I was just out of college and had an interview for an entry level marketing position.I was so excited because this was my first real interview.

I got there and it looked like the place was set up 5 minutes ago. It was dark and almost bare except for a few pictures of the CEO in his BMW and the company logo.

When I got there, I walked into a room where the “hr” person said I'd be “going into the field with two of the employees”.

These two young girls pulled up in crappy rundown car and told me they’d be escorting me into the field.

I had a bad gut feeling, but I was young and desperately wanted a marketing role so I went with it. ALWAYS STICK TO YOUR GUT!

They took me 45 minutes away and pulled into a shopping plaza. Nail salons, pizza place, Chinese place, attorneys, weight watchers, a dive bar, an ethnic supermarket were all in there.

They then opened the trunk of the car and took out a bag of stuff.

A large coloring book, a weird device for opening cans, a tiny whisk for cooking, an egg slicer…my first thought “OMG, are they going to be selling these crappy items?”

Oh, yes - yes they were. They went door to door, trying to sell these items to the customers and owners and staff of all these businesses.

I was SO EMBARRASSED. They got escorted out of many buildings. They did not mention this in the job description or interview. This is what they meant by “in the field”.

I asked them several times to please take me back to my car and they said they could not (this was before Uber/Lyft).

I was stuck with them until 4pm when they drove back to the “headquarters”.

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot I ran out of their car, into my own and booked it out of there.

When I told my husband, he was appalled. We looked up the company a year+ later when the internet was more established and there were tons of horrible reviews saying how this company preys on young marketing wannabees.

Thankfully today, we have a lot of internet power to look up companies before we go for “interviews”.