Need a Job? Don’t Choose Mary Kay
Here is one Pink Truth reader’s experience with Mary Kay when she needed a job:
I joined Mary Kay because I had been one of the millions of people who had been looking for a job for two years and after many job applicat
ions and only a few interviews, I decided to join Mary Kay because I was at the end of my rope.
Well, no one actually talked me into it and I did not hear the “opportunity” story. I just went to the Mary Kay internet site and put my zip code in. Within a few hours a girl called me and invited me to a “Success Meeting” the next evening. Considering I was very vulnerable at this point (and they knew it) I probably would have signed up for the Foreign Legion.
I sat there and watched this unbelievable meeting with alot of kissing and hugging and dancing. I sat though a facial and makeover and alot of fussing. After all this was over I was shown pink shiny rings and told that if I signed the agreement that night a ring would be mine. So….I signed the agreement.
The SD made an immediate appointment with me to meet for an orientation at her house the next day. Little did I know that I would be told that I “could order inventory only if I wanted to” but it would be wise if I did considering I would be having lots of parties and taking lots of orders. I told her that I did not have the money and did not want to use my credit card. No problem…I can get you a MK credit card.So begins my MK career.
I was given a challenge of having 5 skin care classes in my first few weeks. What is a skin class? I stayed up two nights in a row reading every piece of literature I could find and watching dvds that my SD gave me.
Every single success meeting consisted of learning how to encourage women to book classes and recruit. I never learned about the products and had no idea what some of the products actually do. I finally decided that I was tired of driving the 55 miles round trip to these stupid meetings. Oh, did I forget to tell you about the new meetings that are every other Sunday for anyone interested in the DIQ program.Well, here I am five months later and some of my friends are avoiding me because all I ever talk about is MK. No one wants to have another party or do they want to sell MK. I am going to send everything back within the next few weeks and chalk this up to a scarey experience.
I know that everyone in the MK sisterhood talk about the new friends you make and the wonderful women you meet. I met alot of women i
n the same boat as myself: scared, intimated and thinking that they can be millions just by selling MK. I also met some very snobby and annoying SDs and NSDs. I am going to get my life back and forget this experience. Maybe it will make me a smarter person.
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Comments (18)
MLM Radar Detector
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In this job market, when it’s so hard to get anyone to hire you, the Mary Kay “opportunity” should be making alarm bells sound.
Come on… They’re giving you the Hard Sell to get you to buy a starter kit, but no one else will give you an interview, much less an offer? What’s wrong with this picture? Why are they so desperate?
You’d be MUCH better off spending that money in a job training program at the community college, or hiring a professional resume writer.
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advertisingchick
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My experience was very similar to this…..
I first met my recruiter at a Target in Chicago (I live in Michigan). While I was looking at some furniture, she sparked up a conversation with me….telling how great I looked and that she REALLY liked my boots. Then she started asking about what I do for a living etc…she went in for the kill by telling me about MK and how great it is. After she gave me her card, I quickly left the aisle to find my boyfriend (now husband) and told him about the encounter. I was really weirded out by it and even thought maybe she was hitting on me or something. I prayed that I didn’t run into her again during that trip (which I didn’t) and we left. She called me a couple days later and I never returned her call. I stored her card away because I was taught to never throw away business cards. 10 months later, I was at my wits end looking for a job in the ad industry. I had about 18 interviews and nothing came of it. So one night I was going through my old business cards to see if I had missed any connections that I hadn’t exhausted yet and came across the recruiters card. When she first gave it to me I barely looked at it. This time around I studied it and it noticed it said “senior sales director”. I thought to myself, I thought MK was only about selling. So, I emailed her that night to get a little more information. She emailed back right away and told me about the national sales call that was happening the next night. I listened and signed the agreement a few days after the call. The rest of the story is textbook so I won’t get into it. I was with MK for 3 months (including Career Conf in which I had to drive out to Chicago for, even though there was one in Lansing that I could have attended, but of course “it was in my best interest to share the experience with my unit”). From day one, red flags were popping up all over the place. One thing (red flag) I found very interesting was that my director told me that my NSD couldn’t wait to meet me at CC and that she holds MK Ash’s beliefs to heart. She said “when Kimberly is talking to you, she is only talking to you just like Mary Kay herself.” Funny thing is, when I went up to FINALLY meet this woman that had been DYING to meet me, she shook my hand as though her hand was a wet noodle and turned right back around to talk to another NSD.
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Skylar
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Hi! I live in chicago and when i started reading your post above i was like..hmm I wonder if its NSD she’s talking about..and sure enouh it is! I had the same encounter and she and I live in the same building!!!! She only wanted to talk to me when she was trying to recruit me..I met her to talk about MK and she promised me the world and then some. My husband and I were both layed off at the same time and I was desperate. Her compliments on my makeup, my scarf, my shoes, my laugh..jeez i left there feeling like gold and i took the bait. For a about 3 months and then i sold everything back and quit..no one was buying and I quite frankly was never really that into it. I felt bad harrassng my friends and family. I found pinktruth and felt better that everything I was feeling was legit because so were so many other people and 10 minutes later I packed all my inventory up and called MK corp to cancel my consultant # asap. I didnt tell my NSD i was quitting. But she found out and the friendliness stopped. Not that i care…the whole MK experience I went through was so fake. I never felt comfortable at the 2 mtgs I went to..my hands hurt from fake clapping and my mouth hurt from fake smiling. the fake flowery fluff emails that begged for orders. I really couldnt stand these women. I didnt want to be like them so I got out. best. decision. ever. Now im happy at my real job where I have insurance, vacation and oh yea a PAYCHECK! : ))
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Lea B
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I hear ya! I fell in this boat too, have a job, but it’s slow in winter, so I thought Mary Kay would be something nice to do in the fall/winter seasons. My director was super pushy, I wasn’t looking to buy inventory and if i did it would be the $600 choice. Anyways, she pushed me to get the $1800 one. Then she was super pushy about being a star consultant, i was $3500 in debt with Mary Kay, i decided it was enough, and this was stupid to be in debt for makeup!!!! At the beginning I was selling like crazy, but once you get past your friends and family, then what??? Need to go find fresh meat, which is hard in small town Nebraska. I felt like some of my friends stopped talking to me because I kept asking them if they would like to have a party for me. I went to a couple conferences, I felt like it was a cult to be honest…dress like this…talk like this….sell like this…call between these times (uhh hello, I dont want to be a nagging telemarketer/saleswoman). I got fed up, after making the minimal payments on my credit card each month, I said enough was enough. Called MaryKay and did repurchase inventory. They are processing it as we speak….I will soon be out of MaryKay debt forever and never looking back!!!!! They paint you a pretty picture, that’s for sure. But don’t fall for it ladies, they just want your money to make THEM look good.
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CrazyCatLady
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I am SO glad I found this site! Three weeks ago a MK consultant with a table set up near the front door of Staples approached my daughter and me with free samples and her business card and asked if I was interested in entering a raffle for an MK gift card. I figured it wouldn’t hurt so I provided my name and phone number. She called me a couple of weeks later to tell me I didn’t win any of the gift cards but I could get $200 of free product during August’s “You and Two” promotion. All I had to do was host a party with a minimum of two friends…she even gave me dates that she was available. I’ve been to several parties that my friends hosted selling everything from cookware to jewelry and always bought stuff I didn’t need because I felt obligated. I had no desire to try to round up friends, who were all away on vacation anyway, or host a MK party, and I told the consultant so. She offered to extend the “You and Two” promotion into September but I still declined. She let it go and didn’t bother me again.
Meanwhile, I tried one of the lip gloss samples she’d given me and really liked the product, so I went online to find out the price and then emailed the consultant to order it. Big mistake. She apparently took that as a foot in the door. She quickly replied, asking for my address so she could mail me the lipgloss and said I could either mail her a check or call her with my credit card information. I emailed her and said I’d call with my cc number, then got busy and completely forgot to call her.
Two days ago I received a package in the mail from the consultant containing the lip gloss, a DVD and a package of microwave popcorn. Her enclosed handwritten note asked me to watch the DVD “Power of Your Life”, which told the story of her NSD Cyndee Gress, then call her to discuss my thoughts. In return she would give me $50 worth of product for free. I could consider the lip gloss part of that $50.
Red flags immediately went up. About ten years ago I was aggressively recruited by four different Amway reps. When I read about the consultant’s referral to her NSD, my first thought was how the Amway people referred to their “Upline Diamond”. This had now gone from a sales attempt to an recruiting attempt. Just for the hell of it I played the DVD tonight and was immediately turned off by Cyndee Gress’ promises of riches, company cars and trips all on MK’s dime. The story got even more outrageous as Cyndee spoke about how MK will pay her $35,000 a month when she retires at 65. I gave up about halfway through the DVD, Googled “Mary Kay pyramid scheme” and instantly found this site. My instincts were right. I had no intention of buying into this to begin with but wanted confirmation. So tomorrow I’m mailing the DVD back in the self-addressed, stamped envelope the consultant provided and calling her to say thanks, but no thanks. Then I’ll mail her a check for the lip gloss and hope that’s the end of it.
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Pink Troll
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I feel like there were never any giftcards……
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NeverWasPink
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Who are you? I lmao’d at your comment.. if THAT is all you took from this great story, you really are a “Pink Troll”!
by the way, individuals can create “gift cards” (aka gift certificates) however they want.. you can only redeem it with that consultant though whereas a REAL company has gift cards that can be redeemed from any individual retailer because it’s the COMPANY backing it not just someone randomly creating it.
Read on, grasshopper…
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Scrib
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“She called me a couple of weeks later to tell me I didn’t win any of the gift cards but I could get $200 of free product…all I had to do was host a party with a minimum of two friends…”
I think it’s a valid point. True, we can’t prove that there were or were not gift cards available as prizes or whether those cards constituted MK consultant credit, but I have to admit that in the various forms I’ve seen this particular tactic take, two things generally happen:
1. Nobody ever seems to win first prize.
2. Everybody seems to win something the IBC would offer anyway as part of her business: a skin care class or a facial that they will perform themselves, a sales pitch, and quite possibly a recruiting pitch.
If that’s what’s going on, it’s terribly deceptive, just like the MK racket itself.
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gooberoon
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CrazyCatLady, you are a SMART woman! I was a director in the Gress National area and she is certifiably CRAZY!!! One of the things she talks about in that video was how her husband Tom would never leave her for another woman because she made $35,000 a month!! REALLY??
PS and by the way…as of June 2012 her highest pay check was $29,000. Not sure where the $35,000 came from….just another “story that she told herself”, until she believed it to be true!
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I Have Integrity
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My husband would never leave me because he LOVES me and is committed to our marriage. It has nothing to do with how much money I make. Right now I make $0 a month. Thank goodness he’s not in the marriage for my money.
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NotPink
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WOW.. funny to be reading these articles and people from all over have the same experience..I was recruited to the Gress Generation National area…I fell for the dream! I actually loved doing the skincare classes, helping ladies look and feel freat… I had fun and there was the hope of having $$ one day.. as my SD kept telling me, just work harder…MORE…. I already had a full time job, and now MK turned into another one..I went through DIQ… exhausted..and cheating my way through..as instructed by my SD.. I should have stopped it then! My SD was talking to me every day many times per day…just to make sure that things are going in the right order.. Once I became SD things changed.. she became rude, distant and not so “helpful”. I felt that I needed help more.. I would request it in an e-mail.. telling her that I am in debt, being a new director is a bit overwhelmingly SD, called me with my NSD and they basically told me that my debt is only my responsibility, they did not tell me to do that.. YEAH RIGHT!! how many times I was asked to ‘Stretch” and then I was also told to put my BIG GIRL PANTIES ON!…I am not sure what happened to the nice an positive environment.. but this was not it.. I started to doubt my actions and came clean to my husband.. and told him everything…it took me a while to get here..but I AM DONE.. patiently awaiting for my check from the inventory return.. as I no longer believe that you can make any money in MARY F*#@$% KAY
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Gooberoon
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Hey not pink…I would love to compare some HORROR stories about being a Gress area sales director! If you are part of the discussion board, send me a pm and I will give you my info! That woman is “coo coo for cocoa puffs” if you know what I mean??
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Scrib
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I’ve been to NSD Gress’ website before. It’s so cute how training is touted as “free” in Mary Kay recruiting interviews and yet she’s charging $5 for New Consultant CDs.
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Jm
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I cannot believe how gullible and naive some of these people are. You jumped on a business opportunity for a ring?!?!
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MLM Radar
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Not exactly. It wasn’t about the cheap ring in itself. It was about the joyous sisterhood symbolized by the ring.
They jumped because someone made them feel important, offered to mentor them, said flattering things, and (with an expression of utter sincerity) told “fake it til you make it” bald-faced lies about how easy it is to be wildly successful.
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Gooberoon
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Scrib…that’s how she makes her big money (even though the business is in her brother in laws name…who lives in her garage) the May that I left, her DVD and CDs brought in $70,000!! Yup…$5 for every new recruit in our unit and $7 to share the opportunity….so much for free training!!
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Lazy Gardens
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The May that I left, her DVD and CDs brought in $70,000!!
PER MONTH! Holy profits, BatLady!
I know what production costs are for CDs and DVDs … it’s not much. Add a bit for postage and she’s clearing half a million a year selling “free training” that she doesn’t have to share with Mary Kay, or her downline, and there are no chargebacks.
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Gooberoon
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She would keep track of what each director and how much they were ordering….and if you didn’t order a lot, she would humiliate them at the director meetings infront of 60 other directors…it was awful:(
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