'Never pay to get a job': Applicant discovers numerous red flags at company, walks out of 'shady orientation'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 4, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

You know it's not a good sign when you have to pay for your own job training. Not only is this just one of the numerous red flags this Redditor discovered, but they also learned about these questionable policies late in the job application process. Even though they were new to the area, we're confident that if this Redditor had all this information from the start, they would be able to easily detect that this was a full-on scam through and through.

 

We are sympathetic to the fact that job applicants can't always easily detect these red flags from the start but at least this candidate got the heck out when they did. In fact, by pretending they got a competitive offer somewhere else, they were being more than generous to the employers. Half the folks in the comments section below would likely have gone off the rails. For more stories like this, here's one about a boss who stole an employee's bag. 

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  • 01
    Shorts - "I Walked out of a Very Shady Orientation."
    via Tim Gouw
  • 02
    Font - I Walked out of a Very Shady Orientation today. I had applied for a company on Indeed.com, I know it's not the best website but I am relatively new to the Austin area and I don't really know any better websites, nor do I want to walk around in Texas heat any more than I absolutely have to. The job I had applied to stated a pay rate of $800 a week to start off with and $1000 a week after I am done with training, which when you take into account my previous job experience being nothing but
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 03
    Font - Then the red flags started popping up with the first over the phone interview. The job was actually 48 hours a week, not 40, basically it would a typical 9-5 but with you working Saturday as well.
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 04
    Font - The Second over the phone interview stated that the job wasn't actually handling phone calls from clients like the Indeed post said, but instead I would be a sales rep with quota's to meet. Albeit not paid on commissions like you would expect a quota based job to be.
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 05
    Font - Finally, at orientation, I was told that the training would be months, as opposed to 4 weeks as I have been told, and that the training class had fees which would drop the $800 a week to $400 a week, and that after the training class I would be "Knowledgeable" enough to start up my own sales company; which they would be more than happ lending out $40,000 for me to start up my own, as long as I could pay that back within a year with interest of course.
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 06
    Font - I walked out of the orientation claiming that I was offered a better position at a different company, where the person I told put on the fakest sad face I've ever seen and said that there was a ton of opportunity here and it would be unwise to throw that all away. I still declined to continue and walked away.
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 07
    Font - Was I correct in assuming that this was a scam, basically every bone in my body was telling to GTFO of there as fast as possible.
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 08
    Font - EDIT: just thought I would clear up some of my phrasing, I didn't want Indeed to come off as a bad website or defend my use of it. I was explain why I did that as opposed to applying on local company sites or going around handing in applications, new to the area and without a car makes it hard to hard to do that, and I didn't know of any websites that hired for local companies. Also, I rode my bike to the orientation, so technically I didn't walk away, I rode away.
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 09
    Font - ReedRidge 15 hr. ago. edited 3 hr. ago Sounds like a cult or a ponzi scheme. Edit: Yes, I know about MLM's and Scamway, It was a 7 word post covering basics, and frankly, an MLM is just a ponzi variant. Those who feel "smart" adding it, I laugh at you. 2.1k Reply Share
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 10
    Smile - tina98051 15 hr. ago Definitely a scam. Never pay to get a job. 4 1.9k Reply Share
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 11
    Font - natewOw 14 hr. ago OP - This sounds like a textbook multi-level marketing scheme. Good on you for recognizing the red flags and getting out of there. You should report the job listing to indeed so that these people can't take advantage of others who are less aware than you. 811 Reply Share
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 12
    Font - sanguineophanim 15 hr. ago Report it to Indeed. 668 Reply Share
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 13
    Font - EditorNo2545. 14 hr. ago SCAM if you have to pay them to get a job it's a scam If you have to pay them for training it's a scam If you are required to borrow start-up funds from them it's a scam If they want you to lease your office & business equipment from them for "your" job/business it's a scam 343 Reply Share
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 14
    Gesture - IntelligentDeal5119 15 hr. ago That company sounds shady as
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 15
    Smile - calvin-n-hobz . 14 hr. ago 1000% scam. You did good getting out of there.
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 16
    Font - Potato_Author540 14 hr. ago Any time a company charges you for training (not for accreditation that can be used anywhere) it is always a scam. You did right.
    via u/thekenbaum
  • 17
    Font - CyclOptic260 13 hr. ago Apply on indeed enough and youll start recognizing these just from the posting. Almost all the "sales" jobs on indeed are mlms.
    via u/thekenbaum

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