Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Land banking job adverts

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Land banking job adverts

Hello Mr Tan

Some years ago I was shocked to hear of a person who ran an advert for a secretary in Singapore. He would invite them to a local hotel lobby for the interview and make a list of the girls he liked. Later he would call the girls and say unfortunately the job had been delayed for a few months due to head office changes. She was an ideal candidate and he would take her to dinner to make up for it. Of course there was no job. He had a very high success rate with the girls because the job seekers were keen to please, keen to show themselves in the best light, and keen to keep his nterest for the job. Exploitation of the worst kind.

I have recently heard that some Land Banking and MLM companies are running adverts for job seekers on job sites where the job does not actually exist. These adverts are normally very cheap to publish they typically contain text sayng how great the company is. Applicants are obviously very keen to receive communications with the company. I regard this a partiularly unethical as job seekers are very often in a state of mind where they are keen to please any prospective employer and this leaves them open to be sold products or to introduce compliant family and friends who want to help them. Since much of the media will not carry land banking adverts the job sites are also way to continue advertising.

I would caution your readers that not all job adverts are what they seem and to carefully research all companys before approaching them.

SF

My views
I agree with the views. It is important for the job seeker to check the background of the company, before attending an interview. Alternatively, it is better to have the interview by telephone or e-mail, rather than a physical visit.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: I think a physical visit is important for the job seeker.

Reason being if a company do not have a proper office but using a shared office, small office home office (SOHO), or worse a website address only, then need to evaluate whether even if there is a job offer, this can be taken seriously. Because it speaks volumes about the financial status and business of such companies. I will even hesitate to do business or buy things from such companies even if they are cheaper, because of the great risk of no followup and support (they may run road) once payment has been made to them. Unless of course I know them very well.

And this brings me to another point. Why are people so trusting and even deposit tens or hundreds of thousands of their hard earned $$ in some "XXX type investment" companies, as if these are established financial institutions? Surely they are asking for trouble. And sure enough, they got into trouble!; July 13, 2010 4:01 PM
Anonymous said...: Greed is a very funny word. It can make us lose our senses. Else why we could be persuaded to send money over to strangers in another country on a bait of a lucky draw, which never existed.; July 13, 2010 4:43 PM
Anonymous said...: On the contrary, big and nice office doesn't mean anything as evidence by the recent Profitable Group sage where they even sponsored F1 as well as took up huge advertising slots on ESPN.

There are land banking companies that advertised every weekend on Straits Times Recruit, which does not come cheap. Does this mean they are more credible than those that advertise online on free portals?

Qing; July 13, 2010 5:08 PM
Anonymous said...: my friend was even flown to thailand for interview. during the one day interview, they tap his brain and ask him to come up with the whole marketing plan for the product. they do that for all the candidates. normally if you pay a consultant, it will be thousands but a cheap ticket and cheap hotel are very cheap. he was then retrenched stage so no choice and got made use of.; July 13, 2010 5:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Don't bullhit.

When you were CEO you demanded visit interview.

What a hypocrite?; July 13, 2010 6:24 PM
Anonymous said...: A job interview is a 2-way process.

The interviewer (on behalf of the company) wants to know if you can fit into the company (i.e. your future colleagues).

Likewise, the interviewee should also be asking the same questions.

Sometimes, there is already a favoured candidate. So the rest of the candidates are there just to show due diligence. And that meritocracy is hard at work. i.e. a wayang.

Interviewees need to be street smart and discerning.

If you are interviewing for a job at a company that is competing with your current employer, be prepared for the following;

a) your boss will find out. Bosses at competing companies do talk to each other. Though this may now be illegal since it is potentially anti-competitive against employees and may run afoul of the new competition laws in Singapore

b) it's a fake interview, designed by your current employer to fish out unhappy employees ... headhunters are sometimes used for this purpose

Just don't be naive. Not old job interviews are "opportunities".; July 13, 2010 7:42 PM
Anonymous said...: The world of Fake Job interviews, scam investments and disappearing jobs that only some PMETs can relate if any!; July 13, 2010 8:33 PM
Anonymous said...: The following guidelines can be used when applying for jobs:

For example, do not state
My NRIC is S1234567Z, my name is ABC XYZ, date of birth is 30 April 1965 and my place of birth is in Singapore.

Instead state.
My name is ABC XYZ, I am 45 years old and I am a Singapore Citizen.

If you are applying frontline jobs like public relation, sales, marketing, customer service,
then you have to put your photo.

If you are applying backend jobs like working in warehouse, factory, backend IT function,
then you do not have to put your photo.

There are three reasons for following above guildlines.
First, NRIC and Date Of Birth do not describe anything about you.
Only name and age describe you.

Second, NRIC and Date Of Birth are frequently used as proof of identity
with the bank, insurer, telco, etc. So you do not want your identity to be stolen and used for identity fraud.

Third, if a company discriminates against older applicants,
if a company discriminates against Singapore citizen applicants, and/or
if a company discriminates against applicants who are not handsome/pretty
then the company can discriminate against you immediately. Let it be.
You will be rejected at the selection for interview state. It saves you the time for attending fruitless interview and you can use your time wisely to apply the next potential job.; July 14, 2010 8:20 AM