Mysterious posters around the CAT building have been appearing, but who is putting them up? There are three types of unauthorized posters appearing: one leads to a roleplaying group, one to a mysterious Google form and the other to a vendor peddler gig.
Swords and some smart similarity
One of the posters is a portal to an imaginative roleplay society known as the Barony of Borealis. This local live-action roleplaying group engages in pre-17th-century skills, arts, combat and culture. The society practices all the skills society used before wizards began impregnating water with fixed air in 1767, also known as the creation of carbonated water. They cover anything from French law of the 14th century to learning how to become the next great Robin Hood, who is only second to Disney’s foxy version.
The Baron and Baroness were emailed for a comment if they knew a knight of the realm was violating the kingdom of NAITSA’s poster policies. No response was obtained; perhaps a raven or snail mail should have been sent.
Legacy of door-to-door salesman
Another poster led to a door-to-door marketing group. While the poster claims to pay $5500 per month on average, nowhere on the website verifies that claim. There is no job description of what you will do, other than being on a marketing team. This screams red flag. The job searching site Indeed encourages people to be wary of places with very high pay or vague job descriptions in their article “10 signs a job posting might be a scam.”
I took one for the team and did the interview. The hiring manager didn’t explain how one could earn the $5500 per month average. He immediately asked if I was staff when asked he found out where the poster came from—it was one I ripped it off a pillar, not the NAITSA poster board. It was an unprofessional interview that gave me no desire to work for the company. I would have told them to “lose my resume,” but they did not ask for one, which was another major red flag.
Next door to the Thieves’ Guild
The vast majority of the posters offer financial help, investment help or a job. They all lead to the same Google Doc form, asking the same questions. Filling out the form led to someone reaching out to me via WhatsApp. My HR spidey senses began going off in my head at the first message. The recruiter started with a legitimate company based in Ontario. After reaching out to the actual company, they confirmed they do not use WhatsApp to recruit.
Another red flag was in the job description; an age requirement of 22-69 existed. According to the Alberta Human Rights Commission (or any business student who didn’t fall asleep in Fundamentals of Human Resources), Employers can not discriminate based on age unless they prove it’s a bona fide occupational requirement.
When I said “no thanks, this seems too good to be true, I’ll pass,” the recruiter began getting offensive. As an aspiring recruiter or talent acquisition leader, the recruiter’s job is to sell a company like a salesman sells a product. A good recruiter should try to convince me to join the company, not try to convince me that the company is genuine by suggesting I am a liar.
Laws of the halls
NAITSA has some rules regarding what posters can be posted, but there are three basic things to remember to determine if a poster is legit: posters may not contain employment or recruitment opportunities, they need to be on the poster boards around NAIT and they must have an endorsement of NAIT or NAITSA printed or stamped on them. If the posters are on the grey cement pillars or the stainless steel of the hydration stations, assume they are not legitimate. And as always, be suspicious of things that are too good to be true.
