“Do not apply if you don’t like great music, having fun and making tons of money!” 
Yep, that’s what the ad said. In between those lines – if you’re savvy enough to read between lines – it actually said: “If you’re stupid, gullible and lazy, and won’t be disappointed when you end up not getting paid, we want to hear from you.”
Like anyone looking for a job, I check the want ads, both on-line and in print form. The ad above is indeed real. Even when I was working I’d come across it from time to time. Me, I’m old enough not to fall for such nonsense, but I’m not the type of person this “employer” is looking for. No doubt they want naive kids, probably drop outs, with no experience in the working world and little in the real world.
Their ad runs year round, which in and of itself is telling. Undoubtedly, they have a high turnover. Even the young and naïve eventually catch on and finally move on. No problem, though, since on the other end of this employer’s phone awaits the next crop of hapless job hunters.
While the above example is a blatantly obvious waste of time for anyone looking for a real job, some job ads don’t make it so easy to spot the B.S. I recall seeing a somewhat ambiguous ad offering employment in the energy sector. It claimed to pay over $800 a week. Rather than provide an email address or fax number to send in your résumé, it invited you to phone in for an appointment.
I took the bait and gave them a call.
An abrupt young lady answered and quickly gave me a time and date for an information session about the position. I asked her what exactly the job entailed, only to be told that that’s what the information session was for, and that all my questions would be answered then. Sounds a little fishy, doesn’t it. Legitimate employers don’t waste time on information sessions; typically, the candidates they see have been carefully shortlisted from a stack of résumés. I took a pass and to this day have no idea what the job entailed. My best guess is it involved door-to-door sales of natural gas for home heating. Thanks, but no thanks.
Last week I came across a job ad from a dot.com company named Hitnetworx, offering $650 a week to surf the net. For fun I tore it out of the newspaper and brought it home. The ad pointed me to their web site, where I learned that I can make money by simply clicking on banner ads. If I wanted to learn more, I’d have to register with the site.
Rather than register, I did a google search of the company. Unsurprisingly, I found many dozens of disgruntled people who’d paid this company a fee to access a list of other companies that were paying for banner ad click-throughs. Seems that all the companies on the list could be found simply by searching the ‘net, negating the need to pay Hitnetworx a fee. Hitnetworx’s employment ad was nothing more than a guise, designed to sell people a list they didn’t need.
The message here is simple. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In this day and age, with such high rates of unemployment, it’s easy to become enamored with attractive and clever job ads, but it’s up to you to use your common sense and investigate further. For more information on how to spot and avoid employment scams, I suggest you read How to Spot and Avoid Employment Scams on ehow.com’s web site. Good luck.
“Do not apply if you don’t like great music, having fun and making tons of money!”
Yep, that’s what the ad said. In between those lines – if you’re savvy enough to read between lines – it actually said: “If you’re stupid, gullible and lazy, and won’t be disappointed when you end up not getting paid, we want to hear from you.”
Like anyone without a job, I check the want ads, both online and in print form. The ad above is indeed real. Even when I was working I’d come across it from time to time. Me, I’m old enough not to fall for such nonsense, but I’m not the type of person this “employer” is looking for. No doubt they want naive kids, probably drop outs, with no experience in the working world and little in the real world.
Their ad runs year round, which in and of itself is telling. Undoubtedly, they have a high turnover. Even the young and naïve eventually catch on and finally move on. No problem, though, since on the other end of this employer’s phone awaits the next crop of hapless job hunters.
While the above example is a blatantly obvious waste of time for anyone looking for a real job, some job ads don’t make it so easy to spot the B.S. I recall seeing a somewhat ambiguous ad offering employment in the energy sector. It claimed to pay over $800 a week. Rather than provide an email address or fax number to fax in your résumé, it invited you to phone in for an appointment.
I took the bait and gave them a call.
An abrupt young lady answered and quickly gave me a time and date for an information session about the position. I asked her what exactly the job entailed, only to be told that that’s what the information session was for, and that all my questions would be answered then. Sounds a little fishy, doesn’t it. Legitimate employers don’t waste time on information sessions; typically they see those carefully short listed from a stack of résumés. I took a pass and to this day still have no idea what the job entailed. My best guess is it involved door-to-door sales of natural gas for home heating. Thanks, but no thanks.
Last week I came across a job ad from a dot.com company named Hitnetworx, offering $650 a week to surf the net. For fun I tore it out of the newspaper and brought it home. The ad pointed me to the company web site, where I learned that I can make money by simply clicking on banner ads. If I wanted to learn more, I’d have to register with the site.
Rather than register, I did a google search of the company. Unsurprisingly, I found many dozens of disgruntled people who’d paid this company a fee to access a list of other companies that were paying for banner ad click-throughs. Seems that the companies on the list could be found simply by some savvy internet searching.
The message here is simple. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In this day and age, with such high rates of unemployment, it’s easy to become enamored with attractive and clever job ads, but it’s up to you to use your common sense. For more information on how to spot and avoid employment scams, I suggest you read How to Spot and Avoid Employment Scams on ehow.com’s web site. Good luck.
The Résumé of Dave B. 