penthesilea: Every time my sister calls me up to tell me that she has landed an Awesome New Job I have to google the company's name with the word scam. She never seems to call me *before* she has handed over a good size check.

Some people lack BS detectors.

Is your sister hot?

The company I work for requires you to pay $100 for one background check and the book to study for your first state license. We run two background checks. The company actually spend $2000 per new hire on background checks, training and licensing. Some people do complain and refuse to pay it. When they complain, they're asked "If you were going to spend a lot of money to hire and train a person, wouldn't you want something from them up front, so you'll know you're not going to waste your money?"

Trance750:
Respectable companies place 'help wanted' ads in news-papers, not on Craig List

Actually, it's mostly the other way around, now. That's part of the reason newspapers are losing so much money - they can't even sell want ads any more.

It's really funny, though - you'll get stories like this from pretty much all of the "reputable" news organizations, like papers and TV stations - the same folks who "hire" interns to work 40 hour weeks, and don't really teach them squat. Our local weekly used to whine about Wal-Mart only paying $9/hour for new hires, while the paper had ads for unpaid interns in the same issue.

Any company that asks you to give them money first, or work for free? Not worth working for. If they can't afford to roll in the costs of hiring, they probably can't afford to pay you in the first place...

Great Janitor: The company I work for requires you to pay $100 for one background check and the book to study for your first state license. We run two background checks. The company actually spend $2000 per new hire on background checks, training and licensing. Some people do complain and refuse to pay it. When they complain, they're asked "If you were going to spend a lot of money to hire and train a person, wouldn't you want something from them up front, so you'll know you're not going to waste your money?"

No legitimate employer makes applicants pay a fee as a condition of employment.

LouDobbsAwaaaay: Trance750: Respectable companies place 'help wanted' ads in news-papers, not on Craig List

Actually, Craigslist is huge for businesses to advertise in. It costs nothing and it goes almost everywhere. The newspaper, by comparison, is a dead medium.

THIS. Got my current job through Craigslist. I've been working there for the last year...

/ my local newspaper is lacking, IMHO.
// it's good for reading the crime reports (LOL), but not much else.

stiletto_the_wise: Great Janitor: The company I work for requires you to pay $100 for one background check and the book to study for your first state license. We run two background checks. The company actually spend $2000 per new hire on background checks, training and licensing. Some people do complain and refuse to pay it. When they complain, they're asked "If you were going to spend a lot of money to hire and train a person, wouldn't you want something from them up front, so you'll know you're not going to waste your money?"

No legitimate employer makes applicants pay a fee as a condition of employment.

I applied for a job at a hotel and I didn't have to pay for my drug test there. My current job wanted me to have a drug test and do a credit check, and I didn't pay for either. Although maybe I read this on Fark, but I think there is a company that asks you to take a drug test before you are hired and you pay for it. If you pass the drug test then you are reimbursed, if you fail, no reimbursement and no job.

stiletto_the_wise: No legitimate employer makes applicants pay a fee as a condition of employment.

It's not quite a $600 scam, but... Right after I graduated college and was looking for a full time job, I applied for an apprenticeship at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local 86 shop, figuring I could learn a trade during the day while attending grad school at night.

At the time, it was a $10 application fee, which I paid, then got rejected anyway. Apparently I "did not qualify due to schooling", since they couldn't figure out a college degree with several years of calculus and other advanced math implied at some point in my life I had passed their entry requirement of basic algebra.

Though since it would have been a union job, I guess that doesn't really contradict your assertion.

I took a job like this once. Advertised and interviewed for like it was an office sales job with lots of traveling, selling office equipment and supplies to small businesses. Get the job, and it's more like door-to-door sales out of my car. Not only that, but I have to undergo two weeks of unpaid training. The training? The job I'd be doing anyway, but with a supervisor tagging along to tell me what to do. Should I complete the training, I'd be on my own, but with the folIowing benefits:
I would not be reimbursed for gas.
20% commission paid out only if I sold a $75 minimum.
First time sales where I record the customer's information were the only sales that count towards commission. Repeat business, or later order via website or catalog didn't count.
Quit the second day. The best salesman in the world armed with the Jedi Mind Trick couldn't have made money in the gig.

joe714: stiletto_the_wise: No legitimate employer makes applicants pay a fee as a condition of employment.

It's not quite a $600 scam, but... Right after I graduated college and was looking for a full time job, I applied for an apprenticeship at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local 86 shop, figuring I could learn a trade during the day while attending grad school at night.

At the time, it was a $10 application fee, which I paid, then got rejected anyway. Apparently I "did not qualify due to schooling", since they couldn't figure out a college degree with several years of calculus and other advanced math implied at some point in my life I had passed their entry requirement of basic algebra.

Though since it would have been a union job, I guess that doesn't really contradict your assertion.

Well, that and the fact that the union is not the employer (unless you're a secretary or delegate or what not).

The capo always wants a cut of the action, wiseguy.

But all the big boys are doing it. (new window)

Not if you are a stripper

kudayta:
Well, that and the fact that the union is not the employer (unless you're a secretary or delegate or what not).

Sorry, but modern unions have effectively become employers - they're basically just a middleman corporation that farms out laborers to their contractees. A lot of unions went with "the employer pays the union, the union cuts checks to the workers" model a long time ago.

Even the ones that still follow the old style of "business hires union workers and cuts the checks" have gained so much control over the hiring and management of workers that they're more of a "company inside the company." If I can't walk over to an employee and tell him to do something obvious (that's definitely within his job description and responsibilities), then he doesn't work for me - he works for that union steward sitting at the table over there, drinking coffee and talking on his cell phone.

Trance750: Respectable companies place 'help wanted' ads in news-papers, not on Craig List

Do not discount this statement. If you're looking for an office/admin or bookkeeper job on CL, you are FAR more likely to run into scams than anything else. You have to keep your BS detector on and trust your instincts. I have a version of my resume that only has my city, state and email address on it if I apply for something that seems borderline.

cirby: Sorry, but modern unions have effectively become employers - they're basically just a middleman corporation that farms out laborers to their contractees.

The only way to negotiate with a corporation is to be a corporation. Every individual just gets screwed, and the screwing gets a little harder and deeper every year.
biatch all you want about some union boss you don't think is doing enough work, and I'll point out ten corporate managers who do less. Citing problems every organization in human history has had as an excuse to get rid of unions doesn't make for a good argument.

stpauler: Sandy Woods, the owner of Treasure Coast Lexus, said his general manager arranged for World Wide Consulting to use a room at his dealership. Woods said he did not know about the deal and vowed that he would not let the company use his dealership again.

"We did not pay them, and they did not pay us," Woods told me, adding that all 24 people in the class got job offers at Treasure Coast Lexus or its sister dealership, Treasure Coast Toyota.

What am I missing here? They didn't know about the deal but just generally offered people work without an interview?

World Wide Consulting Services bills itself as "The largest & #1 Automotive/Marine/RV/Motorcycle sales-training company, in the world!" Sounds like the general manager recruited them to hire new associates. Though you have to be a terrible owner to not have to pay for WWCS' services and act surprised that they made the interviewees pay.

CSB

Years ago, I answered an ad for a Human Resource Manager. I go to what seems like a rented office space and see ten's of people sitting and waiting, while it sounded like a party was going on in the next room.

We wait a few minutes, and then we are invited into the party room filled with happy, smiling people. Each one goes around and talks to us about how great they feel and how it must be the water. There are no chairs or bathrooms. Several more people talk to me, telling me training is going to start any second, and they feel great, and it must be the water. This goes on for 15 minutes. These people are freaking me out.

They set up chairs and start giving a pitch about how great you feel when you drink their filtered water. Then they say how much money they make by selling it, and you can make money too if you try the water yourself, see how great it is, and sell it to others. They talk to us for about an hour, one speaker after another repeating what the last one said, then said it was time to sign up. Try the water, feel how good it is, and get others to try it. All you had to do was pay $500 for a sellers kit, which included the water filter kit you were to try and/or sell. It was only at this time could you leave, and if you did you had to explain to the door man why you were leaving.

It was really weird and I saw some old people fork over their money. It was a case study in the psychology behind high pressure sales.

cirby: It's really funny, though - you'll get stories like this from pretty much all of the "reputable" news organizations, like papers and TV stations - the same folks who "hire" interns to work 40 hour weeks, and don't really teach them squat. Our local weekly used to whine about Wal-Mart only paying $9/hour for new hires, while the paper had ads for unpaid interns in the same issue.

I can do you one worse than that -- the SF Bay Guardian routinely slams anti-union efforts. But when their own staff tried to form a union, they fired everyone and brought in scabs. Now the paper is almost entirely written by interns.

Unpaid interns = slave scab labor.

eaglepuss: Trance750: Respectable companies place 'help wanted' ads in news-papers, not on Craig List

Do not discount this statement. If you're looking for an office/admin or bookkeeper job on CL, you are FAR more likely to run into scams than anything else. You have to keep your BS detector on and trust your instincts. I have a version of my resume that only has my city, state and email address on it if I apply for something that seems borderline.

I spent 3 years in staffing and you are both full of crap.

penthesilea: drjekel_mrhyde: penthesilea: Some people lack BS detectors.

Is your sister hot?

Not for me to say. I hope you like 'em short, crazy, quick to anger, and with two kids by two different guys.
[i470.photobucket.com image 224x395].
[i470.photobucket.com image 200x396]

She does give off a rather alluring "tot mom" vibe.

penthesilea: drjekel_mrhyde: penthesilea: Every time my sister calls me up to tell me that she has landed an Awesome New Job I have to google the company's name with the word scam. She never seems to call me *before* she has handed over a good size check.

Some people lack BS detectors.

Is your sister hot?

Not for me to say. I hope you like 'em short, crazy, quick to anger, and with two kids by two different guys.

[i470.photobucket.com image 224x395]

[i470.photobucket.com image 200x396]

Dude. Don't do that to your sister.

Trance750: Respectable companies place 'help wanted' ads in news-papers, not on Craig List

/CSB

Shortly after high-school, I was hitting the streets looking for a job and came across 'appointment setters', so I went to see about it, as I thought it was actually setting up appointments for.... whatever.

Anyway, it was more of a sales pitch and wanted me to go door to door selling knives and wanted me to pay over $200 for a 'demonstration set'

I just said 'See ya' and walked out

Funny. The only company that even called me back and hired me after a month of job searching in a new city is a national assisted living facility company with over 500 facilities.

Found them on craigslist.

Getting teaching positions in Ontario depends on membership with a website that charges $12 per school-board per year. Out of the 8 boards I've applied to, only two don't force you to use this site. The kicker is the advert: write and submit only 'one' application!

Like any fool is going to just write one resume/form cover letter and land an interview with that.

I responded to a legit sounding ad one time and found myself in a room in a rented office with 5 other people for the "interview." Some unshaven, scraggily looking guy launched into a sales pitch about how makes SO much money and drives a BMW. He never really stated what the job was but if we just gave him a credit card number for the starter kit we'd be rich like him in no time.

The guy was visibly nervous when I called him out on what a scam this was. I got up and walked out at that point, but I wondered what happened to the other people there who didn't even have credit cards themselves but were on their cel phones trying to get numbers from friends and family so they could get this great new job.

Sandy Woods, the owner of Treasure Coast Lexus, said his general manager arranged for World Wide Consulting to use a room at his dealership. Woods said he did not know about the deal and vowed that he would not let the company use his dealership again.

"We did not pay them, and they did not pay us," Woods told me,



I'll bet the GM got paid

child_god: Then they say how much money they make by selling it, and you can make money too if you try the water yourself, see how great it is, and sell it to others. They talk to us for about an hour, one speaker after another repeating what the last one said, then said it was time to sign up.

CSB:

I was once suckered into going to a water filter scam as well. They weren't saying how great the water was, but they had overheads (yes, it was that long ago) showing pictures of their paychecks. Wicked subtle. For what it's worth, the guys who seemed the most interested in their line of crap had the reddest, ugliest shoes.

/I don't care if you call it "cordovan," in New England the only men who wear red shoes are clowns.

Around 10 years ago I went to an "interview" for a linux consulting company. The guy didn't seem interested at all about hearing about my abilities he just kept talking about how much the certification class was going to cost. After 10 minutes of this I walked out. Later I found out it was a ponzi scheme. Some people I worked with got duped and lost a lot of money.

Linuxgruven (new window)