While browsing the internet job sites lately I came across and this advert on Gumtree for Entry Level Event Marketing, as I am looking for a career change and I have an interest in marketing I thought that this would be a perfect role for me. The advert did not give an awful lot of detail nor did it even say who the job was with but I thought I had nothing to lose so I sent off my CV. Three days later I had phone call from HR at Venus Marketing asking me to attend and interview the next day, although this was short notice I agreed as I don’t exactly have much on at the moment. Before the interview I read a bit about Venus Marketing on their website, although the website was a bit rubbish and did not give a lot of information about Venus Marketing what it did say sounded positive. In the career section of the website is states and I quote “Our Graduate Training Program in Cardiff is a fast-track route to management for top-calibre graduates, graduates all over the country making it from entry-level to full management within 12 months” so as you can imagine I was positive about having been given an interview.
So I put on my lovely new suit and headed off to the interview. On entering the office I instantly had a bad feeling about it, there was a radio blaring in the background with a whole group of people waiting for an interview in the middle of the office which I thought was strange given that I had been given a specific time to turn up. I was then called to my interview which I think was with a lady from HR, she was very pleasant and the interview was very brief with only a couple of questions to answer, the rest of the interview was just her talking about how successful the company is and how much money they make, I was made to feel that if I was to work for them I would be very lucky indeed. I was told that if I was successful then I would receive a phone call that night. About an hour after my interview I received a phone call asking me to attend a 2nd phase interview the next day, the only information I was given was that it would be a full day where I would learn more about the company and I would be assessed for the role.
So I turned up at 9.15am as requested and before I knew it I was assigned to ‘my interviewer’ and told to impress her as it was up to her whether or not I got a 3rd and final interview. Rather unprofessionally we were introduced in a hallway and to my surprise she then asked me to collect my things as we were going to the train station to go to Bristol!! We left for the station with 6 other girls and one other interviewee. On the way to the station I felt like I was getting grilled having about 5 questions a minute being thrown at me about things from my social life to my work life which I thought was a little odd. When on the train the grilling continued and then I was given a very ‘brief’ run down of what Venus Marketing do and why they are so unique. When I asked her how long she had worked for Venus Marketing she said 6 months and she was already at the second stage of the programme (management being 4) which was promising.
I was under the impression that we were going to an event at a conference centre in Bristol or maybe to a major store to strike a deal for an event, but to my horror we were going no further than Bristol station!! It turned out that we weren’t going to an event or to meet a client, we were, or at least they were, selling makeup to the public on a platform! I was given a list of questions to answer and told to sit on a bench in the station in the freezing cold and answer them which took me all morning, why I could not have done this back at the office i don’t know.
The longer I sat there the more things became clear. This was a big scam and all the girls selling makeup on the platform had fallen for it. So I decided to question my interviewer asking her why after 5 months she was still selling makeup on a platform to which she answered “because this is part of the first stages and I want to become a manager”, it seemed these girls had not been given any training at all and were being brainwashed into believing they would one day own their own events marketing business when in actual fact they were being conned into selling over priced crap make-up for an extremely low wage paying for their own expenses.
Once I realised that we were in fact scheduled to remain at the station until 5pm I through in the towel and told them that this just wasn’t for me and jumped on the first train back to Cardiff. Back in the warmth of the train I started to think about what I had witnessed over the last 2 days. I felt like I’d been mugged, hoodwinked and conned. Venus Marketing are nothing but a name to cover up a large scam set up to con vulnerable young graduates and the unemployed into thinking that they will become a manager in 12 months when in fact they will just be acting as their monkeys being paid peanuts. They make you think that there is only one person who will be successful in the 2nd phase interview and use scare tactics to lure you into working for them when in fact I fully believe that we were all going to be offered the job that day but made to think that we were the lucky one! When I started to do the math in my head it became very obvious that it was impossible for all successful candidates to become managers, there were 6 girls out with me that day and at least another 4 teams elsewhere making at least 30 people in total, could they really all become managers of this small company? I don’t think so!
My advice to anyone who has been asked to attend an interview with Venus Marketing would be to turn the other way and keep walking and to any young graduates who already work for them flogging their makeup on platforms, quit you can do better!!
