Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 22, 1993                   TAG: 9306220196
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Micheal Stowe
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WHO HAS GREAT JOBS? IT'S A SECRET

I was offered a part-time job - sort of.

I'm sure many of you also could cash in on the opportunity if you act fast.

The name of the company? Uh. I can't tell you. It's a secret.

I'm not "privileged" to that information, according to the gentleman I chatted with.

But the company did want me to work for it.

The offer was snatched away, however, when I asked probing questions like: What's the name of the company? Who are the company's clients? What does the company do?

Let me explain.

About a month ago, I was approached by a stranger while I was eating lunch in a restaurant in the MarketPlace shopping center complex.

"Haven't I met you somewhere before," he said. "I work in the veterinary school at Virginia Tech."

"Uh, no, but I work for the newspaper and maybe you've seen me around town." Several weeks later I had forgotten all about the encounter when my phone rang a few minutes before lunch.

"Hello, Mike. You probably don't remember me, but we met at Hardee's . . . ."

This gentleman went on to tell me how he was "working with some local companies" that were expanding and needed some extra help.

"This is just a shot in the dark, but I remembered meeting you and thought you might be a good candidate," he said. "It will only take about 10 hours a week."

I was flattered.

I could hardly believe a Tech faculty member would call me up and offer me a chance to do some free-lance writing. At least I thought it was writing. Why else would he call a newspaper reporter?

We decided to have lunch and discuss the work.

Minutes after hanging up the phone, I found out it was too good to be true.

"You've been had," exclaimed two of my fellow reporters after I told them about the call.

Turns out the old excuse-me-haven't-I-met-you-somewhere routine is common ploy for members of the multilevel-marketing organizations.

At least two other people in the newsroom were approached in the MarketPlace shopping center by over-friendly strangers who later offered them a chance to do "some marketing and distribution work" with a local company.

My bubble was burst, but I headed to lunch anyway. I don't believe in standing people up.

I didn't order lunch, figuring I might make a quick exit.

The gentleman immediately began asking about my education, my background, my interests.

"This is just a shot in the dark," he said again. "But we have to see if you fit the profile of the company."

I answered his questions and then asked a few of my own. He was immediately on the defensive and tried to steer the conversation back to me.

We work with major companies in the region, he said.

"What companies? Where do you find them?" I asked.

He looked solemnly at me and said: "At this point in the process you aren't privileged with that information. If that's a problem, then maybe you don't fit in with the company's profile."

I was out the door.

Here's my question: If it was such a great business venture then why all the secrecy?

Michael Stowe is a New River Valley bureau staff writer.