First I'm going to say, I had no idea that MLM schemes even existed until I was a few days into this job. It didn't hit me until last night that I've been working with one.

So it all started with a phone call. I was on the job search after just recently quitting my previous job, and things were getting desperate. That's why I was estatic one morning when I got a phone call from an unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Hi this is V, I just recently viewed your resume and thought you would be a great fit at [company name]"

Assuming that it was one of the several jobs I had applied for on indeed, I quickly opened my laptop while on the phone with her to review what this company was. The website was undescriptive, but had a nice layout. The about me page was mainly about how they do outsourced marketing, but nothing too specific in detail. Scrolling down the page showed information regarding the various roles, from representative to account manager and market manager. Still no red flags came up in my head, as being a recent college graduate I wasn't familiar with devil corps.

V invited me to an interview, and I accepted for the following morning. The next day, I sat in a zoom call with the executive manager. Staying very unspecific, and obviously following a script as I saw his eyes reading something the entire time, he asked me simple questions like, "What makes you inspired to go into marketing" and, "what do I look for in a company?". Answering his questions, and being a fairly nervous person, I didn't really think about the fact that I asked no questions regarding the company. He simply said, "Well, typically we interview 80-100 candidates which can take a couple weeks, but as I see that you are such a great energy, I'd love to invite you right now to a second interview tomorrow!" I was shocked. I thanked him and ended the call, and spent the rest of the day unbelievably excited and ready for this second itnerview, still not even sure what it entirely entailed.

The following day, I show up at the office building. It's a nice business park, and definitely sold me as a legitimate marketing firm. I waited in a reception area designed for several businesses in the building, until somebody that wasn't the executive manager greeted me. It was one of the lower general market managers, who greeted me and took me aside to continue the interview process. He went over how the system worked, the typical "you'll be a sales rep for about 2-4 weeks making 600 base pay, but can make commission on top of that. Then, you'll be promoted to account manager, where you'll see an increase in your salary, and you'll also be in charge of second round interviews." Still not seeing the error in this system, I nodded my head and continued conversation. I eventually shook the guys hand, thanked him, and left. A few hours later, I get a call from him asking if I would accept the position. I excitedly accept, and from there I am now officially employed.

Two weeks later, I start my first day. I meet the other new guys, who are all around my age, recent college grads. Many of them nervous and timid guys, I begin to realize that a majority of these new hires seem suspicious. Why is everybody the same age? Why not hire some people in their 30s, 40s? The thoughts began to grow, but I still didn't pay much mind to it.

First couple days are just orientation, just a couple hours going through what the job entails. It's the first day sitting in the meeting room with all the other new hires that I come to learn from the executive manager, this is a direct At&t sales job, meaning that I'm going to be going to several different wholesale locations and selling at&t lines as a third party company. This is when things start to feel really off. Never was it mentioned I'd be going to wholesale companies, setting up a kiosk, and selling lines. Not even an hour into orientation, we're going over how to make our pitches. "Hi quick question, what cell phone provider do you use?" Just practicing on each other what it'd be like talking to customers, over, and over, and over again. We just keep practicing the hook, the pitch, as well as practicing with the at&t quote software to look up various phone promotions. Everything feels extremely off at this point. I go home confused, but still willing to hear them out.

Second day, we go over our schedule and pay structure. Again, 600 base pay, plus commission based off however many lines we can sell. Schedule is 5 days a week, weekend day is a MUST while taking off a weekday. Great, there goes my saturday or sunday. We then begin practicing our pitches again. At the end of the orientation, we have to take an online quiz, but NOTHING we've been trained on. Manager tells us all the answers. Strange. But man it gets stranger.

Next day is the official first day, 7:45 AM sharp we must be at the office. We all gather in this small meeting room, where me and the new hires meet the current experienced team members. Everybody is quite what you'd expect. First all, mostly men, I believe it was about 10 men and only about 2 women. Everybody's like 24-26 years old, and like macho and tough. They're all yelling at each other (jokingly), punching one another in the chest, shouting and playing spanish rap on a bluetooth speaker. Just annoying as hell for 8 in the morning. Then comes in the executive manager. Everybody cheers, and this is where things go fucking balistic.

Everybody starts clapping, cheering, screaming, chanting songs and stomping their feet. Me and the new hires all look at one another in confusion. The manager starts running around in a circle, high fiving everybody. Then he calls out somebody's name, and that person does it too. So here we are at 8 in the morning, with people running around in this small-ass meeting room screaming and chanting. Then, the manager hops up onto a shelf and starts preaching about success, nothing to do with the company. He then begins publicly announcing people's sales numbers, and everybody applauds for one another. Things were just absolutely nuts, and at this point I was very much set on getting the fuck out.

An hour later, after practicing pitches, I'm sent to the manager's office. There, he sits me down and tells me that [guys name] is going to take me to a wholesale location and train me on sales. There I go driving to this wholesale to have my first day pitching. Upon getting there, it's horribly depressing . Nobody's in the store, it's 11:30 AM on a Thursday, and the customers are all elderly. As soon as I get there, the trainer is having me practice my pitch with him again, and then he forces me to go talk to some old women about our phone deals (keep in mind, I still have no idea how to use our software on our ipads). Feeling like a jackass, I screw up on pitches for most of the day, mainly because I'm in shock of what I'm doing, but also I feel horribly guilty wasting people's time with our phone pitches. My trainer ends the day dissapointed, and the next day, it's the same procedure all over again.

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8 AM, chanting, yelling, screaming, practicing pitches, going to wholesale, doing it all again. This time, I'm very much fed up. I'm eyeing the door, just getting ready to leave and never come back. Eventually ,I gather some confidence and try pitching to some people. I get cold shoulders, cold eyes, big NO THANK YOUs and a few aggressive people. End of the day, I go home and feel absolutely miserable. That's when I decided to do research on what job I was working, and that's when I found all this info about pyramid and MLM schemes. Then it hit me. The way you rise in the company. The fact that once you're promoted, you hire and train more reps to level up. It all was so crazy. I drew it out on a piece of paper, wa-lah, it's a fucking pyramind. I didn't come in today, told the manager I was taking a personal day. Come monday, I'm grabbing my paycheck and fucking leaving. Never again.

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Edit: I have no idea where they found me, probably from linkedin. Going thru indeed history, I never once applied for their company. Really sketchy shit.