When I read the thread title (before I’d even opened it) this was the exact phrase that popped into my mind.
** Pump Action Gerbil ** worked for a company that advertised for a receptionist thusly:
“Receptionist/secretary wanted. Filing, typing. Must be willing to pose nude. Fun job”
The ad was read on the Tonight show.
What was the job, or can you link me to your thread?
All of the work-at-home ads. Especially the ones that advertise Web sites with URLs like “BeYourOwnBoss” or “EZMoney4U” and guarantee you’ll make $5,000 a month.
I see those signs plastered all over the city every other week or so, always with a different URL.
That’s quite common in my industry (oil & gas exploration) - it’s done to make the screening process easier (no phone calls to deal with).
Light outdoor labor - $27.50 an hour
Do you want a job or a career?
I’d like to take out an ad every week saying:
“If the money was that good and the job that easy, these companies would not be recruiting in the newspaper.”
Besides, who wants to work with people who can’t spell?
How about ‘management trainee’?
“Hey, where’s my office?”
“Yeah…right.”
What was this job? I always wondered about that ad. I remeber seeing it at least 15 years ago.
And the ones that say “Wild & Crazy Guys and Gals Wanted for Rock and Roll Atmosphere”
I figured it was something slimey. Some kind of sleazy sales thing?
“Must be unfamiliar with U.S. labor laws.”
A guy trying to talk me into coming to work for him once actually used the word “trafficking” to describe what he did, which he repeatedly told me he couldn’t describe in detail unless I was “in.”
I stayed out.
“Please indicate on application if you are a Law Enforcement officer.”
Bingo. At least the one I interviewed for was. They went door-to-door in office buildings trying to sell posters and art prints. I had some guy with spiked-blond hair, smoking a cigarette in his office, dressed like a marketing director’s idea of an art-school kid (to be fair, many actual art-school kids dress like a marketing director’s idea of an art-school kid), giving me the standard “work work work make loads of money get people working under you within the month six figures inside of two years” sales job spiel. Either a horrifying exercise in cynicism and hypocrisy, or a young lad’s reminder that no matter how we comb our hair, we’re all whores when the rent comes due, depending on how I’m feeling when I tell the story.
Actually, quite a few legitimate companies do this also. My company just hired a paralegal this way: of course, we did advertise the fact that we wanted a paralegal with real estate experience.
As the company receptionist, I was very grateful for this method. As someone else mentioned, there was no dealing with phone inquiries: I didn’t have to answer questions about hours, duties and especially salaries (thank gawd!), none of which I was even remotely qualified to answer, nor did I have to transfer inquiry calls every five minutes to the person doing the hiring. All I had to do was make sure the proper papers were together and that the fax machine was filled; about every ten minutes we’d go through a quarter ream of paper on resumes alone.
Granted there are sleazy companies that used this method to sucker in the unwilling and unknowing, but as a front-line employee of a legitimate company, I found this invaluable in screening and saving time.
No skill required