Interview Call That Came From Nowhere

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Something weird happened to me today. I sitting on my unemployed ass, and suddenly the phone rings. An organization I never heard of before is on the other end. They tell me that they got my name from my university's career center, and they want me to interview with them. It's in an industry I never really considered before (finance), for a job I never considered before. They said they'd even pay for training if I got hired. I'm not sure I'd be a good fit there, but I'm interviewing with an open mind. I'm not doing much at the moment, so this may be a job I can at least put onto my resume.

Has anyone ever gotten a call for an interview that came from no where? What does that mean? To my knowledge, they have not posted this job. Does this mean they like me?

It might be a scam. If they ask you for any money for any reason, it's a scam.

Have you found external references? People who have dealt with them, or know about them? Or, horror stories of "employees?" That said, I also have my name in some colleges' systems, but I have never gotten a paying job that way.

The best way to figure out if they are or aren't a scam is to Google "Is *insert company name here* a scam?"

I've been on Monster and Career Builder for the past three or four months, and since I signed up I've been receiving at least one e-mail a day from companies claiming they want to hire me for a financing job. Doing that search has revealed every single one is a scam. It may be different for you, depending on your degree (I'm an engineer).

I'd list some of the companies, but I cleared out my spam folder just before checking these forum (my bad).

Contact your universities careers centre and get them to confirm the potential employer is genuine.

Did the person on the phone name the university, or were they very vague. Was your degree in something that would be useful in finance (maths or other science [or with the way the economy is at the moment, creative writing])?

All:

I will ask for external references, but I really don't think it's a scam.

Even if it is a scam, I would know about it very quickly. This is a U.S. based brockerage house registered with both FINRA (the main financial regulatory body) and NASD. FINRA records show they were fined once, and only once, in 27 years of existence. That isn't too bad for anyone in finance, especially given what's happened recently.

I only said I never heard of this firm because I was surprised they found me. There are thousands of brokerage houses out there, most of which are small and locally focused. I live in a large American city, and this place is on the far side of the city from me. Of course there are going to be firms of any variety I have never heard of.

And I looked at their office on google maps. It's nice. It's not opulent, but it's in a very nice part of town.

It's probably one of those scammy "financial advisor" jobs. I remember I talked to one of those places at my old school's job fair, and I was going to have an interview with them. Then I looked up the company online... These places vary in how much of a load of bull**** they are. The worst ones don't require an economics/finance background, don't provide you with a phone or computer, take a large chunk of the pennies you make your first year, and then make you pay for your own licensing. I'm guessing you got a call from First Investors?...

With the way the economy is, unless it's some kind of technical job, be suspicious of any company that calls or sends you a letter offering a job. Whatever they're offering won't be economically worth it.

I am going to have a try at my psychic abilities.
It is probably World Financial Group or something like that.
I say go and check it out, really it will be a great

I am into finance myself, an aspie obsession thing. I have a friend who is into the same stuff and we were taking about the cool ways organizations like WFG rip people off. I was sitting at a restaurant going over some trades on my laptop and out of the blue someone from WFG invited me to there meeting. Gosh my lucky day.

Its ra ra ra pump you up up to like a pentecostal church experience. Just remember your fresh meat
Just think of it as a sleazy con man hoisting his dangerous scam off on gullible suckers
I had fun playing dumb and being stupidly upbeat.

Finally I was sent to the head honcho there who could not even answer the simplest financial questions. He showed some graphs which was easy to see as frauds. You may get some unpleasant high pressure sales tactics and various types of emotional manipulation. But hey I knew that was coming

Yea its a legal scam. You ought to look at there SEC filing they are a rip off but it is all disclosed. Plenty of complaints too. Under no circumstance give them one penny of your money or sign anything. No real names email ect.

Have Fun