Originally posted by bravestar_alliance:
I received a call last Sunday, asking me whether IÂ’m interested in joining their new company, which is expanding and hiring staffs. I was a bit surprise to get this call because I didnÂ’t apply for any office job. I ask the person how she got my number and she said she got it through a survey. Funny thing is I didnÂ’t do any survey and I donÂ’t do surveys when I get approached in the streets.
Anyway, since I got nothing to do, I went down on Monday to take a look. The address she gave me is LOT 18, Aliwal Street. It is directly opposite the Concourse Shopping Mall. When I arrived, I was quite surprised to see that it’s only a 2-storey shop house as I was expecting it to be a multi-storey building. I look around the surroundings and found that opposite the “office” is a karaoke lounge while the shop next to the “office” is a popiah restaurant and the one even further down is “Ulu Ulu Pub”
The girl, who called me, came to meet me. Her name is Kelly. She bought me into a showroom where there are a lot of chairs (like a hotel lobby) and thereÂ’s a cross-sectioned bed that she told me has magnetic fields (or something like that).
She started telling me about the company, which is dealing with “a type of technology”, called LIFE SCIENCES, which is started by a Japanese. The company name is “ASAYO xxx” I can’t remember the full name.
Kelly took my IC to change a visitor’s pass, then she say she will now bring me to ‘look look see see’ their office. She led me out of the showroom to the side of the building to take the lift. (Suspicion no 1: why is there a lift when its only a 2 storey building? It’s a shop house! ) As we walk out, we pass by some cars. She asks me what I think about those cars. I replied, “Ok, nice big cars” Kelly went on to tell me that all these cars actually belonged to the staffs working there. When a staff reached certain targets or did something that ‘impressed’ the Singapore boss, Mr Ng, he will pay the downpayment of the car for you. As Kelly puts it, Mr Ng is a very ‘humble’ man. Kelly said that by her eighth month with the company, she has already ‘worked her way’ to a car already but because she didn’t have a driving license, the car can only be put on ‘hold’. And she’s only 22 years old, mind you.
Upon reaching the office, I saw there are actually a lot of other people like me who were ‘invited’ there for the same purpose. I was shown 3 videotapes. The 1st programme is the local channel 8 morning programme,
ZAO AN NI HAO (Good Morning Singapore). This programme shows the host, Xu Nan Sheng introducing the boss,
Mr. Ng. Kelly told me this programme was taped about 3 years ago. The 2nd programme is about the Asayo group at their Japanese Headquarters. It also showed a bit about LIFE SCIENCES. The 3rd programme is a Premiere 12 documentary about a wheel-bound man ‘able to walk’ after going through therapy with the LIFE SCIENCE bed for some time. It also showed a Hawaiian woman who is able to ‘sleep through the night’ without waking up several times. And she was able to ‘sing better’ after sleeping on the LIFE SCIENCE bed. (Suspicion no 2: I have seen the Good Morning Singapore show before. The guest is usually invited to the studio whereby the host will ask questions and the guest will answer. But the video which they showed me, is after the host introduce the guest, the rest of the programme is a pre-recorded clip of Mr Ng sitting in his office, telling his story of the hardships he faced and how he work ‘against all odds’ to become who he is today. Another point is Kelly told me this is a ‘new company’ so how come Mr Ng is already on the show 3 years ago??!)
After watching the videos, Kelly kept on talking about Mr Ng. How he used to work as a apprentice in the furniture trade but by accident his fingers were amputated by a machine. Then he went on to sell insurance and became a millionaire, earning a 5-figure sum monthly. But then, at the end of the day, he realized that although he had the cash, but his health is failing him. Then at this crucial moment, his friend introduce him to the LIFE SCIENCE technology and from then on, he became the distributor and got the rights to this ‘technology’ and set up this company in Singapore. She very clearly emphasized to me, “we are NOT employing salesman to sell beds”
Later on, she shows me around the various departments. As we pass by the departments, I noticed that no one is working at their desks at all. Rather, all the people were chatting. It was around 2pm and lunch break is over long ago. All the men were wearing white shirt and black pants like uniform. Kelly brought me to a ‘special’ department(nobody there) made up entirely of malays to ‘tackle’ the Malaysia market. (But I remember the 2nd video I watched said that the ASAYO group had operations in HK, Thailand, ROC, China, Singapore and …Malaysia!) So what has the branch in Singapore got to do with the operations in Malaysia?
Kelly also pointed to the commandments certificates that were hanged all over the wall but they looked so fake. I can also make one with my computer. Then she showed me some of their employee’s photographs. She pointed out an Indian to me and asks if I recognize him. I thought he looks seemingly familiar but I am not sure where I have seen him before. Kelly told me that he is the Indian actor from the channel 8 mandarin programme Qi Cai Xue Tang. She also showed me photographs of them in Tokyo Disneyland. She said that Mr Ng would bring the whole company to “excursion” the Japan head quarters every year and will ‘on the way’ sightseeing also. All expenses paid!!
Kelly then brought me to see her superior, a mandarin speaking Indian. He really has very good gift of the gab. He keeps asking me tricky and difficult-to-answer questions like, “ What is the difference between a JOB and a CAREER?” The questions he asks make me feel very uncomfortable as if he’s trying to corner me or ‘trap’ me or something.
Throughout the conversation, he explained to me that the company is a new one and is looking to train a group of
“top management” people to run the company in the ‘future’. He mentioned that they(company) do not look at educational certificates to hire people. What they are looking for are talents. He cited an example to help me understand better. The company right now is just like Insurance 30 years ago. 30 years ago, nobody knew what is Insurance and what is it for? But look at the people who joined Insurance at that time. They are now sitting at the top management and earning big bucks. These are the people the company is looking for now – to sit at the top management seat. He also told me the objective of the company is to open 50 branches in Singapore within the next ten years!!
Right now, some of the people in the company only have primary 8 education(?) (So far, they still haven’t told me what post they want me to fill up) The Indian told me that we(the people selected) will go through a few courses like sales, management, marketing, etc…all these for free. And from our performance, we will be further selected for the interview to join the company! So it means even if we now go for the courses, we are not considered hired yet. Before I left his office, he further stressed what Kelly has told me earlier, “we are NOT employing salesman to sell beds”
After the conversation with him, Kelly took me back to the showroom again to change back my IC. Before I go, she told me not to tell anyone about this. Not even my family?? The time was about 7pm. (My ‘tour’ took about 2 hours) I asked her what are the working hours of the company and she told me “it is up to the individual” for people in the office but they have shift for the showroom so it is actually 24 hours for the showroom because there may be customers who might ‘pop in’ for a look.(Yeah right, the only people I see are the sleazy customers from the karaoke lounge opposite. Other than that, the street is like ghost town.)
Kelly fixed me a 2nd appointment the next day when I will learn about “more into the details” of the company’s products.
On my way home, I keep thinking about the whole thing. It sounds like a spam to me. It looks like some sort of pyramid kind of thing. What do you think??
not too sure though, used to work at american express at concourse so roughly know where u toking about,
anyway, i have a smiliar experience as u,
few yrs back after my o levels, was lookin around for a job, then found one that said admin assistant wif high pay at 8 bucks per hr, ok being a student this is considered high,
went on to look at cecil street near lau pa sat, then they start tellin me that the vacancy is filled up n later they told me if i m interested to join their "marketing" team, ar ha then i cont to inquire abt the pay, they told me if i work hard, 2-3k a mth is not a problem n did i mention the hrs is flexible? anytime from 9am to 10pm...and free training b provided?
sounds too gd to b true?
being a young n inexperince punk at that time, i agree to it, however during the 1st day of training, i started to enquire abt the true pay rate, many of the oldies there "siam" the qns,
until i cannot take it anymiore n ask my supervisor directly, she then explain to me that my pay is not constant n my pay depends on my work, i press on someore and found out it is actually commission based, i found out that it is actually a commodities firm , something like stocks, ok fuck, kana tua , wasted one day, n the true pay is , get one customer to invest 10,000 and i i get 1k out of it,
seems impossible to me, where the hell in the world would i find pple to invest on something????
my view on ur issue is, dun go into the temptation, press on ur questions, n ask ahead eveytihng clearly as not to waste ur time, ask bout any conditions, especially the PAY RATE, hope u dun have to sell 10 beds to get 1k, gd luck!!