Complaint Review: Magnum Marketing

Today I found ripoffreport.com.

Today, I wish I had found it before I spent an entire day at Magnum Marketing.

This ridiculous circus is a poor excuse for a company.

I consider myself a smart girl. I recently graduated from Seton Hall with a Bachelor's in Public Relations, have held three internships, and peppered my resume with various extracurricular activities to spice up my communications background. Needless to say after four years of hard work, what Magnum Marketing considered "entry level" was offensive.

As previously noted, Magnum appears multiple times on this site. The pattern tends to reveal warning signs that the company's structure is a joke. I will continue this patten.

On my first interview, I met, as many have, with Tony, the owner of the company. He seemed like a cool guy with a unique story. But several red flags arose. First, he didn't have a computer in his office nor a laptop anywhere in sight. I have yet to meet a marketing professional who didn't constantly have some component of the microsoft suite open, usually excel. Second, I came prepared with a sample campaign, writing samples, and an audio reel. In three interviews, nobody in the company asked to see any of my previous work.

But, I went back for a round two, optimistic that my second impression would be better than my first. False.

I entered a lobby of people eagerly awaiting second interviews--all familiar faces that waited for my first interview. It seemed they didn't cut anybody from round one. I met with Tony again, who quickly shuffled me off to an assistant manager. She took me outside, to a PARK BENCH, to conduct the interview. After making several comments about gay people, she made a list of my positives and negatives, and manipulated them to her liking. She invalidated much of my very valid experience so that i would fall between her sweet spot of overqualified for what they consider entry level, and underqualified for what they consider management. Furthermore, they don't promote from within, so even if I was qualified, it wasn't "their" qualified. Did I mention I applied for an entry level position and never asked about management?

But that's where they see everyone. Managers. Among her "concerns" and "negatives" was that I never managed an account before. I corrected her and noted that I have A CAMPAIGN FROM A REAL WORLD CLIENT from my coursework. She decided that because I didn't manage the budget of my client, it wasn't valid experience. My client was a non-profit.

After she manufactured other cons about me, she told me she was taking me directly to a client. On the way over in the car, because I said in the interview that I was creative, she said she wanted me to think of a marketing scheme that would produce money for Home Depot, which is where we drove to. The 20 minute car ride surprisingly was not enough for my to come up with a business development plan. When we sat down at home depot, needlessly offsite (I never thought I would PREFER being interviewed on a park bench) I informed her that my tactics are based on research and related objectives. But this made me incompetent. Why we had to discuss this in a warehouse setting at home depot is unknown to me.

After reviewing my creative tactics that were pathetic because they were untied to research or objectives, she asked me how I would raise awareness of my campaign. I noted that I would use PR because we were on a budget, and as all integrated marketing specialists should know, PR is about unpaid, uncontrolled messages. She then told me that buying print, radio, and tv ads was a waste of money. I then explained to her the difference between advertising and PR, which made me feel really secure since I was informing my interviewer of her job.

She then told me about what Magnum did for PR, which was sway buyers to update their kitchens instead or remodel them, which was effective, especially in this economy. She then pampered me with stats about how well Home Depot is doing.

After this nonsense, she told me I was going to see what my job as an entry level professional would be. She took me around home depot, and bugged customers to see if they heard about the plan, and see if they wanted to sign up for a demo. Entry level PR professionals are not girl scouts selling boxes of candy door to door. Insulting.

Finally I drove back with no direction for a 10 minute third interview with Tony. First I had to fill out a questionnaire, asking me if i knew the difference between indirect and direct marketing among many other questions. He closed by once again failing to look at the evidence I had from my previous experiences and internships.

I believe in integrated communications--i think it makes a lot of sense to assess a client's needs and address their symptoms rather than have a client distinguish between PR, advertising, and marketing, and decide what is best for them. But this was a hollow shell of that thought process.

Entry level marketing and PR professionals deserve better than to be the guys selling tickets in Times Square for comedy shows. Magnum does this, but puts the in suits.

If you are looking for work, don't go here. If you are looking to fulfill your marketing needs, don't go here.

-k.

Katez0226
south orange, New Jersey
U.S.A.