Chicago Business Strategies Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Sep 2011 in Oak Park, IL (took a day)

They pulled my resume from CareerBuilder and contacted me to see if I was interested in the job opening. They then arranged a face to face interview at their location in Oak Brook, IL. They sent me a confirmation email with the address and directions.
I arrived onsite, this is a large office building with many offices in it, walked into the office which seemed very empty (this is at about 3:15PM on a Wednesday - non holiday). There was a very nice receptionist who gave me a single sided sheet of paper that was the application, looked like a word document that asked for my name, phone, address, and to list qualifications I thought were relevant to the position. The receptionist asked that I attach my resume and references to this sheet. she took the paperwork to someone in an office and came back telling me I would meet with this person in a moment. I proceeded to look at the fish tank for awhile as the receptionist made chit chat with me about what kind of music I liked while she changed music that was playing apologizing that the T.V. behind her was broken.

I was called into the office of the woman she had given my application to by about 3:30PM.She asks very usual questions about my experience, why I'm interested in the company etc, nothing particularly challenging or off the wall. She then explains what their consulting firm does. Basically it’s a traveling outside sales position, although she never really said travelling she just said it was a face to face approach which set them aside in the industry etc and that ideally you visit 2-3 clients a day. Obviously this means travel. This whole thing took maybe 10 minutes.

I then asked the numerous questions I had about how stable she felt the company was, if there were benefits, what the quotas were, if there were set leads or if I would be sourcing those myself and about the compensation. Most interesting thing was that you pick how you are compensated each with options of commission only or base plus commission. I have never had a position which deals with commission or bonuses so I do not know how normal it is that you can change your compensation weekly, but just as an FYI.

She tells me she making phone calls at 5:00PM that night letting me know if I will move on to the second interview or not. I look at my phone as I am nearing my car and its 3:50PM. I drive home and hear back from her at 5:33PM. She says they are interested in the second "interview" , which she explained onsite as being a day of job shadowing. She wanted me to come in at 9:30AM and stay until after 4:00PM shadowing one of the executives. She asks if I can come in tomorrow. Here’s where I start feeling really unsure.

At this point she knows I am working full time in downtown Chicago, basically doing the same sort of work she is in terms of conducting interviews. Why would she ask me to come next day? That’s a little unprofessional on my part if I say "Sure!" maybe this is a test? I reply "No I have a commitment to my current job; I wouldn't be able to come until sometime next week." She then posed next week Monday as a possible time. Gives my current employer only 2 business days notice, again a bit rash on my part but I haven’t had time to think it out and don't want to lose the opportunity to someone else. I agree to Monday.

Next day, I check with the references I provided. The company has not checked any references. No confirmation email this time. I am really getting nervous now. I Google the company again, this time very thoroughly, nothing comes up in news, nothing at the BBB, nothing but the company website which has no news section and multiple postings on CareerBuilder, simply hired, and other job sites. And they have a Facebook page. Weird... These guys claim they have been in business since 2005 and "is proud to be recognized as one of the fastest growing direct marketing and consulting firms in Illinois". How is it that there is no news on these guys anywhere? Very odd. Then I start thinking. No Background check or even reference check and they are going to have me with one of their employees for an entire day knowing nothing about me other than what’s on paper? They didn’t ask me to even bring I.D. with me to the second phase interview... Very fishy. Also, I am supposed to lose out on an entire days pay and job shadow with them for the promise of being considered for a third interview. Generally job shadowing comes as a final step to ensure your candidate is interested and would stay with the company before you extend an offer and spend all the money on hiring them.

The verdict? I canceled the second interview. To me there are still too many what ifs to justify me taking an entire day off my current (very nice) job and spending the day making nothing. I have heard of job shadowing, but never an entire day without any pay or perks...