I Couldn't Lie My Way Out of a Paper Bag if I Tried

[moon_custafer]

Well, as I mentioned in a comment to a previous entry,  I got a preliminary telephone interview for a job I didn't really want. I hoped this would help me be more confident, but when questioned I pretty much immediately admitted that not only do I not take well to being constantly interrupted by phone calls while I work on other tasks, I think it's generally a bad idea to make the employees doing order entry or other jobs *also* juggle telephone reception because you don't have a full-time receptionist. So, that was the end of the interview. I know I didn't want that job anyway, but I still felt like I screwed up.

Later, I got an email that looked like another job lead, but when "BestLife Financial" asked for ID and my signature on an employee agreement *before* any interview, I decided it looked dodgy. And it was, but it took quite a bit of internet searching to confirm -- they have a pretty elaborate company website that looks superficially legit (afterwards, when I read the copy carefully, the syntax was all a bit off); they appear on a registry of Ontario companies, and their street address shows up on Google Streetview as an office/business plaza. Also, googling the company name didn't turn up any "this is a scam" posts. It wasn't until I ran a search on their phone number that I found the Better Business Bureau's entry on a different company name, but with the same phone line, who seem to have pulled similar tactics. I passed on an update to BBB.

Pleased I caught this, irritated I have to do this much unpaid due diligence.

Comments

[stardreamer]

1) You didn't screw up. You didn't "admit" anything. You clearly stated that this particular requirement would make you unable to do this job well. I guarantee you that an interviewer would rather hear that than have you lie about it and then end up firing you if you got the job.

Also, I agree with you about the "receptionist+" thing, but there are people who don't find that sort of multitasking to be any problem. This kind of job is made for them.

2) You showed more patience than I would have in tracking down the scam! I would have trashed the lead as soon as the Big Red Warning Flag came up. Also, bravo for following up with the BBB. Have you tried looking them up on Yelp or similar "business rating" apps? You might be able to file a similar report there.

[moon_custafer]

The only trouble with the Better Business Bureau site is that the review format only allowed me to tell my story on the entry for the company's other name -- I checked and there was no entry for their new alias. I'm hoping a human at BBB reads it and creates a new entry to increase the likelihood of people finding the reference.