I am unsure whether to accept this job offer

Elok · June 12, 2012, 21:14

Originally Posted by Some Dullard

FROM: Jamie@netboxmail.info

Hello,Elok I am the HR assistant Manager with First Premier Staffing, and we primarily fill labor positions.
Today I received your resume for our open position, "General Laborers- No Experience Necessary"
We are located Downtown, so reliable transportation is a requirement. Your daily requirements will be to complete all tasks and work with our team.

This is a full-time position, and pays $14.85 per hour. No experience is needed and paid training is provided. I think that you would be a great candidate,
and I would like to move you forward in the application process. The next step is to get your resume screened by Cynthia, the HR manager.
For security reasons, she only accepts resumes that are viewable on a secure website.

To continue, finish the steps below:
Step 1. Click Here http://wegiveyourPCchlamydia.com (Wait for the page to load)
Step 2. Select the job type, and enter your zip code.
Step 3. On the next page, enter your contact information, and upload your resume.

Complete these steps by 3pm, Friday June 14, 2012, or I will have to move on to the next candidate.
I cannot guarantee you the job, but I don't see why you would'nt get it, as there are 7 positions available. Good luck.

I just got this today, and I'm conflicted. On the one hand, it does sound like a pretty sweet deal. On the other, any job that offers paid training and twice minimum wage for what's called "general labor" seems pretty much guaranteed to entail large men doing unspeakable things to my anus. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Dinner · June 12, 2012, 21:27

I say go for it. You only live once, right?

:shootmenow:

Al B. Sure! · June 12, 2012, 21:31

Live.Laugh.Love

OzzyKP · June 12, 2012, 21:36

Based on the name of their site I believe your general labor entails having sex with a lot of computers.

Elok · June 12, 2012, 22:07

Yeah, I kinda changed the URL to avoid giving them search engine help there, Ozzy. The real site name was something hopelessly generic involving the words "job application."

OzzyKP · June 12, 2012, 22:08

That is way less fun.

Dinner · June 12, 2012, 23:43

Elok should have chlamydia. His aspy ass should be gotten funky so others don't have to.

SlowwHand · June 13, 2012, 01:00

Do you have a job? If you have a job, are you OK with it? If you answered "Yes" to both, blow this off.

MOBIUS · June 13, 2012, 06:50

*Laughs at Slowwie taking this seriously*

Alexander's Horse · June 13, 2012, 07:19

Originally Posted by Elok

"general labor" seems pretty much guaranteed to entail large men doing unspeakable things to my anus. What are your thoughts on the matter?

I think it has probably suffered enough.

Hi Moby

Elok · June 13, 2012, 07:29

Originally Posted by OzzyKP

That is way less fun.

I have not altered his e-mail address; feel free to write him and complain. I haven't checked, but I imagine the URL I provided has no claim on it.

Lorizael · June 13, 2012, 08:46

Oooh, Downtown. I've heard good things about jobs that are located in Downtown.

Main_Brain · June 13, 2012, 10:19

Sounds legit

The Mad Monk · June 13, 2012, 12:16

Sounds like you will be selling life insurance, or small goods out the back of your car. Both are "legitimate", but a lot of work for little return. I worked for several of these companies as a student; the only one I didn't regret was when the porduct was Cutco knives, but they're a high dollar product with a good reputation. I would say go ahead and check it out, and if you don't like what you hear, walk away. If you like what you hear but don't get the results you want, walk away.

Don't bother putting them on your resume, in any case.

Elok · June 13, 2012, 13:49

TMM, I got this by responding to a Craigslist ad; the "job" in question almost certainly doesn't exist, and all the details are made up simply to entice people to go to their website and do something to help their bottom line for free. Possibly it would involve downloading something nefarious. More likely I would get a little ways into the process before signing up for a credit report as a formality to ensure I was a trustworthy person. Or I would be a "mystery shopper" buying merchandise for reimbursement that never comes (possibly for merchandise that never arrives either). My favorite is the busy jet-setting executive who's traveling around for the next couple of weeks but is willing to "give you a try" by having you run a couple of errands for him before he gets back. Anyway, you can tell there's something fishy by the low skill requirement, the high, specific compensation, the ridiculous YOU MUST CALL NOW notice...

If it were just a lousy sales job and not an outright scam, they would list an utterly outlandish range of compensation like "$100-500K a year!!" with the tacit understanding that it could be achieved by a sufficiently "motivated" seller. There's a pattern to these things.

The Mad Monk · June 13, 2012, 13:53

Are you kidding me? Buy today's paper, check the want ads, you'll see that exact offer, or something very much like it. The format hasn't changed in twenty years.

Elok · June 13, 2012, 14:24

Not in any paper around here. Not in my experience, anyway. Certainly nobody pays WaPo fees for rubbish like that. That's standard internet scam right there, right down to the you-must-respond-now nonsense. Bad sales jobs follow an entirely different pattern.

Oncle Boris · June 13, 2012, 14:30

Is $14.85/hour all that great?

What has the US become?

The Mad Monk · June 13, 2012, 14:30

Well of course it's not going to be in the WP, how many high school dropouts read the WP?

loinburger · June 13, 2012, 14:40

I actually responded to one of these things when I was a student (it was in the school paper instead of email spam), where basically I'd sell mortgages to people, working on commission. My first (unpaid) training session was to accompany a seasoned scam artist to a home visit. The family we were visiting had two kids, a husband who had been unemployed for nine months, a wife who didn't work, a $400,000 house, and over $60,000 in credit card debt, so the guy I was shadowing promised that if the people took out another loan then everything would be better. He also offered some sound financial advice as to how to avoid going deeper into debt, such as "maybe switch to generic cola."

Elok · June 13, 2012, 14:58

OB, minimum wage is $7.25. Twice that isn't great, but for a general-labor (read: basically unskilled) job that offers paid OTJ training to boot, nuh-uh.

Originally Posted by The Mad Monk

Well of course it's not going to be in the WP, how many high school dropouts read the WP?

You said today's paper, but fine, I don't think they pay to put it in a podunk paper like the Easton Star-Democrat either. My point is, this is plainly a scam, not a hidden sales job. I've responded to (but not actually bitten) plenty of both, and there are distinct differences to their approach. The crap-sales jobs don't make you jump through pointless hurdles like going to a website to fill in information for "security purposes" (which doesn't even make sense). There's no reason for a skeezy sales job to give even the most minuscule fraction of a **** about my resume. They hard-sell you the job the way they want you to sell, by making personal contact and steamrolling you into it: "okay, so you'll be working X selling X to X and here's how you do it..."

Elok · June 13, 2012, 15:00

Originally Posted by loinburger

I actually responded to one of these things when I was a student (it was in the school paper instead of email spam), where basically I'd sell mortgages to people, working on commission. My first (unpaid) training session was to accompany a seasoned scam artist to a home visit. The family we were visiting had two kids, a husband who had been unemployed for nine months, a wife who didn't work, a $400,000 house, and over $60,000 in credit card debt, so the guy I was shadowing promised that if the people took out another loan then everything would be better. He also offered some sound financial advice as to how to avoid going deeper into debt, such as "maybe switch to generic cola."

Excellent! On the plus side, you at least didn't have to pay for training, and I know you had to learn something.

loinburger · June 13, 2012, 15:02

I have been drinking generic cola ever since

I was lucky to learn that it was a fake/evil job in time to get a legitimate summer job

The Mad Monk · June 13, 2012, 15:20

Originally Posted by loinburger

I actually responded to one of these things when I was a student (it was in the school paper instead of email spam), where basically I'd sell mortgages to people, working on commission. My first (unpaid) training session was to accompany a seasoned scam artist to a home visit. The family we were visiting had two kids, a husband who had been unemployed for nine months, a wife who didn't work, a $400,000 house, and over $60,000 in credit card debt, so the guy I was shadowing promised that if the people took out another loan then everything would be better. He also offered some sound financial advice as to how to avoid going deeper into debt, such as "maybe switch to generic cola."

That sounds very much like the life insurance job. I walked on that on the second day.

Elok · June 16, 2012, 16:18

I just got an identical job offer from a different address telling me to click on a different site. I hope sandrab@netboxmail.info enjoys the exciting penis enlargement offers she'll no doubt receive from my posting her address here.

Sava · June 16, 2012, 18:28

I say take the job. Be sure to give them your bank information and social security number.

DriXnaK · June 16, 2012, 19:22

I thought your background was in writing or something? Why are you applying for telemarketing jobs?

Elok · June 16, 2012, 19:36

I'm not. Writing doesn't pay bills, so I'm applying for whatever jobs are available to a person of my limited skillset in the present POS economy. The ad mentioned is a scam offer of a type very common on CL, meant to attract people with my limited skills (only dumber). You reply for a job offer that sounds reasonable enough, and they send you a wave of BS offers trying to get you to, say, go through their credit-report service as a "pre-hiring precaution." There are a number of variants, but they all set off red flags from the very first e-mail. I only posted this one because it's a perfect storm of stupid.