KDS Consulting Aka KDS BIZ Deceptive hiring practices abound at KDS! Chicago Illinois

I saw the ad for KDS BIZ on Careerbuilder.com, advertising "Customer Service/Marketing" positions. Having a background in radio and CS call center work I sent my resume, and KDS responded. I should have checked this site before I ever sent off my resume.

First off, I got a "first interview", which consisted of the manager "Jered" showing me the work they do and the kind of companies they work with. I was led to believe the work would be primarily office-based, with some road work, in something of a client/account representative type of job where I would be dealing with existing customers and serving their marketing needs. Nothing I'm a stranger to; I've done plenty of business-to-business customer service and it's good work.

"Jered" also asked me if I had an interest in moving up in the company eventually; fairly standard stuff with the interviews I've had--potential employers looking for people who will stay on for a long time and help the company grow. He asked if I would like to move up to being a manager at some point, saying the company needed to expand, open at least one more office in Chicago and others across the country and that this was what he wanted to groom me for. This job also was advertised at a starting salary of $32K-$40K, so it sounded pretty good.

Well I agreed to a second, "job-shadowing" interview when I got the call-back later that evening. I went to the office on Monday of the following week prepared to schmooze clients with what I thought was a seasoned account executive.

h*o no! Nothing of the sort.

I met "Tony", who looked like he'd been out of high school for all of a year. We went down to the parking lot and I saw his car--What a piece of junk! Surely not what I expected someone making $32K-$40K, and uses their car for work, to drive. That was a major red flag.

Well we started out and before we even got two blocks I asked him, "Exactly what will we be doing today?"

His response was, "We're going door-to-door in Buffalo Grove to sell these coupon books."

Hu-WHAT!?!?

Out of curiosity I also asked what the pay scale was like. Pure commission. "But not really", he said, "because you get a set amount from each sale rather than a percentage of overall sales." That's still commission in my book. Big surprise.

I had him turn around right away. No way was I about to spend 8-10 hours pounding the pavement for free, while knocking on people's doors and hocking crap. When we got back he and "Jered" talked in their office for a few minutes, then "Tony" left while "Jered" asked me "What's wrong?"

Um, maybe the fact that your job description, both in the advertisement and in the first interview, were completely misleading?

He tried to turn it around, saying "Well what did you really expect (WTF!?!?), I told you you're a management candidate, and managers have to start in Sales and work their way up. It only takes 3-4 months (yeah right) before you enter the Management Training program."

I reminded him of the actual job description, and its implications that it's primarily office-based dealing with the actual marketing clients and NOT selling crap to the public, and he said "Well yeah, only Managers do that kind of work. You have to earn that in Sales."

Bull.

I left. Every time I see their ads on Careerbuilder.com I report it as spam (fat lot of good that does; CB rarely checks anything it seems). If you see their ad do yourself a favor and steer clear. It's all lies. LIES I tell you!

Dan
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.