rowark:
PSA, as we enter a recession (or are already in one, depending on who you ask)…
now is NOT the time to join a multilevel marketing business.
it’s never the time (because they’re pyramid schemes) but now is ESPECIALLY not the time, and they’re gonna be out in full force trying to recruit people, especially if we start seeing widespread lay offs
If someone wants to offer you a “job opportunity” but won’t tell you the name of the company, RUN
if a company requires you to purchase a starter kit, FUCKING RUN
if someone invites you to an “opportunity call” or otherwise pitches this “opportunity” to you, and it’s just a whole bunch of love-bombing and motivational speaking, RUN
if you cannot “rank up” in the company without recruiting more people to your team (aka downline), RUN
if you already joined one, cut your losses and quit now. seriously
if your friends/family join them, do not buy from them, even if it’s just to support them… buying from people who join MLMs gives them false confidence that they will succeed, and it keeps them in longer, and ultimately they will lose more money, and probably damage a lot of their relationships along the way
99% of people either make no money, or worse, LOSE money, in multilevel marketing. They’re scams and commercial cults and the “recession proof industry” marketing campaigns are already well underway, especially in MLMs that are currently on the brink of collapse (like Monat)
don’t be fooled. there is no opportunity. it’s not a job. it’s a scam
(also, watch out for their alternate names… network marketing and social selling are just synonyms for multilevel marketing.)
Eta: if you’re not sure if a company is an MLM, Google it. There’s an entire database online for this. Search “is [X] an mlm” and if it is, you’ll find a wealth of information about how their scams work.
thank you for coming to my ted talk
When I was sending out tons of applications, I was contacted by a company for an interview. I incorrectly assumed that they one of the dozens of companies I applied to. It was only my last-minute research before the interview that made me realize what was happening. The interview was also unexpectedly a group “interview.” I went on camera and politely said to everyone that I didn’t plan to work for a multi level marketing scheme and would prefer to pursue genuine job offers (or something to that effect) to hopefully warn others. I was of course told that it wasn’t an MLM and was immediately booted off the call.
I’m sharing because googling the company was not enough. It was supposedly a newer company, so not much information existed outside of their own website. But their website was very vague and used general businessy terms to describe what they did, with a lot of stock images and not much information on the people involved.
I had a hunch and took one sentence from their website, and googled it in quotes (for example, googling the phrase “We are changemakers who keep up with the fast pace of industry” with quotes included). I found two results - the current company, and a different company website with the exact same phrase. The second website was deleted, but Google still had it archived for search results.
I googled the name of the second company and discovered a reddit thread for a nearby major city, which called this company out as a scam/MLM and listed their previous business names! They seriously moved from town to town and changed their names completely. I added the new business name to the list.
But this was just my last-minute check immediately before the interview. I’m not sure that everyone would think to do the same. By all appearances, this was a normal company just getting started, hence the lack of reviews. (Some legitimate businesses don’t interact with the public much and so aren’t reviewed often, and may not be listed on Glassdoor if they are smaller or were created within the last couple years.)
As a non-expert, based on this experience, I would just suggest these red flags:
- The corporate website not having a section titled “Who We Are,” “Board of Directors,” “Staff,” or otherwise providing contact information for the owner/CEO (and other leadership positions if it is not a startup). These people will not look like models. If they do, search the image on Google or another reverse-image-search engine to see if it is a stock image.
- All the images on the site being stock photos, showing smiling people in suits. Legitimate businesses will usually have at least an image of their physical location, plus the aforementioned people in leadership.
- The website should tell you exactly what the company does. This may be in the mission statement or their “About” page. This may include vague buzzwordy phrases, but will also have at least something specific about why the company exists.
- Keep a list of everywhere you apply. This can be a personal list, or just using Indeed/etc that tell you your application history (and send you an email when you apply, which you can keep in a folder for reference). When you get an interview, always check if you have actually applied. It’s not impossible to be offered an interview based on employers finding your public resume, but it is important information to have. Why is the company sending out unsolicited offers? Why do they not have existing applicants? Legitimate companies will probably instead invite you to apply to a pre-existing job listing, not skip to scheduling an interview.
- If the interview is a group interview when you were lead to expect an individual interview, it’s not a good sign.
- If the job position mentions sales or recruitment, unless you have been specifically searching for these jobs, be careful. (Even “legitimate” jobs may overly rely on sales commissions, but I personally expect a promised salary plus commissions.)
