Falling for a very obvious artifice...

Pareto Law- www.pareto.co.uk
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Isabell260's review of Pareto Law- www.pareto.co.uk

“Falling for a very obvious artifice...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Isabell260 on 13/06/2015

I applied for a job that I came across online and then received a phone call a few days later from Pareto Law saying that my application had gone through them and that they were interested in what I had to offer. The woman on the phone told me that it didn't matter what job I had applied for initially because they'd match me to a company if I passed the telephone interview and subsequent assessment day. As my employment situation has reached crisis management, I overlooked how clandestine the whole thing seemed. She was very flattering and told me all sorts of wonderful things about myself and how she really thought I was the perfect candidate for a graduate job with Pareto.

The following day, she conducted a telephone interview and then put me on hold while she matched my answers to their criteria. She came back and told me about how perfect my answers were and that I was really someone that suited the positions they had to offer. I was invited to an assessment day in London and I tried to talk in her into putting me down for the following weeks assessment day in Bristol as I live close to there, but she was absolutely insistent that I come to the one in London so being desperate for a job and stone cold broke, I scraped up whatever money I had left to book transport to London and to buy some clothes (as the emails I was sent continuously stressed times how important having the right outfit was for the assessment day). She had informed me that if I was successful, I would DEFINITELY be able to get a job in the city where I live.

I dragged myself out of bed at 6am and made my way to London. When I got to the building there must have been 50 people there, perhaps even more. One of the main managers came in to talk to us and told us how outstanding we all were to have gotten this far and to ignore all the reviews you read online about Pareto because they're all written by people who were sore that they weren't successful and that really they were a great company who truly cared about people etc. He went on to talk about how rich he was as a result of working for Pareto and got another woman to tell us all about how rich she was too and how one of her three houses is worth nearly a million pounds. However, the woman also truthfully told us that the job entails long hours and you have very little time to yourself. At this point, I was pretty much the opposite of sold. What the hell is the point in having millions of pounds but having no time to actually spend it? Any way, I decided to stay because my bus home wasn't until 8pm and I just thought "you know, it sounds pretty sucky, but it is a well paid job and I really need a job more than anything right now". The main man continued talking and asked a couple of questions, then grilled the hell out of the people who answered the questions. He was actually quite condescending on the whole.

We all filled out a sort of personality profile and then there was an introductory exercise. We had to say our full name, star-sign (because apparently Pareto are a big believer in astrology - alarm bell number a million), and our greatest non-academic achievement. This is where all the hotshots reared their heads - several of them had bought houses by the time they were 21, which is really impressive but in my opinion, it helped in a lot of Pareto's decision making with regards to who they were going to choose to give jobs to. The rich get richer while the poor stay poor. Other people's achievements mostly consisted of sports. Loads and loads of sports. Another few had done some charity work, but it was mostly sports.

We went on to do some group activities that were very VERY poorly explained and left everyone there totally confused. The refreshments afterwards consisted of orange cordial, Walkers crisps and some apples and oranges. Seriously. Professional Pareto.

Three minute presentations and one to one interviews were next and while people were in and out for those, a Pareto employee gave us a speech on CVs, social media, interviews and presentation etc. I did my presentation and then had my one to one interview and this is where all the fears I had denied were confirmed. It wasn't so much an interview as a sort of confirmation of my availability to work and when I mentioned I lived in South Wales and wanted to work there, the man interviewing me looked so confused and asked me if I'd be willing to relocate. It was at this point I realised that they never had any jobs where I wanted to work and that the woman on the phone had just appeased me in order to talk me into going to the assessment day because the company obviously get money per person who attends.

Anyway, we did one last exercise where we had to come up with some sort of Future Olympics 2052 pitch. More sports. Hooray. I can't understand places who refuse to acknowledge that some people do not know anything about sports. It is not an interest that every living person shares.

At the end of the day, maybe 12 peoples names were called and then the main manager apologetically told the rest of us that we weren't successful. I was quite relieved because it truly did sound like a job that I would loathe, however I was very displeased at what I had discovered was pretty much a ruse the whole time after travelling all the way to London. Had I been successful, I still wouldn't have been able to take the job because who in their right mind would move to London? Especially for what sounds like a soul destroying, life engulfing sales job. Any way, we were then told that we would get a feedback call within 24 hours on why we weren't successful and that if we couldn't answer the phone they'd leave a voicemail and that Pareto would be kind enough to tell us what career path would be suited to each of us after meticulously assessing our competencies because they really care about us all and they're just nice like that. It's been three days and I still haven't received my feedback phone call. I've got a feeling it's because the woman who got me into this horrendous waste of time and money knows that I'm going to go crazy at her for duping me into it.

Conclusively, the assessment day was an utter waste of time for nearly 80% of the people who went. If you don't want to work in London, don't own your own house by 21, aren't content to give up your whole life to flog products to other product floggers and aren't able to feign pretentiousness, then just don't waste your time. They get paid for you to attend, hence all the flattery and telling you how great you are and how much they really want you and that's about as far as their interest goes in most of the people they invite to this sham.

I could say a lot more but I have a feeling that most people won't have read the essay that I've already written on the subject so I'll just stop now. I'm sure you all get it and I hope I've saved some of you from a very boring and fruitless endeavour.

Bharriss27's Comment

Written on: 21/07/2015

I have just come out of an assessment day at Pareto and I could not agree more with your review. Truly an absolutely disgraceful company and would not recommend them to anyone!

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