When Words Collide, Sentences Form

"Advertising" Job Interview

I'm warning you...this is LONG...and I'm not apologizing for it!

Today I went on the "2nd interview" for a job with an "advertising/promotions" firm that shall remain nameless. This "2nd interview" consisted of job shadowing a current employee as they visited "clients."

To give you some background info - in the "1st interview" I was told that this company creates promotions to drive traffic to places such as local sports teams, restaurants, etc - their "clients." These promotions involve things like ticket deals, etc...and "they" put together the marketing materials for these promotions. The manager I talked to asked what I was looking for and thought appealed about the job, and I said that I was excited to be on the creative side of the promotions, etc...and that I had writing samples if he wanted to see them, etc.

So as I leave the 1st interview, I think, well this sounds kinda cool. And a lot of the appeal to me was that they worked with sports teams. Well, today, I found out how NOT cool "the company" is.

This interview is supposed to last from 11-7ish, when we go back to the office to sit down and talk, etc. We leave for Eden Prairie at 11 - get there around noon.

(For those not familiar with the Twin Cities - 30 minutes away with no traffic, 1 hour with minimal traffic - you get the point. This little suburb is south of Minneapolis, note to anyone moving to the Twin Cities. DON'T MOVE TO THE MPLS SIDE OF THE MISSISSIPPI - it takes hours to get anywhere.)

The person that I was shadowing and I were riding down with another person in the same position as me and another employee of "the company." Imagine my surprise when we get dropped off at the end of a street in a residential area and the car leaves...the "advertising" being done is door-to-door coupon sales!! You know the kind...for $30 you get cards for $50 worth of pizza, steaks or whatever the particular promotion is that they are working on at the time.

So we go door-to-door for a while, I'm just standing there, my escort is doing the selling. One person says "I understand what you girls are doing..I sold door-to-door for a while, too." Apparently he sold dishes. But one thing that guy has going for him now - a really cool cat. He has an American Shorttail, which was pretty neat - it was only about 15 weeks old. Google it - it's neat. (To which my escort asked "Is it legal to own bobcats??" Ummm - listening skills not there, apparently. He said American Shorttail - not a bobcat! I just shook my head.)

But as we walked away from that door, my escort said to me "Well, that's nice he sold door-to-door, but we don't do that...we are doing direct advertising." Then she went on about why what she did isn't door-to-door and how it differs, then said, "Do you see the difference?" I said, yeah, sure. Whatever...STOP TALKING.

So then we meet up with our "friends" that had left us at the end of the street weeks ago (or two hours...same thing) and went to Burger King for lunch. Now, by the time we reached to doorbell of the first house, I had decided that this job was not my cup of tea. But I figured I was stranded with them in Eden Prairie until 7, and I wasn't going to say anything because I wanted to make the process as painless as possible. After we got done eating, we had little one-on-one meetings with our escorts, who told us about the 4 levels of promotion within "the company," how you can make $150,000.00 a year within 6-10 months of being with "the company" and etc, etc, etc. I kept expecting Tony Soprano to walk out of the bathroom.

Then she (and I noticed that the other "escort" did this with his prospect, too) "went to the bathroom" and said she would answer any questions I had when she got back. She returns and sits back down and I said "Which level in the company is the one where you work on the creative and help put together the promotions, etc." She said "Oh, we don't do that. We just distribute the advertising and promote the client."

Sidenote: Keep in mind the two ways "client" is used here. 1) Today we were visiting with clients as part of the job shadow (All we did was walk door-to-door in a residential neighborhood) and 2) Chains that are selling something.

So then she said, "Is this something you are interested in and would like to continue to see how the rest of the day goes?" That's when I realized...I may not be trapped here until 7!! Maybe I can get out!! I said "Nope. This is really not what I had in mind. When I talked to "Bob" yesterday, I told him I was interested in the creative side of advertising and promotions, so I'm a little taken aback that he didn't tell me that there is NO creative involved here." She gave me a bunch more company lines about advertising, owning your own company, etc. I said, "No, I really don't think this is for me." So then she says, "Ok, we have a couple of options. Maybe we can get "Joe" to drive you back up, or do you have any friends down here you can convince to come pick you up and take you home?"

SAY WHAT???? Did she really ask that? I laughed at her and said "No, take me back." Well, "Joe's" prospect wanted to keep going, so "Joe" lent my girl his car and she took me back to the office. Wow. Awkward drive. Especially since I told her not to go back the way she was going because of the traffic and convinced her to take my way back. I normally wouldn't care about sitting in traffic and wouldn't say anything...but I wanted to get rid of her! And I know she hates me now for making her drive all the way back...cause then she had to go back and get "Joe" and his prospect. And she lost out on nearly 3 hours of selling her pizza promo door-to-door. She probably lost $22 in commission. Oh wait, it's not commission - it's "profit sharing." But I'm really quite OK with that. Especially after she asked me if I could call a friend that lived in Eden Prairie and make them drive me home. You have GOT to be kidding me.

I'm going to go buy a Power Ball ticket. I think it's up to $205 million. That's a lot easier than these stupid job interviews with fake companies.

posted by Steph @ 3:03 PM