I applied for the position on LinkedIn. I was contacted for the first interview by the HR coordinator and was asked what kind of job I was looking for. I mentioned what I'd applied for and that I was not looking for a position in sales or a customer-facing environment. She said she understood and that was fine so she scheduled the interview for the next day. I checked out their website and I was encouraged by the apparent community involvement, travel potential, and employee celebration I found there. I was told there would be three interviews; if I met the criteria in the first, I'd move on to the second and so on.
The first interview was at their office which was surprisingly tiny and vacant. There were 6-7 people there for an interview while I was there. I was told they were looking for someone right away that they could train extensively to work on the team to ultimately supervise others in an executive position. I was asked if I was flexible on the jobs I'd work in the company, to which I responded yes, but I was not interested in any sales-like positions. The interviewer was friendly and professional so I felt good about it. I got a call back two hours after the meeting to schedule the second interview which was at a Sam's Club for a roadshow.
The roadshow was little more than one of the table displays in the Sam's Club. For the first several minutes I observed as the interviewer trailed after increasingly irritated customers insisting that he touch a pillowcase he held in his hands. Several customers got angry enough to raise their voice because the interviewer did not accept no as an answer, even after being told sternly and multiple times. The interviewer was not bothered by this and insisted it was a highly enjoyable experience. He shared one of his favorite pitch lines which bordered on inappropriate. I asked if there was ever a point where it was not appropriate to approach someone and the answer was no, you approach everyone because there may be a 'yes' under all those 'no's'. After a while we moved to the eating area at the front of the store where it was explained to me that all employees in the company start out in this position for an undisclosed amount of time. I was asked if I would be comfortable doing that kind of work to which I replied no and respectfully declined to move further with the interview.
I left feeling deceived and upset because I never would have wasted my time and energy (and gas!) interviewing for a glorified pyramid scheme. It felt a lot like Amway or Cutco but without the door-to-door and without selling the company's own products. It really made me angry that after explicitly saying that I did not want a position in sales on two separate occasions that I was never told what the real position would be. Admittedly, I ignored a lot of red flags. I just wish I'd read these reviews sooner.