I'm Penniless

Multi-level Marketing Companies 1 - LIA GROUP

2012-01-04T23:58:00.002-05:00

As a recent college graduate, my search for employment has been one of my primary goals. The minute I made up my mind that I would not be traveling to England to Study Abroad but will graduate early instead, I’ve been raking employment websites ever since. I use Careershift.com a website that consolidates all jobs from major employment websites of even from corporate company job sites into one site. When I landed an interview with McGraw – Hill last summer I was hooked. With the positive results from before this was my go to engine, and I believed things put on this website are legit. Wrong. You see it doesn’t take much for a so-called company to post on CareerBuilder, or Monster. Here’s my story:

Original my job search was for internships, because I believe that internships are a foot in the door and the best way to get hired later on. But in order to make money to save for what I’d like to do in the future, would it not make sense for me to look for Entry Level Positions? I can live with my parents for a little over a year, take my masters entrance exam, and still have money in the bank to move into a nice 1-bedroom apartment. Wouldn’t that be sweet? When I put entry-level marketing, this group called LIA Group in Mineola, LI showed up, a company that is a direct marketer for several Fortune 500 companies. I quickly applied, although the job description was pretty vague. Can you believe I got a call to come in for an interview the very same day? I was ecstatic, unfortunately I was still up in school and I wouldn’t be in NYC until the following Monday. No worries, they were able to schedule me in for that following Tuesday, what nice folks, they must see potential in me.

Fast forward to Tuesday, my brother drove me to the location, from outside I joked with my him on how this company must be bootleg if it’s housed in a building that has no business name displayed outside. We both laughed, because we knew I was still going up. When I got upstairs, there were many others there waiting to be interviewed. Judging by the people who were waiting, it seemed like this company had no filter, everybody off the street and their momma was here. Amidst all the, what it seemed like unqualified people, I saw a middle aged man that was unshaven, asleep in the corner, seriously? Something is sketchy man. My interview was scheduled for 11:30 am and I was quickly whisked into a nearby office to be interviewed by a man with lolling eyes, who was unnecessarily boastful of what great things their company does. Despite that I was nervous and eager to show him how qualified I was. The interview lasted approximately 7 minutes, during the time he spoke mostly about the company, but when he was done I drilled him with questions. “What type of person would you like to fulfill this position?”, “Why are you guys looking to hire now?”, “How did you get involved?” ,”Why are you still with the company, what keeps you here?”. I felt that some of these questions caught him off guard because he immediately began to smile, and respond with almost generic answers. Something is sketchy man! At the end he smiled, thanked me and told me if I make the next round I’d get a call between 4 and 5 in the afternoon today, complemented me on my suit, and opened the door quickly for me to exit.

Hmmm, something seemed sketchy, but I still hoped to get a call back though! I believe I made my choice not to go back when I got to the LIRR to Penn Station. Seven dollars off peak hours one-way! No way Jose, I don’t have that type of money, or time! That would be $14 – 16 dollars on the LIRR and $4.50 for the Metro. I had another interview to go to that same day so really the price did not body me for the day, but I knew it’d bother me later on. Long behold, I got a call from them in the afternoon around 4:30, I was underground due to the subway at the time so ‘Morgan’ had left me a voice mail stating to call back that I qualified to the next round. Although it would have been nice, I was not about sacrificing my time and money to this vague and sketchy company. At this time I still did not understand what this company stood for, but I just gave up that prospect.

So I did not return her call.

Continued, my next blog will dissect what Multi-level companies like LIA Group LLC are all about, what you can do to avoid or notice them.

I'm Back

2011-12-31T11:45:00.001-05:00

After a long hiatus this time I'm back for good. Partly because I’m done with school, my focus is cleared and I have more free time to do more fun and free willed things. Free willed doesn’t mean party or hanging out, but free willed in the sense without the constraints of homework or chores. I’ve graduated a semester early; so many of my friends, my boyfriend, will not be near for the most part over the course of the next four to five months, giving me time to explore who I am, my purpose and my future goals.

Over the years I've come to realize money isn't always the option, at least the get rich schemes, it just doesn't work. I’ve also learned that it takes time for something to grow, so me getting discouraged from writing because I don’t have many followers should mean that I need to work harder to gear towards the people I want to read my blog.

“Oh gosh,” you might say but I really have faith in myself. You see this past semester I was able to learn a lot of things through my courses, built a passion. I now know what I want to do in life, and how I’m going to there. Follow me in this journey.

Nigerian Suicide Bomber- Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

2009-12-26T18:46:00.005-05:00

Its all over the news, BBC, CNN, ABC, FOX, you name it's on there. I am Nigerian born and at first hearing about the attempted suicide attack I thought it was someone just born in Nigeria but was of Middle Eastern decent. As the investigations continued on his name began clearer especially to my dad. "That's the name of the former chairman of First Bank", and he was indeed. Supposedly he had informed the U.S. Embassy of this prior to the event but there was no evidence on his son which is why they did not put him on the no fly list.

I'll post a link below if you'll like to read more on it. Personally this a major shock for me, embarrassed? Not really, but I foresee that Nigerians will now be at the butt of all Terrorist jokes, that's easy to laugh off, I do not pay attention to things like that. What puzzles me was how he did it! The man had matches for goodness sake! Firstly as the son of a rich and very known man, I feel that he may had bribed the workers or the workers did not pay much attention to him because of his image. It is very easy to bribe people at the airport. I went to Nigeria this summer, similar route and all, using KLM from Nigeria to Amsterdam, and Delta Airlines from there to New York City. The Murtala Muhammed International Airport is very unorganized, at least as of early August of 2009, signs are hard to locate, malfunctions are ever so prominent, and on top of that bribing is far worse in the airport than under the desk of government officials. Which equals to easy slip ups. What just puzzles me is how Amsterdam was able to miss it.

The Story from Telegraph News UK

What are your concerns about this ever so developing story?

Inroads Internships

2009-12-25T18:05:00.002-05:00

If you're a minority by race or gender, a business related major and you've never heard of Inroads, oh boy oh boy are you missing out! This organization gives minorities a chance to work with top business firms all around the United States. Through connections with such companies like Goldman Sachs, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and even Avon, they match their applicants to internships all the while training them on proper business ethics and intense mock interviews.

How did I hear about it? Through a friend, his brother got an internship through inroads and from there he has a great job right now. If I was not so close to him I would have not learned about it. I immediately signed up for it and was called several months later. I had passed the paper part of the process, next would be a telephone interview, a surprise one to be exact. I later learned this at the orientation. During that time I had a mock interview, this was last month by the way, it was a group interview and I've never been so nervous in my life. So you could probably guess I bombed it! Mostly because I was not prepared, after that the lady all asked for individual interviews and did she have something to tell me! Firstly my dress was not the best. I came in almost fashionista diva status, like where was I going in Wall Street with a suede blazer, tight dress pants, and drop earrings! She let me know my dress was inappropriate. Nonetheless she gave me another chance since they were making cuts, so January 13 would be my interview. Wish me luck on that!

Links:

Inroads

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Goldman Sachs

So what was the point of this blog…?

2009-12-23T14:38:00.004-05:00

First and foremost I'd like to apologize to those who have subscribed to this blog and do read it. I have not written on my blog for how long now? Roughly I'd say four months. Would you be surprised to say I kept up my spending habits? Yes you can! Now I'm close to $800 in debt and I'm freaking out!

Alright not really. $800? Right. Pshhh! No problem, I could handle that! Or so I say. To others, that may seem light, but to a college kid, that is a lot, unless you have some sort of income. Which sadly I do. I work two jobs on campus which is unfortunately New York States minimum wage of $7.25. But I a side job for about two months which brought in $10/hr. Now that's – as my friends and I like to call it – Guap! Throughout the semester I made permanents of about $100 a month and then some. But I saw it as an opportunity to use my credit card again since I had the mentality that I could easily pay it off.

Nonetheless this is a new beginning just in time for the New Year.

Credit Cards

2009-08-10T19:32:00.013-04:00

If you're 18 and you know it clap your hands!... I really mean it! You can now smoke, vote, and be out as late as you want without police sending you home in heavily curfew-ed areas. But another good point is that you can now own a shiny new credit card!

I know some of you losers are probably like 'OMG a credit card!?', 'Not me uh uh!' Well your parents would probably agree. Whimps. But the credit card is your friend, especially for future opportunities, like jobs, buying a car, renting or buying your first home. There's many more things credit card affects in a beneficial way, just as long as you are good with it. But before getting one the rules should be addressed.

A good card for a college student. Oh please don't go for those American Express or those bootleg looking 'First National Bank USA' ones. Basically the ones you get in the mail, those are the ones that get you with ridiculous interest amounts. Best ones are found through well sought out research. Chase and Citibank offer college students cards with O% APR (For a certain amount of time—For you to get your feet wet a bit.) The best one is to look for the one with the longest amount 0% APR.
Pay it off quick. The point is to build, many people confuse paying off credit over a long period of time will surely build credit so why not buy something expensive and pay little by little? Wrong! Buying should be as if you are using a debit card, so buy what you think you have in the bank and pay it off and build your credit just as well.
Have a means of paying it off. No source of income now or not sure of the future? Then don't charge it. Your credit card won't close out. You won't lower your credit if there's no money to pay. So better safe than sorry.

Saying these steps is easy to say following is my problem! Although I am in great standing (As in I'm making my payments with large amounts if I have in my account.) As young adults credit card companies target us because we are more likely to not follow these guidelines.

*** OBAMA'S NEW CREDIT BILL HAS CHANGED THE AGE OF GETTING A CREDIT CARD TO THE AGE OF 21, UNLESS YOU COSIGN WITH A PARENT OR GUARDIAN.

Similar Post By Others

The Basics of Debit and Credit Cards Explained -- by Jim Wang
The Credit Crisis Presents a Rare Opportunity for Learning and Experience -- The Personal Financier
How to be a Horrible Credit Card Customer -- Broke Grad Student

Financial Independence – I Guess it Really Doesn’t Grow on Trees

2009-08-04T11:19:00.002-04:00

No summer job definitely has got me bored, irritated, and let's not forget Penniless. Like honestly what's a kid gotta do to get a job during these hard economic times? Well I had too many things planned this summer to have a job is my excuse, in example I took a summer course and went on vacation so less than twenty days couldn't qualify me for a job so I just didn't bother looking.

But I still need money to have to spend on school supplies and such, if you have yet to notice my parents aren't a big source of income for me. I mean they pay for tuition and books and they do give me spending money somewhat, but that's me not asking. So it's not that they can't or won't I just believe it's good to have some type of independence. I mean your parents aren't going to be there every time you need some financial assistance.

At least for me it makes me feel better to know my parents will be there and strive very hard to help. But why cause trouble for them when you've done so much. I just think to save them the trouble and try to do it on my own, especially when it comes to purchases that it feels like you're blowing their bucks. I know secretly my parents are proud (maybe thankful) that I'm not asking them for money, for me that's a long time goal I'd like to achieve, to make my parents proud.

So unless its tuition, insurance, or family bills I believe parents should not have to worry about anything else unless you haven't had a job for a very long time, or ever. So do yourself a favor, when you're down on the rocks, don't go running to mommy! Try to learn from it and turn it to something positive.

As for me I'm distinguishing my wants and needs and trying not to run back into the pattern I had before.

Source of Income – Want vs Need

2009-08-04T10:29:00.004-04:00

Now that I'm broke I wonder how I'm going to get all those things I've had my eyes on since the summer began. New phone, J.Crew shopping spree, bags, shoes and more!

Goes to show you exactly how I got in the position I am in now! I keep buying unnecessary things. I have a perfectly working Blackberry Curve, plenty of clothes (stylish in my sense) and enough shoes and bags to change it up daily for a week. So what is my problem? I've yet to differentiate my wants from my needs. I want a new phone but do I need a new phone and so on.

Breaking down the want into multiple questions should knock me into some sense. Perhaps I could find cheaper alternatives, future uses and so on.

I found this link about one blogger who was taught to differentiate the two since he was a wee lad. Three Most Influential Lessons My Parents Taught Me

Welcome!

2009-07-29T21:57:00.002-04:00

Man, I’ve never felt so broke! Compared with the amount I had the beginning of the year until now I ask myself, where the hell did it go? Am I honestly that bad with money? Can I name anything really memorable that I bought? This is exactly the reason why I started this blog. As a student and for many young adults, paychecks are spent paycheck to paycheck. Savings? Of course it’s a great notion but how many young people do it and if so is it at least 10% of that check. Well I’m saying my savings was not consistent with paychecks and now that I am unemployed for this summer, my slowly depleting accounts surely have me sweating from keeping away from the temptations of ‘wants’ and the use of a credit card. This blog is meant to help educate me as well as my readers understand their financial responsibility to ensure a stable future.