I applied to a company called Brand Fuze, which is a marketing agency. One hour after applying on LinkedIn, I was emailed and texted to come in for a preliminary interview (they do those in person even if you live out of state as I do). If you look up Brand Fuze, it is hard to find information. I thought that was odd for a marketing agency especially but went to the interview out of curiosity. They have no branding in their office, which also seemed strange. I filled out some introductory paperwork along with a handful of other candidates waiting to interview. The paperwork asked me what my current salary was, which is illegal to ask candidates in the state of Illinois. The interview was with a 25-year-old guy who is based out of the Denver office. It was a first round interview, so it wasn't too long. He flipped over my resume and drew a chart explaining what they do. It was framed a little bit like a business quiz, where he would ask if I knew what something meant. He ultimately explained that once you get promoted to the highest levels in the company, you essentially create your own company name. I was ultimately invited back for a second interview, scheduled for the next day. When I got a confirmation text about the second interview, it was signed Soenex Advertising rather than Brand Fuze. I recognized this name from the nameplate outside the building and on the door to their suite. After researching them, it became clear that this company is not legitimate. I declined my second interview and caution others to be careful. I have a pretty negative feeling about their operation. During the interview, he mentioned that they fired a bunch of their HR staff within the last day.

Emailed me for an interview immediately after applying to the job on LinkedIn. I thought that was very odd because I probably applied around midnight, and got the email about the interview around 1 AM. When I arrived at the office, there were about 10 other people waiting to be interviewed. While I was waiting, a woman who was there before I was was told that the person who was going to could no longer interview her (even though he was still in the office) and she would have to come back another day. On top of this, they were very behind on schedule, and I was interviewed about 1 hour later than scheduled... mainly because the interviewers decided to play a full game of ping pong in front of all of the people they were planning on interviewing. Very unprofessional and was a total waste of time interviewing with them.