A long time ago, about 2007, I went into an office for an interview for a job. The job was a marketing company and I thought this would be an excellent entry level position for me. So, I put on my best professional outfit, curled my hair, put on my makeup and put on my heels and went to the interview. I met a charming but very young man at the interview and to my shock he was the hiring manager. We chatted for a while and he said based off just personality he would love to offer me a position. To get the job, however, there was something called a ride along that I needed to get through to be offered formal employment.
The job was marketing in the way of going from company to company and pitching idea's on how they could save money. Or this is what I was told. I came back the next day for the ride along and was on the ride along with 3 men. I wasn't all that comfortable with being out with three men I didn't know without any supervision but I was made to feel comfortable. On the ride along we went to a neighborhood and parked, then got out of the car and persisted to walk around the entire neighborhood knocking on doors and selling coupons to McDonald's and Pizza Hut. The price of the coupon books were decent when compared to the amount of the coupons but I wasn't told about this aspect of the job. I was under the impression from the hiring manager that we would be going from business to business. I didn't know about the neighborhood walking so I didn't dress for the job, I had on velvet and it was 105 degrees outside. I was burning up and had no water or anything on me.
As the day went on I got more and more overheated. I felt very sick but I still tried to fight through and continue on the ride along. I was told that at any point I could say that I wanted to stop if I didn't think the job would work for me. After 4 1/2 hours of walking around neighborhood after neighborhood and getting cramped and borderline feeling like I was going to pass out I finally said I was going to not accept the job and I chose to want to go back to the office to go home. The driver of the car understood and was more than happy to take me back to the company. One of the other guys we were riding with was very mad that I didn't want the job and stated that I was taking money out of his kids mouth because I wanted to go back to the office across town. I was told that I could stop and leave at any point so I was quite confused as to why he was acting like this and felt that if he knew this could be a possibility he should have driven his own car but his reaction was very unprofessional and further increased my want to go home and decline the job.
The driver of the car appeared to be a little scared of the dude in the back seat and never once opened his mouth to correct his coworker. He looked like he wanted to say something but he didn't. So, the plan was that they were going to take me to Hardees (a fast food burger restaurant for those who may not know what that is) and I would have to find my own way back across town. I was about 35 minutes off from the office and the city where I lived. I ended up having to call my then boyfriend and he came to pick me up. They probably should have thought their decision out a bit more because when my boyfriend got there he got a stick out of the trunk and charged at the car yelling at them about how they had no right to bring me that far out from my home only to try and abandon me to find my own transportation home. He was livid! The guys were so scared that they rolled the window up and locked their doors. I say good for them! None of them were real men!
When I got home I logged on to a website (I forgot which one it was) and looked the company up. They had a crap ton of complaints about how the interviewees were treated with the ride along and how it's all a large scam. I saw that someone actually sued the creator of the company. I believe the company shut down or changed their name. There was rumor that they were called something else before but they got so many complaints that they changed their name even though they were still doing the same thing. This was my very first real job interview and it was definitely memorable, I don't think I would ever forget how I was treated or the name of the company. Makes me wonder how the people I was riding with got hired. People will put up with anything when they need money, fortunately I have never been one of them.
