Job sites are filled with offers for a career in ‘marketing.’ But how real are those offers—and are they really jobs in marketing?
As job seekers compete for a limited number of available positions, applicants are sharing their experiences searching for jobs on TikTok. Frequently, this involves discovering some deception in the advertised offer, especially when it comes to terms like ‘marketing.’
For example, in one viral case from earlier this year, a TikTok user’s prospective ‘marketing’ job actually involved her selling phones at the Target and Sam’s Club checkout.
Now, another user has gone viral and sparked discussion after warning viewers about companies offering marketing jobs that are secretly commission-based roles.
@summergraham25 There are SO MANY OF THESE GROUPS none of which publicize their affiliation w Smart Circle and wont tell you until after you’re hired. They tell you it’s a marketing job but it’s door to door sales selling phones for verizon or AT&T. Totally fine if you want to do direct to consumer sales but that is not what they’re putting in the job description. #smartcircle ♬ original sound – Summer Graham
In a clip with over 1.2 million views, TikTok user Summer (@summergraham25) shows herself in the middle of a job interview via video chat.
After a moment, she asks the interviewer if the company she’s interviewing for is associated with another company called Smart Circle. Per their website, Smart Circle is a “broker for outsourced sales” that works with “independent sales companies” to exhibit products and services door-to-door.
As Summer puts it in the caption, “it’s door to door sales selling phones for verizon or AT&T.”
After hearing that the company is associated with Smart Circle, Summer excuses herself from the interview.
“There are SO MANY OF THESE GROUPS none of which publicize their affiliation w Smart Circle and wont tell you until after you’re hired,” she writes in the caption. “They tell you it’s a marketing job but it’s door to door sales selling phones for verizon or AT&T. Totally fine if you want to do direct to consumer sales but that is not what they’re putting in the job description.”
In the comments section, many users echoed Summer’s claim that this kind of deceit on the part of employers is common.
“I interviewed for a job with the title marketing representative for an ‘event marketing’ company and it was just selling stuff inside a Costco,” recalled a user.
“I interviewed for so many direct sales or MLM jobs unknowingly after I graduated in 2017,” claimed another.
“This happened to me once,” recounted a third. “I thought I was entering a marketing position and they wanted me to sell coupon books door to door.”
Marketing positions appeared particularly prone to this kind of trickery.
“The way so many ‘marketing’ jobs are scams is sick to me,” shared a commenter.
“I was a digital marketing student. Sales and marketing are different,” explained a second. “while they work together to generate revenue- [they are] not the same.”
Summer later posted a follow-up video further explaining her situation.
@summergraham25 #stitch with @summergraham25 ♬ original sound – Summer Graham
In this video, Summer says she’s currently looking for jobs around the country and knew she likely would not want this job prior to the interview. However, seeing others discuss their interview experience made her want to make others aware of the company’s affiliation with Smart Circle.
“The other interviewees were talking about how they were going to quit their jobs and move across the country for this,” she details in the text overlaying the video. “That’s why I decided to call them out [because] I wanted to warn them.”
“It’s just, like, direct to consumer sales,” she says in the video. “They’ll be like, ‘Yeah, but that is marketing. That’s the most important part of marketing,’ which — true, I guess, but they are being misleading with the job description.”
“They won’t tell you what they are unless you ask them, so just be careful,” Summer warns.
A few users in the comments of this video offered suggestions for job seekers to improve their search for marketing roles.
“Try looking up well known marketing/adv/comm companies & look at the job openings they have!! Saatchi&saatchi, digitas, Leo Burnett, starcom, etc.,” shared a commenter.
“Don’t look for general ‘marketing coordinator’ positions, search for content marketing, CRM marketing, product marketing specialist,” advised an additional TikToker.
The Daily Dot reached out to Smart Circle via its website contact form and Summer via Instagram direct message.
