Tampa is a hotbed for MLM companies - as a larger college town, there are tons of fresh college grads in a market oversaturated with them, desperate for jobs and jumping at anything that offers a check. It's a perfect environment for breeding predatory employers like Explosive Advertising.
I've interviewed at another similar operation before here in Tampa called Alliance Executive Solutions. That "company" no longer exists and the former "president" now works at a more grey area scam employer in freight brokerage out in Riverview. They have different parent companies (or do they, who knows) but the idea is exactly the same. I've never worked for one of them but if you have any kind of common sense/critical thinking you will understand exactly what the job will be like just by walking in the door.
I will explain exactly what will happen to you from the moment you see the job ad online to the moment you quit the job:
You're an unemployed college graduate. You have a B.A. and you're not sure what to do next - your parents are on your case about finding a job and moving out, becoming independent, and the heat is on. So you frantically start looking for a job. You see an ad online for "Explosive Advertising". They want people with no experience, they work with Fortune 500 companies, they offer management training - it's a dream! So you email your resume over and move on to the next post-
Wait, your phone is already ringing. It's Explosive Advertising and they think you might be a fit! They want you to come in for an interview TODAY! (An instant callback is usually a red flag; an interview request for same day or next day is usually a red flag as well. This should be the first indication something is off.) Well, shoot, you're young and unemployed - why not jump at it? You tell them you'll see them at 2:30 that afternoon.
You pull up to the office park and it's about as nondescript as it gets. There is next to no signage for "Explosive Advertising". The email confirmation you received has instructions on how to find the office suite..which seems odd for a company that does all this business with all these big companies. Shouldn't they have their own building or at least their own floor at the very least?
You walk inside and there's a receptionist with a sign-in sheet. Ignoring the sign-in sheet you say you're here for a 2:30 interview, suit pressed, tie in a double windsor, all cleaned up. She tells you to sign in (!) and wait in the adjacent room. Looking at the sign in sheet you see all the other names for that day...and the reason for sign-in is always interview. There are at least 20 other names on this sheet. Uh oh.
So you sign in like you're told and go sit in the adjacent room. Which is full of people. There are barely enough chairs. And they're ALL there to interview. This should be another enormous red flag. The position you are interviewing for is not specialized. You were not vetted as a possible candidate at all. All these people are here for the same position. S**t.
You'll go back to the interview when it's your turn (ha) and they'll tell you all about how they're partnered with DirectTV or Staples or whoever this month's campaign is. The position involves selling crap inside wholesale stores like Sams Club to people that are walking by trying to get their shopping down without being hassled by peddlers. Have you or do you know anyone that has ever switched their cable or cell phone plan impulsively at a Sam's Club because some high pressure salesperson stopped them in the store? Exactly.
But don't pay attention to that, you can make all kinds of money and open your own office in 6 months! How much do we pay? Oh we'll talk about that at the second interview...WHICH IS TODAY! You can drive over to Brandon and meet with our reps in the Sams Club over there right now! Watch how much fun they're having and how much money they're making!
Now, this is where anybody with any degree of job experience would literally laugh in these clowns' faces and never give this scam a second thought. Perhaps you want to give it a shot though, so you head over to Sams. The associates are exhausted and defeated. They barely have the heart to even try anymore. It's not just the constant rejection - that comes with any sales job - it's the fact that the money doesn't even come close to alleviating it (as in most ethical sales jobs the commission potential does completely outweigh the difficulty of closing on a regular basis and any morale issues). They pay you $250 a week or commissions, whichever is higher. What's $250 divided by 40? $6.25. Below minimum wage. $13,000 a year salary. You'll be working far more than 40 hours a week though, and if your stupid self actually sticks around long enough to "open your own office" you'll discover $10,000 of your own money has to be put in escrow (which Smart Circle will have power of attorney over that account) as "insurance" and your other business bank accounts will also be POA'd over to Smart Circle as well.
You'll spend so much time and money driving to work, meetings, "networking" events, that you'll probably lose money and quit after a matter of weeks. You'll get tired of the forced indoctrination, watching people leave and cut their losses, being forced to have interviewees come shadow you knowing that, if they've gotten to the "second interview" portion, they're either too stupid to realize what they're looking at or too naive/polite to tell you you're an idiot for working there.
Smart Circle, Cydcor, companies like these prey on young kids who don't have any other options. They are hire-in-masses companies that will try to use you and drain you of all your initiative to quit, or your drive to be successful, before you quit in disgust, a broken individual who ends up worse off than he was before he started. Unlike other sales there is NO WAY to be truly successful in an operation like this because the money YOU make has to start at the top of the chain and work its way back down to you. Which is completely backwards.
The company gets away with not being called a pyramid scheme outright because it doesn't ask you to "buy-in". You are still encouraged to recruit your friends and family members to work for them though - encouraged to have people work under you so you can get a cut of their commissions. The business model is based on expansion, turning salespeople themselves into a numbers game (if we hire 100 sales people we only need 10 to make 5 sales to make a profit) instead of the sales itself (like normal - i.e. if I make 100 phone calls I should make 5 sales and make "X" amount of dollars). You are just another cold call for them, except because you exist, they don't have to pick up the phone - you're doing it for them - for crap commissions and less than minimum wage.
Stay away guys. There are better jobs out there. Keep looking.
Explosive Advertising, Inc. Reviews
Tampa is a hotbed for MLM companies - as a larger college town, there are tons of fresh college grads in a market oversaturated with them, desperate for jobs and jumping at anything that offers a check. It's a perfect environment for breeding predatory employers like Explosive Advertising.
I've interviewed at another similar operation before here in Tampa called Alliance Executive Solutions. That "company" no longer exists and the former "president" now works at a more grey area scam employer in freight brokerage out in Riverview. They have different parent companies (or do they, who knows) but the idea is exactly the same. I've never worked for one of them but if you have any kind of common sense/critical thinking you will understand exactly what the job will be like just by walking in the door.
I will explain exactly what will happen to you from the moment you see the job ad online to the moment you quit the job:
You're an unemployed college graduate. You have a B.A. and you're not sure what to do next - your parents are on your case about finding a job and moving out, becoming independent, and the heat is on. So you frantically start looking for a job. You see an ad online for "Explosive Advertising". They want people with no experience, they work with Fortune 500 companies, they offer management training - it's a dream! So you email your resume over and move on to the next post-
Wait, your phone is already ringing. It's Explosive Advertising and they think you might be a fit! They want you to come in for an interview TODAY! (An instant callback is usually a red flag; an interview request for same day or next day is usually a red flag as well. This should be the first indication something is off.) Well, shoot, you're young and unemployed - why not jump at it? You tell them you'll see them at 2:30 that afternoon.
You pull up to the office park and it's about as nondescript as it gets. There is next to no signage for "Explosive Advertising". The email confirmation you received has instructions on how to find the office suite..which seems odd for a company that does all this business with all these big companies. Shouldn't they have their own building or at least their own floor at the very least?
You walk inside and there's a receptionist with a sign-in sheet. Ignoring the sign-in sheet you say you're here for a 2:30 interview, suit pressed, tie in a double windsor, all cleaned up. She tells you to sign in (!) and wait in the adjacent room. Looking at the sign in sheet you see all the other names for that day...and the reason for sign-in is always interview. There are at least 20 other names on this sheet. Uh oh.
So you sign in like you're told and go sit in the adjacent room. Which is full of people. There are barely enough chairs. And they're ALL there to interview. This should be another enormous red flag. The position you are interviewing for is not specialized. You were not vetted as a possible candidate at all. All these people are here for the same position. S**t.
You'll go back to the interview when it's your turn (ha) and they'll tell you all about how they're partnered with DirectTV or Staples or whoever this month's campaign is. The position involves selling crap inside wholesale stores like Sams Club to people that are walking by trying to get their shopping down without being hassled by peddlers. Have you or do you know anyone that has ever switched their cable or cell phone plan impulsively at a Sam's Club because some high pressure salesperson stopped them in the store? Exactly.
But don't pay attention to that, you can make all kinds of money and open your own office in 6 months! How much do we pay? Oh we'll talk about that at the second interview...WHICH IS TODAY! You can drive over to Brandon and meet with our reps in the Sams Club over there right now! Watch how much fun they're having and how much money they're making!
Now, this is where anybody with any degree of job experience would literally laugh in these clowns' faces and never give this scam a second thought. Perhaps you want to give it a shot though, so you head over to Sams. The associates are exhausted and defeated. They barely have the heart to even try anymore. It's not just the constant rejection - that comes with any sales job - it's the fact that the money doesn't even come close to alleviating it (as in most ethical sales jobs the commission potential does completely outweigh the difficulty of closing on a regular basis and any morale issues). They pay you $250 a week or commissions, whichever is higher. What's $250 divided by 40? $6.25. Below minimum wage. $13,000 a year salary. You'll be working far more than 40 hours a week though, and if your stupid self actually sticks around long enough to "open your own office" you'll discover $10,000 of your own money has to be put in escrow (which Smart Circle will have power of attorney over that account) as "insurance" and your other business bank accounts will also be POA'd over to Smart Circle as well.
You'll spend so much time and money driving to work, meetings, "networking" events, that you'll probably lose money and quit after a matter of weeks. You'll get tired of the forced indoctrination, watching people leave and cut their losses, being forced to have interviewees come shadow you knowing that, if they've gotten to the "second interview" portion, they're either too stupid to realize what they're looking at or too naive/polite to tell you you're an idiot for working there.
Smart Circle, Cydcor, companies like these prey on young kids who don't have any other options. They are hire-in-masses companies that will try to use you and drain you of all your initiative to quit, or your drive to be successful, before you quit in disgust, a broken individual who ends up worse off than he was before he started. Unlike other sales there is NO WAY to be truly successful in an operation like this because the money YOU make has to start at the top of the chain and work its way back down to you. Which is completely backwards.
The company gets away with not being called a pyramid scheme outright because it doesn't ask you to "buy-in". You are still encouraged to recruit your friends and family members to work for them though - encouraged to have people work under you so you can get a cut of their commissions. The business model is based on expansion, turning salespeople themselves into a numbers game (if we hire 100 sales people we only need 10 to make 5 sales to make a profit) instead of the sales itself (like normal - i.e. if I make 100 phone calls I should make 5 sales and make "X" amount of dollars). You are just another cold call for them, except because you exist, they don't have to pick up the phone - you're doing it for them - for crap commissions and less than minimum wage.
Stay away guys. There are better jobs out there. Keep looking.