I Declare Shenanigan!!!

Beware of Career Network Scam!

Looking endlessly for a law office job I send out a lot of resumes and search every available job board every day.
But now I think I have found a scam. And I Declare Shenanigan!

The company is Career Network (AKA: Career Network, Inc.; AKA: CNI)
The company has several different web sites that are all essentially the same. They use different names at the top of the pages, but the data entry portion is the same and if you look closely in the about us and links there will be a mention of “CN”.
Some of the web site names used by CN are:
Employment Link
Great career paths
Thistle Careers
Iron Careers
Perfect Choice Careers
The Career Wizard
You look for Careers
Pop up Careers
Career Zoom
Power it Careers
There are probably many others as well.

A November 1, 2001 release from the FTC stated that “Career Network, Inc. (CNI), based in Crown Point, Indiana, and its principals, Walter Turulis and Kathleen Key, are permanently banned from promoting or selling any employment good or service.”
You can read more about this here:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/11/careernetwork.shtm
The case against CNI was filed in January 2001 as part of Project "Stamp Out Job Fraud," a joint effort between the FTC and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to stop the fraudulent sale of employment services.
But it appears that CNI is back in business. I have seen their direct advertisements on all the leading job boards but they are mainly backdoor attempts through job listings on sites like Craigslist.

Here is what I have put together so far.
A job ad is posted to which a person looking for a job responds. That person gets an email back asking them to fill out one of the above mentioned web site’s information page. During the application the applicant gives all his info and then has to choose not to receive text messages from CN.
(Weird huh? – This was a big tip off – You cant go forward in the process without giving out your cell phone number and who you have service with).
To close the application the job seeker must go through a series of pages in which they are asked if they want info on everything from online education to credit repair services. The job seeker must DE-select each “scam me, spam me, call me, and generally annoy me” boxes in order to not get the contacts. At the end of this process the job seeker is told he will be re-contacted within 24 hours. True to their word, the job seeker is contacted again and told that he or she is being considered for the position but that additional info is needed. A link is provided for the job seeker to give out his references information.

The unwitting job seeker has given out 3 to 5 people’s recent and correct name, address, phone number, and email address. All of these get confirmed as correct if the reference replies to the request for info on the job seeker from CN. Of course they are going to do this because it is the job seekers reference and the questions asked by CN are legitimate looking enough.
What does CN get?
Including the job seeker, CN now has 4 to 6 peoples correct and confirmed info to sell to direct mail and marketing. If the job seeker does not click off the correct places he gets hit with spam and calls and direct mail advertising.
And CN gets to market the job seekers info to companies as potential MLM (multi level marketing AKA: work at home and make millions) scam contacts.
Find out more about MLMs here:
http://www.quatloos.com/mlm/mlm.htm

What does the job seeker get?
Zip, Zilcho, Nada!
No one I have spoken with has obtained employment through the CN network of sites nor have I received any additional contact from the company after de-selecting all the “scam-me” boxes each time I entered info. I recently added my numbers to the Federal Govt.’s do not call registry. This may have helped me to not get blitzed by telemarketers. One blog I read from a job seeker stated that he had selected one of the contact me options and was immediately blitzed day and night by online education scams.
That link is here:
http://www.debthelp.tv/personaldebt/labels/advertisement.htm

I have seen several advertisements by CN for court clerk positions. It would seem to me that these are government jobs and directly contravene CN’s negotiated deal with the FTC.

A job and some paint

Job search:
I have not yet taken the bar and the bar exam is months away. Much less the fact that the results are not available for a couple of months after that and assuming you passed, you cant hang out a shingle to try to start making your own money as a lawyer until then. Nobody likes lawyers and nobody hires lawyers that are not lawyers yet.
There was one public defender job position that looked really great. But when I talked to the PD office today they said there was a “oodles” of resumes that came in for the job. My guess is that somewhere in those oodles there is an already licensed lawyer or two who just might knock me out of getting the job.
Then again there is the temporary (till Feb next year) judges secretary position that is open and I have high hopes for. It is a longshot, but still, it is a longshot with great pay.

Non-legal job search:
The guys from
http://barelylegalblog.blogspot.com/ had it absolutely correct when they discussed non-legal jobs straight out of law school. You would think that a doctorate level degree would open some doors. Nope! The harsh truth is this:
Don't fool yourself, you are absolutely an entry-level candidate
No, a J.D. does not mean it is easy to find a J.O.B. I'm not even qualified to be a substitute teacher because I missed the mandatory substitute teacher "training course".

I have redoubled my efforts. Ok, so I am it is more than that. I spend most of the day scouring the internet and sending out resumes. The only real prospect is one guy who wants me to sell insurance in downtown Atlanta. Oh, did I neglect to mention the fantastic commission structure that pays zilch. I have never even heard of the insurance company.

Why would I spend every waking moment doing this? Well, we have bills to pay and I need a job, but there was another tiny matter. There was a little fire. Ok, it wasn’t so little. I pretty much scorched half the kitchen and ruined the stove and microwave. Every one thinks I am an idiot for nearly burning down the house. It is not like this is a regular occurrence. I have been cooking since I was 11 years old and there has never been a similar incident. Well, there was one incident involving some fried hot dogs when I was 12. But that did not compare to this.

I was making dinner and my brother in law called. I walked out of the room to look something up for him and when I was done I thought I smelled something cooking. Well, I though I must have turned to stove on by accident. I walked around the corner expecting to see a hot stove eye and that be about it. Nope. That wasn’t it at all. I had left cooking oil in a pan on the eye. When I walked around the corner, the entire wall of the kitchen was in black smoke and flames were already reaching the ceiling. I tried not to panic and reached for the fire extinguisher. THERE WASN’T ONE! So maybe then I started to panic a little.

To make a long and painful story short: We had just finished putting out the fire and I was almost done barfing up the smoke I had inhaled when the fire trucks got there.
The microwave was melted and part of the stove is too. The cabinets are scorched and we have smoke damage. But other than that damage and the clean up, the house is ok. I’ll have to prime and repaint the kitchen, ceiling and walls.

I don’t really know how to sum it all up right now except to say this:
???

Ok, so I really don’t know how to say something to put it all in a neat little box for you. I don’t have anything positive to leave you with. I don’t have any nuggets of personal vindication. I don’t have any sunny outlooks.
I just need a job…. and some paint.