Looking for a new job can be a strange and difficult task for anyone. There are interviews to attend (provided one is fortunate enough to get this far these days in America, and more specifically, on the East Coast where jobs are few and far between and the competition fierce). Should you by some stroke of fortune or ability find an interview, you do the very best you can, and quite amazingly, against what you thought the odds would be and what the papers have been saying, you as the applicant manage to miraculously stun the crowd so much so that one might even surprise oneself. The pre-interview phone interview may go terrifically well, and with an ease that you have not known before now, and lo~! Then follows the live in person interview with an agency that tells promises they are extremely exclusive and that their firm is "by invitation only."

More and more of such firms are cropping up on the east coast and present as a sort of exclusive recruiting firm and any eager applicant worth his or her salt is almost inevitably going to be enticed by such an offer and why not? On the surface of it, the proposition strikes one as a good deal and anyone would be a fool not to go, it could be argued. In the very least, the proposition merits a visit to the office and a fair evaluation as you would give any recruiting outfit that telephoned. This is what one does when job-hunting and its simple: you send out resumes and CVs, you pray they will be seen or looked over and hopefully, someone will ring with the news that you have been granted that elusive interview. Here is how it seems to be going for many job applicants at least with some agencies that do not fall into the standard definition of what one would expect from a recruiting agency.

The offices are generally or most often in an impressive and tall, downtown building and are lushly outfitted with leather sofas and chrome and leather chairs. Such fixtures lend an air of legitimacy. The mahogany wood, the gold lettered sign, all seem to speak of an established firm from old money with strong roots in the business community. Given the eagerness of the applicant, it may be all too easy to overlook the boxes and files in the corners that would be the giveaway sign that perhaps the company is not as established as it would like the applicant to believe. The suave and professional phone interview, the impressive office, alI combine to great effect to work on the subconscious mind.