I can't vouch for the internal workings that Anonymous in Austin has detailed in the original r

28th of Jan, 2011 by User145742

I can't vouch for the internal workings that Anonymous in Austin has detailed in the original report. However, I can say that while visiting the local office, ostensibly to be considered for a technical position, I had a chance to see "behind the curtain" so to speak. From the time I arrived at the office, I noticed that applicants were trying to be kept away from a set of double doors. There were no signs saying "do not enter" or "employees only," just a sense that I got that people weren't supposed to see what was back there. There was no receptionist or front desk. When someone enters the office, a little alarm goes off and someone comes out. I was greeted by someone who looked like a well-dressed college guy -- like a business marketing major, and ushered into a small windowless office with two plain chairs and a very plain little round table. Shortly after, my contact came in, who similarly had the demeanor of a stereotypical college girl. Both were nice but seemed extremely shallow and rushed. My contact very briefly discussed compensation (I said negotiable) and no specifics were given about the position other than it was entry-level, third shift and I appeared to be well qualified but the client wanted everyone to be screened with an exam. At this point, an "exam" was administered that seemed very different from the skills required for the job I was contacted about. After completing the exam, I walked out of the office looking for my contact. It was then that I saw very clearly exactly what was going on behind the double doors because they were open! I snuck a peek and saw no cubicles, just a huge open room with a bunch of mainly guys who looked like they were either fresh out of college or had some college. The only way to describe the atmosphere is that it was loud, hectic, fast-talking, and furious. Everyone seemed to be in a big hurry and they were all making phone calls or dialing. No one was shouting or angry, there was just an extremely busy buzz to the whole place. It was like one of those movies where old-fashioned stock brokers were just cold-calling people. I once saw a real estate office that looked like that...everyone in a big room and everyone on the phone and lost in their phone conversations which seemed to be taking place in a hurry. Anyway, my contact came out of a back office and I mentioned that it seemed like the type of exam a product architect and developer would take and there were about 12 questions not related to the product but to the operating system and also another product I'd never heard of. My contact seemed to not care about anything I'd just said. She told me that my resume would be considered for other positions. I was thinking, that's odd, because I am qualified for the job, it's just that the exam didn't really match the job, which was junior level and required some exposure to the technology. I offered to wait for my score just to know how I did. She mumbled something about not having the answer key and said that it would be sent later that day for scoring. The next day, I sent an email in the morning thanking her, and stating that I looked forward to receiving my score. At 4:45pm that afternoon (it was a Friday), I got a response. "We haven't scored the test but it will sent to you by day's end." Okay, it was already the end of the day, but whatever. I replied, "Thanks. I look forward to knowing how I did." Well you can guess what's happened. It's next week, I have heard absolutely nothing. No one addressed my concern that the test didn't really match the job. No one scored my test. And no one has called or emailed anything else. I felt like the whole thing was some kind of grand bait-and-switch, and that it was a waste of my valuable job-searching time. But the image I couldn't get out of my mind was that back office, where salespeople were furiously making those phone calls. It was surreal. I will say this about Anonymous in Austin's report. It needs to be taken seriously. I had no experience with this firm previously -- I wasn't looking for anything bad and I had a completely open mind when I got there. I didn't know about Austin's report until now. But, the impression I got from dealing with this office was that it dovetails exactly with the way Austin is saying the firm operates. As I said, I can't vouch for all of the internal workings he has described, but my treatment and the impression I got as a candidate does seem to match how he has described things. I'm sure there will be responses from within the company blaming me in some way. That seems to be their modus operandi. But I hope the reasonable tone of my report and the journalistic way I have detailed my observations helps others to draw a fair conclusion: This company appears to operate as a "boiler room" that, like too many other such agencies, exists to go through as many candidates as possible in the shortest possible time frame in the hopes of making some kind of big score. There is little attention paid to the candidate's individual needs, feelings or impressions, and I was left thinking that if the job actually existed (which I personally doubt), even if I could have been placed in that job, everything there was so rushed and disorganized that they wouldn't even know a perfect match for a position if that person did apply.

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