Job interview red flags

[Amigone201]

I've done a lot of interviewing lately, just not for jobs I actually want to take. So I've started mentally compiling a list of things that send me running when I hear them in interviews, and I want to share a few here.

Feel free to add or critique my suggestions.

It's commission with no base salary. Commission-only sales jobs are really prevalent right now, mainly because the company isn't really "hiring" anyone to do anything. They don't pay you a salary, or benefits, so it costs nothing for the company to have you "on board." Maybe, if they're a really big company, they might pay for your training, but the problem is once you're done, you're still out there on your own. 89% of people fail at this type of job, according to a guy at a job fair yesterday who does this type of work.

It's a "consultant" job. This is the weasel word they use so they don't have to say "It's a commission-only job." Watch out. Being a "consultant" for a sales company is, in my mind, the equivalent of not having a job at all. Sure, you have a place to go to every morning, but what you don't have is stability, or support. You're there, selling, and if you don't sell, you don't eat. Nobody's watching your back, so sink or swim.

The website touts your "freedom" as an employee. You shouldn't you get "freedom" when you start out in a job, especially if it's entry-level. The only reason you have "freedom" is because they're not paying you and it's your own ass on the line.

They ask you for a "warm list." This is when a company asks you to bring a list of people you know with you to an interview. Be VERY wary! What kind of reputable company asks you, a person they don't even know, to bring in a list of potential clients? Yesterday, the lady asked me to bring in a hundred of them! I'm not going to risk alienating my friends and family for your very dubious "job," selling things I have no business selling. Which brings me to...

They'll hire you without qualifications. Why am I, with a law degree, interviewing at a place that sells insurance? Because the interviewer doesn't CARE you who are. All they want is butt in the seat. They'll bring in anybody, because the job is so crappy, they need to keep a constant stream of employees ready to jump in at a moment's notice. Closely related is...

They do high-volume interviews. The lady yesterday said she has to interview 300 people a year. What the hell? No reputable company should be interviewing people on a volume basis. You can't seriously afford to hire that many people. (Well, no, they can't, but they're not "hiring" anybody, really). She trawls through job hunting sites and grabs resumes at random just to bring in more people. A real job would interview based on applications (not going out and finding YOU), and picking maybe the one hundred most cream of the crop, then paring down from there.

There are multiple interviews, but you can't fail out. The job I interviewed at yesterday has a 4-step interview process. Which sounds very important and "real job" like, but at the end of the first interview, she was ready to send me paperwork to come back for the second. Um, no, that's not how it works. You should shake my hand and say, "Thanks, we'll be in touch." Then take your notes back to a committee where you sit down and weed through the applicants, THEN call me back only if I've beaten the herd. The more we discussed the job, the more I felt like it was a lock, and you shouldn't feel like that.