I submitted my resume through Ziprecruiter. I got a call back the next business day to set up a 10-minute in-person interview. The office is in an elegant, fashionable building in Oakbrook Terrace with a trendy, Millennial vibe, blasting a pop Spotify playlist. The young people working the reception desk were very perky and friendly. However, it was difficult to hear the conversation because the music was so loud. The upbeat, casual vibe appealed to me, which continued into the quick interview with the company's owner, Nicole. She is very much a "listening" person, unlike most recruiter/HR types who interrupt. The questions were simple enough and she seemed mostly interested in one of my career goals of starting my own business. She said I'd get a call later that day with the results of the interview. I did get a call offering a second interview, during which salary, promotion schedule, and other basics would be explained. The second interview was to be an all-day shadowing event, with an account rep visiting "clients." They wanted me to come in the next day but I couldn't come til the following week. I showed up at 9am dressed very formally, thinking I was going to be in conference rooms of Fortune 500 companies watching top sales reps do their thing, as I was told. That was a horrible mistake. The other interviewees waiting with me in reception were all burly young men. I brushed it off as coincidence. Then the account manager I was to shadow (for the record, this woman is an amazing human being and I really loved hanging out with her--this negative review has nothing to do with her, who really did her job quite well and with a great attitude & creative personality) emerged from the office dressed in sweatpants and gym shoes. I thought, where the heck are we going the she'll be giving sales presentations in that outfit? The South Side of Chicago, that's where. The account rep (awesome lady, keep in mind) showed me her map, which was a nearly-illegible xerox of a couple of suburbs bordering some famous South Side neighborhoods. Turns out this job is just being an annoying door-to-door salesperson for some electric/gas company provider. The actual product was never explained to me, even when I asked multiple times. I shadowed for 8 hours and I still have no idea why anyone would buy or switch to or whatever it was they were trying to get the businesses to do. The sales rep must drive around and just walk in to every single business inside an assigned territory. The script said by the sales rep to the first person they encounter inside the business (taco stand, car wash, doctor's office, etc) is something like "I'm here for the price protection, can you go show me your energy bill?" Naturally none of the receptionists & secretaries & mechanics felt comfortable doing that to a random stranger who was asking to see their bills! My grandparents live in one of these South Side border suburbs, so I'm somewhat familiar with the area and the culture and feel plenty comfortable there. However, I also grew up knowing that a neighborhood can become very different in the space of one block. I wasn't intimately familiar with this sales reps' territory, and I didn't really have my bearings as we drove around in circles around blocks and in between warehouses and broken-down autoshops. We barged into unmarked doors in the backs of warehouses and veered through alleys looking for something that might be a business. Needless to say, it was a bit uncomfortable. Since I've spent time in South Side areas, I do know how normal people dress while going to a restaurant or buying their groceries and going about their business. The account manager's sweatpants suddenly made sense--she was dressing to look more like a community member. Having no idea that I'd be going there, I was dressed all Fortune 500, which greatly increased my discomfort. The business owners were weirded out too, looking at me like I was an alien. Despite the awesomeness of the account manager, I felt extremely uncomfortable the entire day. I never wanted a door-to-door soliciting job. It was difficult to stay positive for the rest of the 8 hours when I felt lied to by everyone I had talked to at the company. The company pretends to be a "professional development" firm that invests in human capital and wants people with little to no experience--perhaps it'd be a nice start for people with non-traditional career paths, or for people trying to get a start--but it's NOT what it advertises. Furthermore, not a salaried position and there are no benefits. Rather, it's a weekly contract position. The idea is that you get promoted into a salaried position eventually--though that could take years. This will not be shared with you until halfway through second interview.

Extremely misleading, work hours are longer than they say in the interview (they say its 8 to 530, it's actually 7 to 9 twice a week, 7 to 630 most days), advancement structure is dependent on your team you build, not actually merit based. If you have great people on your team who can get their weekly sale quota, while also promoting team members, you'll get promoted. So while they make it look like the business structure takes 2 years to move up to your own business, other workers who have been there are sitting at 5 years currently.