an entry-level person (10-14months) to be the business sales/ direct marketing mgr for a Fortune 100 client (i.e. UPS, AT&T, Intuit) for a Metropolitan City like San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver etc. It's not easy, nor do we want people to think it is. One last thing about the past year to add is when we switched from working on the UPS campaign (a very easy campaign [lower commissions]) to a much more challenging campaign (Intuit [much higher commissions]) my office went from over 50 associates to under 10 within 1 month. Many of my associates thought the campaign was too hard. I found out much later that most of the associates were not working very hard on the UPS campaign. Meaning they would sign up 1-2 accounts and then take the rest of the day off. Of course, they were in for a surprise when the campaign became more difficult. G told me that he actually went on interviews while pretending to be working. You could have just told me you were not happy.

Gabe says that we will hire anybody. This is a false statement. Though , I admit I have made some hiring mistakes, and I've let people stay in my company too long who should have moved on. I'm 26 and I don't have it all figured out yet. As he mentioned, I make money based on how well the people in my office do. So, if somebody does not do well it is not benefit to me. And I take no pleasure in seeing people not do well. Now, I have a recruiter, Tush is his name, who is in charge of reading resumes. We are looking for people who either have a college degree or experience exemplifying their people and/or management skills. We then conduct a face to face interview where I tell the candidate that we are hiring for business sales w/ management opportunities. If I believe the person maybe a quality to asset to our team, then I may invite them in for a full day interview where they will actually observe the business sales first hand to see if they like it and to see if we feel that they can be successful doing it provided that they bring a positive mental attitude and a work ethic each day. On that interview, we also go over the commission breakdown and the steps leading to management. So, our intensions are not to mislead people, and we don't hire anybody. Gabe, your right though, we should never hired some of those clowns especially the ones who were not serious or who did not work a full day. We also should have gotten rid of a lot of people when they were not showing signs of progress. I admit that last year I hoped that people would eventually make the positive changes required to achieve here, and that they didn't.

On a final note, G mentioned that he had 3 friends that still work for me. It's 4 Gabe now that Tush is back from London. I'll be sure to let them know that you believe they will fail in my office since you don't believe they will run their own. However, my only goal is to see those 3 who have learned so much over the year to be in their own office in the first quarter of 06. Tugba is in Denver on Feb. 15th. It's already approved. Thanks for saying that I wasn't an evil person. I think you know that what gets me up is to see my people hit their goals and do well.

For all readers, when G started he was very new to the work force. I remember him not being very confident, he couldn't sell himself to say the least, and he had no real leadership experience. When last he was in my office before quitting, he had expert communication/sales skills. He had mentored other associates in a business sales environment fairly successfully and he a greater grasp of the business world than his English Lit degree had provided him with. I'd say he was more marketable. and he learned a ton more than he would have most other places in that year. Furthermore, he told me that he felt disappointed in himself but that he felt that he had learned so much and even though disappointed, he was very grateful for the time spent. After the 2nd week in his new company, he does sales/recruiting for a medical/nursing company, he told me that he out performed everybody else that worked there due to implementing the things he learned with us. I congratulated him. G, do you think you would have gotten the job that you now really really like if you hadn't worked here.

Since he quit he has eaten in my home on more than one occasion and played basketball with my roommate. I even ran into him the other day in Barnes and Noble. This was after he wrote this ripoff report. He wished me a merry Christmas and I did the same to him.
Gabe, I've always wished the best for you and still do. But, I would advise to say give up the two-face persona and say what you want to say to the person in person. You know that any disputations of what I have written here would be a lie. Please don't write about my company anymore. Enjoy life and be grateful for what you EXPERIENCE and remember Experience is not what happens to a man. It's what a man does with what happens to him. - Aldus Huxley

Liar liar pants on fire....Mr. Rohnert Park. If you want to repost your real name I'll be more than happy to tell everyone on here why you really left the company... Obviously it is not because you "woke up and split" as you put it or you wouldnt have lied about your name. To answer your question I am still very much in touch with them which Is how I know that noone from Rohnert Park with the name Joe has worked there in 2005,..so shady...Mr. Rohnert Park. ...but to answer your question, I had mentioned earliier that I worked there for a while, but I broke my leg which made the field difficult, I was not there for only a month, longer than that and will go back, (still in touch see) ....any other questions?

Well Danny one month later and no longer with SFM care to tell us what happened?

Why?

Yes I KNOW for a fact you no longer work for SFM, so....

Please enlighten us as to why you became part of that 99% stat Randy B. loves to spout.


Recent SFM Graduate
(IE. I woke up and split)

Mr. Hill,

Your sarcasm and condescending attitude are obnoxious. I'm don't understand why you feel it necessary to attack me personally. If you feel that Cydcor is such an important institution that you need to make low-balled attacks in its defense, then there's really not much left for us to talk about. I know that I'm not going to convince you of anything -- which was never my goal in the first place. As I've said before, my reason for posting on this site was just to provide education about Cydcor to anyone who is thinking of working or interviewing with the company. It's not surprising that you've really had no response for the crux of my argument -- instead relying on generalizations like, "Some of your facts are exaggerrated and wrong, some of your facts are correct and legitimate."

I agree with you that there are people in Cydcor who are awesome, charismatic, and honest people. I'm sure that there were members of the n**i Party who were awesome, charismatic, and honest people. The existence of a few people with good intentions doesn't mean that we should not fault a corrupted system that takes advantage of people.

All I can say is that I'm with the majority opinion on this one, Danny-Boy. Many more people have written negative things on this site about Cydcor than positive ones. And while the majority doesn't automatically make the opinion correct, it does make it convincing. I would bet that there are more negative responses about Cydcor on this site than any other employer. Shouldn't that tell us something?

So all I can say is that I'm glad I'm out. And with that, I'm out.

If you were in the company for that long then you know, better than most, that all the company wants is for the entire thing to be as integrity driven and honest as possible,. you have heard the leaders meetings in Los Angeles, you have been to a top gun event (i would hope) after over a year...ha-ha so you know that any misleading is done at a branch level individually and not condoned nor encouraged AT ALL BY ANYONE. You know that if you didn't make it it was only you or your managers fault. Not all of Cydcor, that's retarded. Cydcor discontinues working with branch managers whom are dishonest. You guys are all correct in your grievances, it is hard and there are bad people out there that are not 100% honest. THATS EVERY BUSINESS......but again thats why the girl that randy promoted who you say was dishonest, DOESN'T WORK WITH CYDCOR ANYMORE,,, she and the others are the bad seeds, THEY ARE THE ONES CYDCOR TERMINATES CONTRACTS WITH, not the good managers who do NOT deserve to be slammed. So if there are so many people that do make it to management, and you have met so many of them, how come you didn't??? And better yet, get there and do it the right way? Cause you quit. Oh sorry, you decided like everyone else on this site that it just wasn't for you anymore,...riiiight. Oh and by the way, did I tell my second interviews that 99% of people don't make it to management?? YES, and so does Randy, he makes it very clear that the field is designed to weed people out, and then he says look to the left look to the right most people don't make it and there is maybe one or two people in this room of 30 that MIGHT make it, so touche. Again my point is that there are good offices out there so dont slam what you dont know.

You wrote...

"That unanimity shows not that I'm assuming, but rather that it's legitimate for me to state that if I experienced something negative at Gibson Rose, most likely that same thing was experienced by someone else at another office,"

Again the only point I ever tried to make in the post was that assuming is assuming and it shouldnt be done. Either way you slice it ,it is assumptive. FACT!

So in closing some of your facts are exaggerrated and wrong, some of your facts are correct and legitimate,.. hence you are no better than those you condemn. We should start a new website called quitters and liars just about you guys on here who claim they were brainwashed and mislead. Ha ha what did they do, drug you, put something in the water?? NO you believed it because it is true, you worked so hard for the dream, then quit when the going got tough... thats it, thats all . You are not that naive to be brainwashed, and if so I feel for you,, and if it is all that evil and fake then you should have figured it out a lot sooner , not after a year. ha- ha but it is true and you know it. Just like that last relationship you were in where everything was beautiful and you were in love, until maintaining a healthy relationship got tough and challenging and you look back at that person and blame them for all of it... a finger pointer. Take some accountability would you all. Lots of people try out for the olympics and never get to compete, lots of people start bands and never record a single,, are those venues evil too?.....ridiculous.

See you all later .. hahaha (cant wait to see the next post, I love how this fires you guys up soo much yet everyone else goes back to life and lives on) if you regret so bad the year you wasted, (then just to give up on yourself and quit) then dont even respond. Seriously, dont respond to this, if you do it will just be another 10-15 minutes you will waste in your precious life... ....and didnt you waste enough already???

Mr. Hill,

Ah yes... the classic Cydcor response: "If you didn't succeed it must be because you failed as a person and you're bitter about it." Like so many other phrases that you hear loyal Cydcor reps say, this one is also taught by the company as a response to someone who says anything negative about the business.

Actually, if you read the several hundred Cydcor and DS-Max postings on this website (a huge majority of which are overwhelmingly negative), it's amazing that you hear the same things over and over again: people feel like they were ripped off, they feel like they were lied to, and they feel like they sacrificed their time, money, and often sense of self in search of a goal that wasn't that realistic in the first place. It's not that people are upset because they failed, it's because they feel they were intentionally mislead, and want to warn others not to follow the same path.

Those several hundred uniformed responses tell me a couple of things. First, we have a large enough sample size at this point to feel pretty confident that the negative things people say about Cydcor, are in most cases true. Say what you will about one Cydcor office differing from another, but the truth is that they are all run pretty much the same. In fact, they are contracted to do so; the managers are required to run the offices in a certain way. Believe me, I know, I've been to a dozen or so, and they're all very similar. And these negative comments about Cydcor on this website aren't about a couple of people out on the fray who are upset about something specific that happened to them. Rather, it's about people all across the world, in many different countries, having a set of common negative experiences with Cydcor and DS-Max. That unanimity shows not that I'm assuming, but rather that it's legitimate for me to state that if I experienced something negative at Gibson Rose, most likely that same thing was experienced by someone else at another office, whether it be S.F.M. or wherever. Secondly, it is people like you, Mr. Hill, who look like idiots to the rest of us who know the truth and understand the Cydcor busniess model. Because it is you who is assuming, Mr. Hill; I have, in fact, been to the San Francisco Marketing office, I have met Randy Bernard several times, and I do know that he has promoted several managers who have failed. In fact, I know first-hand, one of the managers Randy promoted who lied to her crew to such an extent that they didn't even know they were working on commission!

To be honest, I think your criticism of me is a little off-base. I don't think I was extremely critical of S.F.M. or Randy Bernard. I think I tried to present the Cydcor business model in a fairly straight-forward way. Certainly others on this website have talked much more negatively about Cydcor. I tried to talk about the ways that it has been positive for some, but negative for most. My biggest beef with Cydcor isn't that I failed to become a manager, it's the way that they failed me. I thought I was getting a job that I had earned, but of course that wasn't the case. My main concern with Cydcor is how they recruit new people to keep the company going. They lie to them. The ads on monster.com and craigslist do not accurately reflect the work a person does at a Cydcor office. And it's pointless for someone to go to an interview at Gibson Rose, not like what they see, and then go interview at S.F.M. Which is what happens all the time. I'd rather save people the trouble, let them know what the real story is, and then let them make up their minds for themselves. If Cydcor's intentions really are noble, why doesn't Cydcor take a recruiting approach like that of the financial investment firm, Edward Jones, who has a similar management training program, and whose website clearly describes what a person can expect if they work for the company? And if you say that S.F.M. is 100% integrity-driven, did you honestly tell each one of your Day of O's that 99% of the people who start working for Cydcor are never promoted to manager? Because that is the carrot that is dangled in front of each interviewee -- the allure of management. But in reality, that is unlikely to happen.

Finally, you commented on my decision to remain anonymous. Ironically, it is the fact that like you, I have a few friends who still work for the company, and don't feel that it's my place to unfairly influence them with my comments. Like I said before, my main goal in posting on this site was to inform people who are considering working for Cydcor. My friends understand the company model, they have probably perused this website, and still feel like they can continue to work for the company. Which is fine; it's not my place to tell them to do otherwise. As long as they know the facts and are happy with them, then I'm okay with that.

By the way, my 3 friends who still work for Cydcor have put in a combined 6 years with the company at this point. Are any of them managers? Of course not. In fact, they're not even close. How long is it supposed to take to become a manager: 10-14 months? Yeah, right.

This person claims to have worked at one branch for x amount of time. I simply feel that making assumptions about another branch on the other side of San Francisco, that this other person never worked in or experienced, is assumptive and simply wrong.

I understand if he/she wants to comment on GIbson Rose and the experiences he/she personally had, but again feel it is generally wrong to criticise or condemn something supposedly happening in another location where you simply never spent any time. I write this because I did work in the other location and have watched with my own eyes a one hundred percent integrity driven environment, a manager who does not over promote and does everything he says he is going to do , and basically because of keeping in touch I know and have met over ten people that Randy has promoted to management that run very successful companies all over the country, I worked with a lot of them in the field myself. So anyways , readers out there , believe what you want, but dont forget the person who writes that they worked in a similiar company for over a year and unfortunately never reaped the rewards he/she was hoping for,....well he/she is probably upset, discouraged and it is human nature to blame everyone but him/herself.

Anyways ta ta for now, and unlike the original author whom had so many damaging comments to write about a company he never worked for , called S.F.M. in San Fran, and then never even have the courage to leave his or her name,...(which tells me that, anonynous,whoever that is,maybe they are a little disapointed in themself and lashing out a little for thier wasted time, I am more than happy to tell you my name,

Daniel Richard Hill

Hello Anonymous,

There is an msn user chat group called ds-max the aftermath. In case you did not know, cydcor is an offshoot of ds-max. Any insights that you have would be appreciated on our site. That was a nice way you broke everything down.

Good luck to you now that you are out.