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Opinions

 

Part-time dream jobs can be a full-time nightmare

Employment opportunities for students can be misleading

By Jacey Gibb, Opinions Editor

hat student doesn’t
dream of finding their
ideal part-time job, with

flexible hours and matching great
pay to go with it? By this point
in your life, you’ve probably had
your first experience working
in the retail industry, and it’s
even mote likely that it was an
unpleasant one. Unfortunately,
with nothing more than a high
school diploma, securing decent
employment on the side while you
finish post-secondary school can
be a challenge. But it’s because of
our deluded expectations of what
part-time jobs should be, that the
student demographic becomes
an ideal target for “scam jobs.”
I’m using the term in quotations
because technically, yes, you can
make money doing these kinds
of jobs, but the way they operate
and advertise themselves is very
misleading.

The two main companies
that I want to warn you about are
Canadian Property Stars and Vector
Marketing, both of which you’ve
probably heard of, thanks to their
aggressive recruitment campaigns.

If you’ve ever seen something
written on your classroom
whiteboard advertising a part-time
job with high wages, Canadian
Property Stars (CPS) are probably
behind it. Wherever there’s a
bulletin board on campus, there’s
a flyer announcing to the world
that CPS is now hiring for the
upcoming season. Specializing in
“property maintenance needs,”
the posters scream about how
amazing the job opportunities are.
I first encountered the company
last year and applied for a position,
with someone calling me later

that same day to offer me an
interview, claiming that I was just
what they were looking for. But
before I received the call, I had
decided to do some research and
found nothing but terrible stories
online warning me to stay away.
Some people even reported that
they had to rent machinery from
the company and when they were
unable to sell their services to
anyone, ended up losing money. |
told the woman on the phone that
I was no longer interested, but for
the next week, everyday I received
phone calls asking me to come in
for an interview. It’s like having a
crazy ex-girlfriend but without the
foreplay.

More recently, a friend and I
were finishing up at the Douglas
fitness centre when a girl came
up to us and asked if we were
looking for summer employment. I
immediately declined her offer but
she continued to tell my friend all
about this great new opportunity.
It didn’t surprise me at all to find
out she works for CPS. Why don’t
more people realize that if a job
is so great, then why would the
company have to advertise so
much and have people lurk around

campuses trying to recruit workers?

“But Jacey! You never actually
worked for them, so how can you
say they’re a scam! All you did
was research them online!” Yes,
it’s true that you shouldn't believe
everything you read on the Internet.
But luckily, for my argument
against Vector Marketing, I have
a much more reliable source: a
former employee. I was recently
able to speak with Jane*, a Douglas
College student who, though very
briefly, was employed with Vector
Marketing as a sales person earlier

this year. She told me about how the

interview process was a joke, with
the interviewer only asking “Why
do you want this job” before hiring
her on the spot, despite having no
previous work experience. Once
she went through several days of
unpaid training, her next step was
to purchase a mandatory demo

set of knives for $140. Jane’s new
job consisted entirely of providing
demonstrations for clients that

she found herself, with emphasis
being on people she already knew
on a personal level. For every
demonstration someone does

for Vector, they make $17 plus

10 per cent commission off of
whatever products they manage

to sell. In theory, this seems like a
decent proposal, but not when the
products are horribly overpriced.
The most expensive knife set, which
comes with 32 pieces, costs $2700.
I don’t know about you guys, but I
think I'll stick to my crappy $20 set
instead.

Also, the demonstrations can’t
be done for students or people
without full-time jobs. This meant
Jane was faced with a big problem

because she is new to the country
and knows mostly other students.
When she discussed her dilemma
with her supervisor, he encouraged
her to seek out her friends’ parents
and try to target them. Something
that would otherwise be considered
an invasion of privacy is actually
encouraged with Vector.

After only a month of working
for Vector, with no sales made yet
and over half of her demonstrations
deemed unfit for consideration,
Jane handed in her two weeks
notice.

Basically, it all comes down to
playing it smart when scouring for
employment. If a job sounds too
good to be true, unfortunately, it
likely is. A simple Google search
will reveal a company’s past and
give you some insight into any
shady prospects. As a rule of
thumb, when the first suggestion
that comes up is “(Company’s
name) scam,” it’s best you seek
elsewhere.

“By request, the student interviewed
has had their name withheld

 

 

The inventor of the PVR was surely Satan’s spawn

I’m going on the record as against them

By Eric Wilkins, Staff Writer

ust under a year ago now, our

household was blessed with a

marvel of technology: a PVR.

eedless to say, my childlike

mirth knew no bounds when it
learned of this acquisition. Short
of actually being through the roof,
I was just that. From then on, any
show, game, movie, or otherwise
that would have been missed in an
ordinary world, was recorded. It
was glorious.

Now, months later, with
several seasons of The Office and
endless movies safely recorded,
the attraction to this device has not
waned, but a horrible realization

has dawned on me. While I often
don’t have time to actually watch
the programmes when they’re
on—hence the excessive use of the
PVR—and really don’t have the
time even after the fact, I manage
to watch everything anyway.
“Manage” is really the wrong
word here; it almost has a positive
connotation about it, but this is
definitely far from a good thing.
It’s wonderful to have the ability to
catch up on everything you missed;
however, I’m catching up much too
much these days. Whether or not
this should be surprising to me, I
watch more television now than |
did before we picked up a PVR.
What's wrong with that? Well,

shameful as it is to admit, PVR
has provided me with yet another
opportunity for procrastination. In
the good old days, when there was
nothing good on the boob tube I
would simply give up my efforts
to abstain from work and finish
what needed to be done. But now,
thanks to our evil PVR unit, if I
can’t find something moderately
interesting at the time, I can just
flip to previously-aired-material
and continue my mindless spiral
away from homework. First World
problems.

In addition to this, my
already less-than-favourable
sleep schedule has been thrown
even more off balance. No longer

is late-night television restricted
exclusively to Seimfeld reruns! With
the comfortable lure of the couch
and all those daytime-seaps UFC
fights at my fingertips, my bed has
become a veritable stranger.

The worst part is that I have
no desire to stop. The PVR, and
my desire to use and abuse it, has
become like a cockroach to me; I
can’t kill it. It’s horrible. Deplorable.
One might go so far as to say
disgusting.

Who saw this one coming? My
worst enemy turned out to be an
electronic box. The moral of my
story? Technology is evil.

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