Monster.com scam or great opportunity?

July 18, 2006 8:27 PM

Who are these consulting agencies contacting me off Monster.com, and are their offers too good to be true?

Having recently graduated, I've posted my resume on Monster.com. Several companies that I hadn't heard of have approached me, saying they'd like me to sell their services or recruit other consultants. They're offering 30kish base, commission, and benefits, saying I could make between of 50-100k per year. Is this legit? It sounds...phishy.

Bonus question: What sort of salary could I reasonably expect, having a Literature BA and decent college work experience? "Decent" means an office gig, an IT position, and an internship at a well-known Fortune 500 company.

posted by sixacross to work & money (10 comments total)

slightly ot, but you should create a linkedin profile... might help you!
posted by Izzmeister at 8:29 PM on July 18, 2006

You have a Lit degree, why would you have gone to college to get a job in sales?

Yes, they are too good to be true, unless you like working for shysters.

Where do you live? Office or IT in San Jose is different than Office or IT in Boise, ya know?
posted by fenriq at 8:31 PM on July 18, 2006

You can use Salary.com to see what's typical pay.
posted by fenriq at 8:32 PM on July 18, 2006

Yeah, shady. I would not bite on those offers. Anything that wants you to sell something and "recruit others" is probably not legit.

As for salary - where? With that degree and "office" positions, $30k. Now, if you had refined IT skills, that number will jump up drastically - believe me, I know!
posted by criticman at 8:34 PM on July 18, 2006

That's what I thought. I'm in Santa Cruz (hey, fenriq) and I'm running out of money, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't closing some doors unnecessarily.

I was vague on the job experience only to differentiate from my distinguished colleagues in retail and food-service. Full-time doing the work of my immediate supervisors (which is basically what one does as a student employee) I could make 30somethingthousand and benefits, so, maybe I'll do that.

Thanks for the answers.
posted by sixacross at 8:52 PM on July 18, 2006

I graduated about 2 years ago with a B. Comm and through two separate job searches encountered at least 4-5 pyramid scheme type companies.

In my experience, you could smell something pretty fishy about them very quickly. The wild salary numbers are a pretty decent indicator. Brand new grads with basically zero experience usually don't get six figures.

The companies I encountered were fairly easily googled, and you can find actual experiences by people in interviews in some cases.
posted by sinical at 9:44 PM on July 18, 2006

That sounds suspiciously like an MLM pitch, if you ask me.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:38 PM on July 18, 2006

Yeah, my guess is that the job will consist mostly of contacting jobseekers and saying you'd like them to sell your services or recruit other consultants.

Unless it's just straightforward identity theft via a background check. Have you done a web search for these 'companies'?
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 1:57 AM on July 19, 2006

Yeah, I googled everything. A few of the sites were pretty sub-par design-wise, which set off bells, but I couldn't find any blog entries or horror stories or first hand accounts about them, so, hive-mind.

Thanks again, all.
posted by sixacross at 2:42 AM on July 19, 2006

sixaxcross, check out indeed.com. If there's a job posted on the Web, it will find it.

I posted my resume on Monster once. Never again.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:35 AM on July 19, 2006