This is one of the classic ads by Kirby. Beware!
Consider this: a single mother, out-of-work, has spent weeks looking for work. She has skills and some college education, plus lots of office and customer service experience. She responds to an ad for an “administrative assistant” which describes the duties as “responding to phone inquiries, filing, copying, typing, entering data, and sometimes showing available rental units.” She sends her resume and is called almost immediately for an interview. It sounds like a dream job—she learns it is in a real estate office in a beautiful office building. She goes to the store and purchases a professional outfit to wear to the interview. She is excited and hopeful--at last, she thinks, maybe this is the answer I’ve been praying for.
Until she arrives at the interview only to learn that, yes, it is a real estate office, but what they are really doing is recruiting potential new real estate agents. Of course, to become a realtor, she is required to take classes amounting to hundreds of dollars—hundreds of dollars she does not have—and work basically for free until she can build her own customer base and make that first commission. What they don’t tell her is that if she is lucky, she might be able to make a paycheck by this time next year.
This is a crushing and cruel trick to play on job-seekers—this sneaky, underhanded, bait-and-switch. They never had any real intention of hiring someone for the “position”—because there is no position to be had! They have wasted the applicant’s time, money and worst of all, hope.
There are two companies in the Quad Cities that did exactly this sort of thing to my adult daughter, who is looking for gainful, full-time employment. These companies should be revealed to anyone seeking work: stay away from any ad that reads like the one above, this one is for Keller Williams in downtown Davenport. The other is actually Kirby Vacuums—their ads often advertise manager positions, or customer service positions. Of course the applicant soon learns that they are to walk the streets of the Quad Cities and knock on doors offering to clean rugs and sell vacuum cleaners. Oh, and by the way, they don’t get paid AT ALL unless there is a sale. I have had several friends and acquaintances burned by this one. The sales pitch they give applicants gets them all excited and hopeful, and two weeks later, after they have walked several dozen miles and sold NOTHING—they discover that they are not “eligible” to be paid!
These scum-sucking bottom-feeders ought to be imprisoned or at least fined heavily for these destructive employment practices.
To recap: do not apply or accept a job at Keller Williams or at Kirby Vacuum unless you want to work for free, or pay for the privilege!
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