Sham marketing companies

A couple of years ago I applied for a job with a company at Mosque Street. So I went down in my neatest office wear arriving much earlier than the stated time for the interview. I was greeted by a young and rather pretty receptionist. Although it was not a prime location for businesses, the office was professionally furnished and had an impressive decor. While all the interviewees filled up their personal particulars, TV commercials were played and replayed on a big LCD screen. I was quite surprised to see that the place was swarming (ok a little too exaggerated, but nonetheless quite crowded) with young people dressed in office attire and looking really confident. There were also a few caucasians but all looked to be below 30. Then of course there were the misfits like me who looked so out of place even in my most expensive shirt and pants.

I promptly filled up my form and passed my IC to the receptionist for photocopying. After a wait of about 15 minutes, the interviewer came and greeted us. She looked to be in her early 30s and I was led to a small meeting room along with a female job applicant. The interviewer sat us down and began asking the standard questions (what type of job are we looking for, do we know whats this job about, what did we previously work as). I am a self-professed good speaker and I never had problems interacting in others even in formal settings but the other job applicant hardly muttered coherently. So after a short interview of about 20 minutes we were all out.

As we were walking out, I overheard crazy shoutings from one of the bigger meeting rooms. The interviewer explained that those people were there for training. My previous experiences with normal companies who were really interested in hiring never resorted to such crazy training rituals comparable to exorcism of Emily Rose. So while Im making my way down the stairs, I was fully convinced that I have wasted my time attending this interview. Before long, the interviewer called up and said I was selected for a second interview (and Im pretty much sure that the girl who could hardly converse would have gotten this "job" as well). I politely declined while cursing softly under my bated breath.

Its in times like these when such companies start their unethical and shameless preying on the jobless to work for them for free. Which really makes any desperate job seeker really pissed. I also wonder why our beloved government is doing nothing to stop these scammers while at the same time complaining that Singaporeans are lazy and turn down jobs. I dont consider these no-cpf no benefits, fully commission based, no insurance and no meal allowance exploitation sessions as jobs.

A google of the company name shows the following companies appear to be related -

1) Dreamworkz Pte Ltd.
9B Mosque Street 3rd Floor.
Tel: 63254208
Caller said, find the person Maz, when you appear for interview.

2) Redwoods Advance Pte Ltd
33 Jalan Afifi
Etonhouse #06-01
Tel: 68460623


These are some other firms I got off the blog site.

3) Clover Advertising
Website: http://www.cloveradvertising.co.uk //http://www.cloveradvertising.com

4) Dirad Pte Ltd (Same address as #1)

5) Appco Pte Ltd

6) Ascentia Group Marketing (Same address as #2)

7) Red Planet Marketing
Website : http://www.redplanetmarketing.co.uk

Last but not least.
The website of this Cobra Group : http://www.cobragroup.com

For a more complete "review" of the notorious group, please look here - http://elefanie.blogspot.com/2009/04/cobra-group-is-it-scam.html