This week, I narrowly averted a professional, and potentially personal, scandal. {Thank you, thank you, Body Compass. Thank you, intuition.} Lest you think I’m being melodramatic to reel you into reading this post, fear not. The fraudulent happenings I’m about to describe are worthy of a Jackie Collins novel.
Since January, I’ve been interviewing at different companies, trying to find a way to do what I love most, which is coaching people through the change process. I’ve been coaching individuals and small groups for five years now and I’d like to do this on a larger, more complex scale. But I’ve had a bunch of dead ends over the past few months–sales positions disguised as change management roles, requests of crazy commutes, or regional travel requirements I’m not comfortable with. It’s been a little disheartening to say the least.
Several members of my network have been incredibly generous to me, passing around my resume to recruiters and such, and so when I received a call last week about a coaching position for a technological start-up, I was thrilled.
I went to the website of this “management consulting” company, read the job description and realized that this was exactly what I wanted to do. A dear friend of mine had just told me several weeks ago that a start-up would be the perfect place to expand my coaching business into a change management consulting firm and here it was! It was like a dream landed right into my lap.
But an uncomfortable gut feeling settled in after I agreed to meet up with the recruiter and I couldn’t figure out why. At first, I dismissed it as just nerves. Hadn’t I already been on a bunch of interviews that turned out to lead nowhere? “It’s probably nothing more than doubt,” I decided and pushed the feeling away. I went to my first interview the next day with the recruiter and then had another interview with a member of management.
I could tell the sales manager hated her job. She was disinterested in the answers I gave to her interview questions and, when I asked her for more information on the role I was interviewing for, that of, “Professional Career Development Coach,” she seemed to almost physically recoil when she had to explain it to me.
“You’ll be coaching people through the interview process to prepare them to land jobs,” she said. “And you’ll be coaching our very talented IT consultants on soft skills. We have very gifted people here who lack people skills and this costs them job opportunities.”
This sounded completely reasonable to me. My husband’s an IT guy. He’s often chosen for projects over his equally -talented colleagues because they lack the communication and interpersonal skills that he has.
The recruiter told me the start-up, called BrighterBrain, had purchased a company called Unbounded Solutions. But something about the way he said this, something about the way he insisted on making eye contact with me during this conversation while smiling a smile that seemed to be trying too hard to look genuine, sent up some big, red flags. And what was up with that sales manager who acted like someone was putting a gun to her head to interview me? When I got home, I put my extraordinary internet sleuthing skills to work, to see what the deal was.
Usually when one company acquires another, there are layoffs and reorganizations and many times, financial problems, too. I noticed that BrighterBrain had a bunch of positions posted all over job sites which seemed somewhat atypical for a small business just getting its feet wet. I couldn’t figure out why the recruiter and the sales manager had rubbed me the wrong way. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t jumping into a position that was created in a rash visionary moment but would be terminated in a few months due to lack of funds.
What I discovered about this company was so much worse than lack of financial security.
First of all, BrighterBrain didn’t actually buy out Unbounded Solutions, Inc. The CEO of USI applied for an LLC in March called BrighterBrain and so was basically just changing the name of the company. In fact, at the same time, he opened another LLC too, called ExchangeHub.
I found a lot of 1 star glassdoor.com reviews about Unbounded Solutions. I found all of the dirt about how they lure in entry-level IT workers, train them for a few months and then ask them to apply for and interview with resumes that list a bunch of fake experience. I’m not talking about padding skills here or exaggerating competencies (although that’s dishonest in its own right). I’m talking about flat.out. lying. Saying someone who just graduated from college had worked for Coca-Cola for a year and then for Goldman Sachs for two years and then for another smaller IT company on a project on the west coast.
This is what my Body Compass kept trying to tell me. This is why I got that slimy feeling when I walked in the door.
Stay with me for a minute. It actually gets much worse.
I found a Ripoff Report and a lengthy explanation from a former consultant outlying how, in detail, this company conducted business with its consultants and their fake resumes. They hired coaches to quiz them on all of the bullshit to prepare them to outsmart HR. The mock interviews weren’t about teaching soft skills; they were about preparing consultants to become better liars. The coaches were also responsible for training the guys in India who actually interviewed with the technical team on American phrases and accent reduction (since they were, after all, pretending to be American consultants). And sometimes the coaches pretended to be the HR managers, fooling consultants into thinking that they had just nailed an interview.
Professional Career Development Coach, my ass.
My husband didn’t fully believe me when I told him about the level of corruption in this company. “There is NO WAY they could be getting away with this for so many years,” he said. But G. never worked in Atlanta Public Schools. As a former teacher in APS, I’m quite familiar with how a large organization can not only continue its corrupt activities under the radar but also silence whistleblowers. I know for a fact that if enough people are scared, they’ll keep their mouths shut. If people at the top are in on the scandal, forget it. The whole thing’s awash.
The recruiter told me that I had ‘aced’ the interview and had a final interview with a C level executive the following week. It was basically a formality and we would be discussing salary. There was no way I was taking this job with these unethical people so I thought about canceling it. But then, I decided I had to go in. I had to confront the big shot I was interviewing with and put him on notice. Someone had to speak the fucking truth in that office. And you know, there is also something deeply and inherently satisfying about calling someone out on their shit.
This C level executive, having never met me before, who had yet to interview me, connected with me on LinkedIn at 2:30am Saturday morning. (I will remove him from my contact list soon. I left him there for now in case you should desire to find out who he is). At the same time, the position was removed from the job boards, a move that I thought was ridiculously arrogant. Obviously these people underestimated me, my internet researching skills and my integrity. They must have thought I’d jump at their offer.
I had the weekend to prepare for my interview so I researched the C level executive with whom I was scheduled to meet. 15 years ago, he was arrested for committing bank fraud. Last year, he foreclosed on his 250K house. So, during the interview, when he assured me that the company was in great financial shape and there was ‘plenty of money,’ I had to keep myself from laughing out loud.
I answered the interview questions sincerely but when it was time for me to ask questions, I stated what I had learned. I talked about how immoral this company had been, that I knew about their levels of corruption, that I would never take a position that would compromise my personal and professional reputation.
The C level didn’t flinch when I talked about the litany of corrupt practices that I had discovered. He said that he had been given a new position and his new role was to “clean up the company.” “But who’s the CEO of BrighterBrain?” I countered. And when he told me it was the same guy who founded Unbounded Solutions, the same guy who created this fraudulent business model (a fact I already knew from my research), I thanked him for his time and left.
Shit by any other name is still shit.
I had made my point. I had spoken my truth. And that interview will go down in my life as one of my top 20 badass moments.
The sales manager, the one I had interviewed with the week prior, didn’t realize I was behind her in the hallway when a colleague approached her. She is actually featured on one of the Unbounded Solutions videos on youtube, talking about how much she loves coming into work everyday. “How’s your day going?” her coworker asked. “Hell,” she said. “Like every day here.”
The coach position was posted again the following day. The recruiter didn’t even have the balls to call me after I walked out of the interview.
I decided to see how many people were involved in this company’s insanely unethical antics. So I googled Unbounded Solutions on LinkedIn. Hundreds, hundreds of IT professionals had worked there as consultants and quite a few people had worked internally. Hundreds of people were part of this corruption, had been using fake resumes and fake experience to land higher paying positions or who knew about this dishonest practice. And now that they were embroiled in the scandal, there was no way they were going to get out of it. If they exposed their former employer, they exposed their part in the deception.
My heart just sank.
Because where the fuck is integrity? Where are the people who are willing to say hell no! We will not put up with this. THIS IS JUST WRONG and I want no part of it.
Where are those people?
Where are the people who are brave enough to say I refuse to associate with this toxic mess? I am courageous enough to speak my truth. I am clear enough to honor my intuition and to heed the warning signals from my gut. I am willing to walk away from unethical practices because no matter the financial cost, I will not sell out my soul.
Please tell me you are one of these people. One of the badass, brave people who lives your life with integrity. Because, quite frankly, there’s just no room in my life for anyone but.
I know, in time, that Unbounded Solutions, and any of the other names it’s trying to hide behind, will be exposed for what they are. The shit will hit the fan eventually. I have no doubt about it. Hundreds of people will be fired and blacklisted from the companies who trusted them. Hundreds of people will have to walk around, shamefaced, because the world will know what they did to get ahead. And will it all have been worth it? Of course not. Selling out your integrity never is.
In the practice of Vipassana meditation, we say-May you peaceful, may you be happy, may you be free from suffering. If I may be so bold, let me add-May you be brave. Because that’s just as important. Because a courageous life lived with integrity will be one that you will always look back on with a sense of unspeakable fulfillment.
Ariela
June 20, 2014
And this is why I like you so much. 🙂 conversation to be continued!
Sent from my iPhone
gabrielle brooke
June 20, 2014
Can’t wait to chat with you!
Anonymous
October 30, 2014
It goes worse than that. Way worse. They are now bringing in people from Mexico under temporary visas and get hold on their papers to force them to work. Mere human traficking. Shame on them. It’s way worse than what you described
Mark William Rowe II
February 12, 2015
Thank you so much! I was called in for a director position. They made me take a personality test that asked if it was ok to lie or steal on the job.. I said no on all. Was very weird, had my wife look them up. Which made me look them up. I run a lot of large developer events. I am making sure the local MS UG’s know about them. They give software consulting a bad name and will really hurt the industry.
I am personally making sure anyone who works there for longer than a couple of months and a party to ruining the credibility of all software consultants, is suspect for hire at any other consultancy. Letting heads of HR and office managers know today. If you look on linked in everyone who was at unbounded solutions is now at Brighter Brain. So you are dead on and saved me a lot of time.
Keywords: Brighter Brain Atlanta Unbounded Solutions Scam Lie
gabrielle brooke
March 6, 2015
I was hoping that this blog post would do just that-warn people away before they got sucked in. Thank you for sharing this!
Jared Thomas Byrd
February 20, 2015
Thank you, you may have saved my life here.
Sam
March 5, 2015
This company also has Mobile Apps Company, TechField. They are all the same by the same CEO. They also listen in on the interviews and give the newly trained IT person the answers so they can land the project. I work at this place for a couple of months and really got to know the ins and outs of this place. If you leave them as a reference and a potential employer calls them to verify they put you down and lie about you. If you leave them they put you down so you can not get another job I thought that was illegal to do per federal law. This place really needs to be taken down one way or another.
gabrielle brooke
March 6, 2015
There are very strict rules, Sam, about what HR can and cannot say about a past employee. Then again, I don’t think this company is too concerned with following rules.
Anon
March 5, 2015
One thing you left out in your post: Unbounded would have you sign a contract about weeks after you started training which states that you would have to repay them for the “training” they give you which was at or above $10,000. For an recent college grad or an international coming into the real world during a tough year for the job market, that shit is scary. You needed a job and was not sure if this was something normal or allowed, but what is worse is that the contract vaguely mentions the resumes they sent to clients. Only that they will “adjust them.” They will tell you “small things like formatting and so on” which you’d think “ok fine” but only after you signed the contract and placed into your first client when you find out what these “adjustments” actually meant. So in each of the consultant’s minds, not only are you a part of some lie, you also have a gun with a $10,000 bullet in your head.
You try coming clean to your client only to find that they might be in on it cause they aren’t your real client but a series of vendors Unbounded uses to get you to the real client. Consultants will sometimes be told to represent another company not Unbounded or one of their “sister” companies (Montevo) and sometimes the level of vendors between the client and Unbounded can be 3 levels deep.
Most leave the company not looking back and never using the fake experience that they doctored in the resumes. Some call their $10,000 bluff and leave the company before their 2 years are up. Not all, but I can say most were victims of the shady business practice, not a part of it.
gabrielle brooke
March 6, 2015
I absolutely agree with you…about Unbounded Solutions taking advantage of vulnerable people. I have no doubt this company perpetuated a culture of fear in order to silence those who did not want to go along with their “business model.” However, Integrity is a choice that requires courage-the kind of courage that allows you to be afraid and still do what you know is right.
CBRR
September 21, 2015
Did you got out the contract? If so, how? Just quit? What about the ton of clauses saying they will rape you in every position possible? My lawyers right now are telling me ‘don’t do anything’. Wish I read this post before
QSK
April 2, 2015
I have worked with Unbounded Solutions / BrighterBrain and I can vouch for every single word in this blog article. It’s all true!
luvsfishy
April 29, 2015
I see this company is still up to its old shenanigans. BTW, I am the person that wrote the forum post linked in “a lengthy explanation” back linked in this blog post. If anyone has any further questions about my experiences I will try to answer them
gabrielle brooke
May 13, 2015
Thank you so much for posting that! Your explanation about the dishonesty and corruption in this company was fantastic and has helped me and countless others.
RSN
May 4, 2015
I am from Mexico and just got contacted by them for a job position in Atlanta. so, is this all a lie – meaning their job offer and the consulting position? 😦
gabrielle brooke
May 13, 2015
I would advise you to look at all of the comments on this blog from former employees before accepting a “position” with this company.
Omar Luna
June 28, 2015
Man, I am from Mexico too, currently aced the second interview and I was feeling pretty hyped until I saw this. What did you do at the end? Are you working for them?
gabrielle brooke
June 28, 2015
I just walked out of the final interview. I wouldn’t ever consider working for this company.
RSN
June 29, 2015
Their last interview is with their Marketing people, so the person conducting the interview will ask you if you feel comfortable with them “marketing” your resume (tweaking/modifying the resume at their will) so that it shows that you are an actual expert in an specific area; if you feel like this is OK with you then be my guest. Other than that I am sure you can get quite good positions in the country, get some more experience and then apply for a more formal job in the US.
Cheers!
Ed
Xen
May 6, 2015
I moved to the U.S about six months ago. I do have 11 years of experience back home but I have lots of difficulties finding a decent job here. A week ago the Brighterbrain team reached out to me and offered me their training program. at first I was too excited because it seemed too good but after a few days and passing their interviews I realized that this is a very shady and unethical program so I will decline their offer.
The thing is the name Brighter Brain is completely new and in the first days I searched a lot but couldn’t find any dirt on them. For people like me who are new in this country it will be very helpful if you guys spread the word and give them some reviews on Glassdoor. It is more likely to find the truth about them on glassdoor compared to your blog.
Anyway, thank you very much for your post and also for your courage in standing up to them. these guys are shameless liars with no ethical boundaries. Please keep up the good work and pray for me to find a decent job.
JP
May 9, 2015
Unfortunately, I know someone who was recently lured into a similar scheme. My friend was told he would receive some basic training after which he would be marketed. What they failed to mention before he signed the contract (in which he will have to pay $10,000 if he leaves without getting a job through the agency) is that they would essentially fake his entire resume and his phone interviews would be given by members of the agency. He is now looking for ways to leave the contract because he does not agree with their policies and especially lying on his resume. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
gabrielle brooke
May 13, 2015
A commentor on this blog (luvsfishy) graciously offered to answer anyone’s questions about the experience that he/she had with this company. This person may be a good person to reach out to, since it looks like he/she was able to leave and find successful employment elsewhere. I wrote this blog only to warn people away before they got embroiled in the scheme; I’m not sure how one untangles himself once fully in it.
thebardog
April 1, 2016
Did they can solve it?
Sam
May 11, 2015
The Unbounded really isn’t used any longer. They use Brighter Brain, TechField, Mobile Apps Company, and Exchange Hub. They lie to the people coming in. From what I understand from people who still work there they are now lying on the newly trained consultants resumes. They give them a 6 page resume with all fake experience. The recruiters there have to lie to the people to get them in. Yes they bring people up from Mexico and lie to them. After they get here they make them sign a two year agreement as written above. This place is braking federal law by talking bad about ex-employees. This needs to be reported to the labor board. They post fake reviews on glassdoor that this is a great place to work and that is so untrue. If you are an employee and don’t follow along with what they want they fire you. If you don’t lie cheat and steel like they do then you no longer have a job. Can put them down on your resume because people call to check and they lie about you to the potential employer. They also fight for you to not get unemployment. A**** N*** how works there is a joke and an idiot. She is best friends with J**** H**** who is also an idiot. J**** complains about the company and how crappy it is but still works there because she cant get a job any where else. J***** has the worst attitude in the place and she got promoted. This place is a mess. A**** has others do all her work and then she takes full credit for it. She forces her recruiters to lie and if not then she fires them. This company has to fire at least one person per week. This is a very unstable place to work and then will go down soon. More to come when I speak with me friend there to inform everyone what they are doing.
gabrielle brooke
May 13, 2015
Thank you for updating everyone, Sam on their current antics. I censored the names of the people you mentioned in your comment. Although I completely understand and sympathize with your frustration and anger at the employees there who continue to enable this company, we can’t slander people on this blog.
Sam
May 18, 2015
This is a report I found for more proof of this company’s BS.
May 16 at 4:34 PM
Complaint Review
MOBILE APPS CO LLC
Report: #1209781
Submitted:
Tue, February 17, 2015
Updated:
Tue, February 17, 2015
Reported By:
sink
Alabama
Name:
MOBILE APPS CO LLC
Address:
400 Interstate N Parkway Atlanta, Georgia USA Phone:
Category:
Consulting
MOBILE APPS CO LLC Mobile apps companyMobile apps llc Atlanta GAMobile apps Atlanta GA Most deceptive company ever, was named “Unbounded solutions”, now running on a new name, same shameful practice Atlanta Georgia
*UPDATE Employee ..inside information: Scammer Company
First of all Unbounded solutions and Mobile apps are absolutely the same company under VIK THADANI’s umbrella. They just opened a new company to continue the dirty job they were doing with unbounded solutions. Do your own research if you have any doubt, this is not a report to destroy anyone’s reputation, but to protect consultant that are looking for a job in the IT industry.
There is too much to say about that company. They will make you sign a contract that is merely going to force you to stay with them with two years. You will become a liar, they will practically steal your wages. They’ll have some people from India who will fraudulently act as you, sending emails, using your personal informations and even picking up phone calls to act as you. Once they had an offer going from 80+ dollars, they’ll make you sign a document that will force you to not go perm with the client. If you chose not to sign the contract they’ll reject the offer and keep you on bench. Don’t let them fool you, unpaid bench time is illegal, if they try to do that on you, contact the department of labor immediately.
This company has no interest in showing their face in front of a court. The last time one of my consultant went to see a lawyer, turned out this same company was having trouble with many other consultant who came to the same lawyer (It’s actually and agency). It’s like that company is sitting on a ticking bomb that may blow them away anytime. The problem is not only the practice itself, but those consultants who helped them build that wealth for VIK THADANI and his circle, will end up being their demise.
If you go on glassdoor and see the review about mobile apps, you’ll see a review from the vice president. Almost using intimidation by saying they obviously know who posted the reviews. You thrive in giving the best service possible to your clients ? Which clients ? They have no clients, they hide behind other vendors and do their dirty business. If you want to see them out of the dark, it only happens when a consultant decides to go perm with a client. They’ll appear from nowhere and bully the company and can go as far as destroying the consultant’s reputation just to keep him away from the offer and discourage the client. That will give you a small idea of what kind of people are working there. Exactly the kind of people who are giving the impression that all indians are frauds.
Yes you will have to take interviews because you are actually back on the job market. They are not a staffing company, they are just scammers who hide behind other legitimate staffing company to do their dirty job. They have a whole office in India full of underpaid workers acting as the consultants. They’ll fraudulently act as you, negotiate your contracts and even share your personal informations with unknown people. When you have an interview, they’ll use a resource to answer the questions. Once you get the project they’ll make you sign a document saying you won’t go perm with the client, if you refuse, they’ll use that same resource in India to act as you and reject the offer. They sometimes go as far as humiliating you in front of the client. If you get on project, they’ll ask you to not even mention the name of the company there. While you are working on client site, they may even go as far as asking you to provide client’s source code and some of my consultant did it. It is also very hard to leave this company in good terms.
There is too much to say about this company. But to my knowledge this is no longer going to last however they adjust to the system as they are getting under authorities lights (They are not the only ones). That used to work well in the past, but now, it may end up very tragically for them.
You may end up seeing some reviews saying that this is a complete lie just like what is happening on Glassdoor or even on Ripoff report concerning Unbounded solutions, but those reviews will be coming from the management.
This is a report to protect other consultants. However desperate you are avoid that company. There is so many other ways to get a good job and protect your reputation.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/unbounded-solutions-inc/atlanta-georgia-30319/unbounded-solutions-inc-is-cheating-its-employees-vendors-and-clients-atlanta-georgia-1108008
Go to GlassDoor, look for the same company: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Mobile-Apps-Company-Reviews-E828789.htm
And look for unbounded solutions: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Unbounded-Solutions-Reviews-E273901.htm
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/17/2015 01:54 PM and is a permanent record located here:http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/MOBILE-APPS-CO-LLC/Atlanta-Georgia/MOBILE-APPS-CO-LLC-Mobile-apps-companyMobile-apps-llc-Atlanta-GAMobile-apps-Atlanta-GA-Mo-1209781. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report.
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Updates & Rebuttals
#1 UPDATE Employee ..inside information
Scammer Company
AUTHOR: tn_visa – (Waco)
SUBMITTED: Thursday, April 16, 2015
All the information in the initial report is true.
I have been working for no more than 1 year, and all that is true but i want also to alert both embassies (Mexico and USA) about this.
Steps of how they get you in
First they call you in Mexico, a recruiter in spanish talk to you about an opportunity to grow in USA. You are gonna be making money, you will get a VISA almost instantanous from the USA Embassy to work here under the NAFTA flag (TN VISA). Also they tell about some benefits, but they dont mentioned that you are gonna hay to pay for them and also you will received those benefits in the 90th day as an employee.
The recruiter also ask you some questions about some code (It depends on what technology they want youThey call you again and they said that you are quaified for the next round and you are gonna have a technical interview with an “expert”. The expert call you thru sykpe and ask you some questions about programming and also a live programming test. In the next day or same day the same recuitrer call you again saying that you are almost in the company and there is ony one interview with HR more and thats all.The HR interview is to inform you about all the things they offer and what not.During training a minimun wage rate, so they pay you 40 hour per week with the MW ($7.25)The trarining is going to be 6-7 weeks INTENSIVE.They are goona to give a place to live during training, you will have one roomie but you will live with other 5 people in total (mad house).The benefits again (but you wont be receiving until de 90th day of work)You are gonna be traveling around the country for projectsYou are not goona be pay if you are not assigned to a project, they call this BENCH TIME. As far i know, in the contract don’t say anything (BUT! in the letter for the TN VISA that is the proof for the USA Embassy in Mexico to give you a TN VISA says that “between projects Mr./Mrs. XXX YYY is goona be payed the minimal wage between projects”)The first two weeks of project you will be staying in a hotel, the first day also they will pay you a Taxi si you wont be late your first day of workThe ticket from project to project is free for you, Mobile Apps Company (MAC) pay for it.The ticket from Mexico to Atlanta, Georgia (HQ of MAC) is also free.One logistic guy is gonna be picking you from the airport (but i have to called the guy because he was doing somehing else and not waiting for me in the International Arraivals).Free food for the first days in the Corporate House (lots of chunk food)Is a two years contract.Another stuff i dont remember but is almost everything good you will be having here (not the little letters)They call you again and they make you an offer with your wage, if you want to accept the offer you have to signed and send it back.Last steps, send you some documentation for the TN Visa and a LOT of pressure to get the VISA as soon as posible.Send you the ticket, and thats allReal JobFirst meeting was about how the company works, they have the human resource but they use vendors, so you MAC wont be the between you and the clientAsk you about being proffessional and make you social media PRIVATE, and delete or change almost everything of your LinkedIn profile.Second meeting, sign the contract! The lawyer representative of MAC is with you explaining every detail of the contract and also being cooky and scaring you about fees, you cant go with a client, you cant quit before the end of the contract, you will have a fee if you want to leave because of the cost of living (corporate house) and training (an internal guy with no more than 3 years of experience, who also was working for Unbound Solutions). Id you dont singed the contract in that moment, you are gonna be in a plane back to your home.Rest of the meetings are bullshit about soft skills, that THERY offer you a GREAT opportunity, they sell you the idea of being in the best company of the world. Scammers.The next weeks is 4 hours training, with tutorials worst than those on internet, and still with the label of Unbound Solutions.Also about the technical training, they train you in “SOFT SKILLS”, the real truth about that is:STAR method, know how to answer in the first interview with the recruiter so you are most interesting or a more reliable resource. EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO LIEIf you come from Mexico, you are gonna have Diction Sessions (why i should take that if YOU hired me!!!!!)They will change ALL your resume and they know that is all lies; if you dont have experience, they will create space for that. If you have experience, they will create more and you will have to do reverse engineering in a real app and added it to your resume (Like if you have been in the development team, LIES)If you send your resume to a lot of companies, job boards, etc; you have to use your second name.
Please, dont go or come to this company. They are only scammers from head (CEO Vikram ) to toe (Imaginary managers AKA Consultant Development Manager)
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JayMFinDub
June 1, 2015
I’m a former employee of the company you mentioned here, and I’d like to share my story. It’s a bit lengthy for a comment section, though — is there any way I can get in touch with you to share it? I’m glad that more people are coming forward about this company’s shady dealings, and I hope even more people from within find the courage to stand up and challenge the CEO and his lackeys.
gabrielle brooke
June 28, 2015
Jay, you can email me if you’d like. But probably posting a summary of your experiences (even if it is a lengthy comment) as a comment to this blog post would be most helpful to others.
JayMFinDub
August 14, 2015
Wow, I’m glad I came back to check this blog!
I did have an elaborate post typed out, but I think I’ll opt for the summary approach as you suggested. I can send along the full details to you in e-mail.
The basics:
– I was a fresh college grad in 2009.
– I was hired by USI that fall.
– I signed an agreement that indentured me to USI for two years, or I would owe training and boarding fees that amounted to around $10K.
– In four years, I worked for eight clients and five Consultant Development Managers.
– None of it was satisfying.
“Training” was four weeks of sitting in an apartment doing nothing because the staff was “out to a convention in Las Vegas”, followed two weeks of cramming technical training and a fabricated “Consultant Profile”. This “Profile” contained several years’ worth of experience that I did not possess previously, and was to be my mantra for the first assignment they already had lined up for me.
My first few assignments all ended with the client claiming “economic” or “budgetary constraints”. Code for, “You aren’t really what we were looking for.” None of them lasted longer than a few months. 2011 and 2012 were better; I had some success, and was able to do some self-teaching so I could be more educated on what I needed to be able to do. By this time, I was looking to get out. Life reared its ugly head: I had to replace a vehicle and suddenly couldn’t afford the loss of employment.
2013 brought everything to a head: I was “voluntold” as per usual to report to a client, but they quickly determined that I didn’t have the skills or the knowledge for the contracting job. I was lectured on how to handle situations like that in the future (completely worthless), and put back into “training” for another technology.
“Training” this time was a little more substantial, but still not nearly enough to make anyone competent at the level clients were expecting.
I was placed on two more contracts, and declined a third when they asked me to impersonate another consultant, before I finally had enough and told my manager that I was done. Imagine my reaction when she said, “Me too.” Just like that, I was out before the end of 2013.
I truly wish I knew then what I know now — it would have saved me a great deal of my conscience, which I’m now working to piece back together.
—–
The best advice I can give for anyone looking to leave a company like this is: just quit. I can’t give any legal advice, especially with regard to the two-year, $10K+ agreement in exchange for living space and training. Some people have said that it’s not a legal agreement, but take that with a grain of salt — I wasn’t brave enough to test the theory. Try to have your finances in order before leaving. You’ll also have to do a lot of cleaning up on resume posting sites like Dice, where your fake profile may be lingering.
Some footnotes on Consultant Development Managers, or CDMs:
– Most of the manager transfers I went through were due to my previous managers leaving the company.
– CDMs are trained to convince their consultants to go on projects that are way above the consultants’ knowledge, and coach them in deception.
– CDMs are selected based on their charisma and disposition toward people. Most are energetic, hardworking people… until they realize exactly what it is they’re in for.
Sam
June 4, 2015
Another update on this company called Brighter Brain, Mobile Apps Company, TechField, and Exchange Hub. They added another name it is The Sale Experts. They are all the same company. They are doing so many illegal and unethical things. Now they are having their tech experts who are for the most part knowledgeable in their specific technology doing the interviews with the potential clients. Then they write down the questions and has someone else with in the company call their consultant and give them the same interview acting like they are the client. So how it works is the technical resource will win the interview for the consultant and then give the consultant a fake interview so the consultant things they are doing the real interview. Then the consultant is sent to the project like it was them the entire time. I was also informed by my friend who still works there that the person named above in my other post A******* N********* boy friend sells the owner drugs. She has been telling multiple people with in the company this. I was also informed that the CEO Vik the owner all the same person for all company’s is letting a few others now run the company for him. I was informed that the few he has running these company’s are very much so idiots. Then don’t see that all the illegal things that are done will only point back to the ones in charge and they will be the ones to go to prison. One of these people is in charge of the new branch The Sales Experts and I was informed that she calls all the employees stupid who work for her and under her and yet she really is the stupid one. This has to stop with this company I think Im going to make some calls to federal agencies to see what I need to report and how to turn them in for all the illegal things they are doing. My friend has a lot of documentation in email and off of their servers that she is going to give me. All of these people need to go to jail and this company needs to be stopped. When I have more I will inform this post as this post is the best way to get the news out about this company. I love what you have done and my hat goes off to you. Thanks Sam I Am.
SME
June 16, 2015
Don’t even get me started on Nastasha, Jameson and Angela. If you do talk to these federal companies; make sure they check the severs. Everything is pirated and asking employees to delete shit.
Lynn
June 8, 2015
Help my son was suckered. I don’t know how I found this post but glad I did. We are in process of getting a lawyer involved. I need documentation. I have found out so much about this scam and it brakes my heart so many young signed on, especially making them sign the very first day. How will I ever find you again?
Ann
June 9, 2015
I was just contacted earlier today, by a recruiter their name Helen. It is for an IT Junior Project Manager position with their company. I really appreciate all the comments about this company. It has saved me from making a bad decision. I will not work for a company who exercise unethical and immoral practices.
SME
June 16, 2015
I worked for BB for a couple months during the transition from USI to BB. I was blissfully unaware this was going on until a colleague; yes someone who worked there and trained me, told me all about the illegal shenanigans. The payroll person (Ali) went to jail for the CEO too! You might not know that if you weren’t on the inside.
They screw you over in taxes too if you are internal employee during that whole “90 day” contractor period. I got 2 returns (USI and BB) but classified as 1099 Misc Income instead of W2 so they screw you and don’t have to pay as much taxes but I ended up owing $5k to Fed.
You wouldn’t believe the inappropriate behavior between a C level and his subordinates/colleagues. I was appalled. But one employee (not c level) would brag about it. So much for that no fraternization rule.
Such double standards too; trust me, no one makes similar, even ball park salaries to lateral colleagues- internal and consultants.
When they “changed” to BB/MAC/TF/EH they were trying a new business model; were they didn’t create fake resumes. God forbid they pay more for qualified people and sales have to sell. Looks like that didn’t last long!
I thank you for posting this because it’s 100% dead on and then some. I too would be happy to discuss my role and anything I saw/heard. Stay as far away from this company as possible!!!!
Kiki
June 16, 2015
Folks, thank you this was all very informative.
I was actually just preparing for an interview with them tomorrow. As apart of my interview preparation I decided to do a detailed research on the company. Firstly I found the bad reviews on glassdoor and then I found this blog.
I am very confused as to why this company is still in operational.
I definitely sure I don’t want to work with this company, but I am still undecided whether I should even bother attend the interview. May I could use it as a practicing ground for future legitimate interviews.
gabrielle brooke
June 28, 2015
Guess that’s up to you. But quite frankly, the interviews I went on were unlike any real interviews I’ve ever had before so I’m not sure if they would be adequate practice for a ‘real’ job interview.
Omar Luna
June 28, 2015
It actually sounds like an amazing opportunity for some foreign experience. I think have to decline the offer and that hurts since I was really excited about it.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I guess I have to search for other opportunities.
Sam
June 29, 2015
More on Brighter Brain, Mobile Apps Company. TechField, Exchange Hub and Sales Experts. I was in formed that they will not bring any female contractors in because they said the female are too demanding and too much to take care of. I was also informed that the CEO is very raciest when it comes to who works for him. He has said many times that he will only have Blacks and Mexicans do this because that the kind of people they are low lifes. When I heard this I was shocked. The Sales Experts lie about everything acting like they are someone else. The resume issue was brought up above and they take your one page resume and turn it into a 6 page resume with fake information that you have to lie about when you do finally speak to an interested client. If you are ok in lying, cheating and stealing then this is the place for you to work. They will cheat you out of money and PTO time. They will lie about your taxes to the IRS so you have to pay more. They bad mouth you if you leave or are let go. This place really has to go down I’m surprised that no one has called any federal agencies in on them yet. It doesn’t matter if they have illegal things on their servers like stated above they can be shut down with just the illegal things they do and say on the phone to contractors and clients. Sam I am.
Truth seeker
July 17, 2015
I too worked for Brighter Brain for brief stint before I discovered the truth and can confirm all of these outrageous claims as fact!!! One of the “sales manager” (I use the term manager loosely as she’s obviously never demonstrated any leadership) proudly declared that she gets excited whenever companies discover their fraudulent practices and tries to bring on a law suit. Sexual harassment runs rampant and they look to hire young, attractive females over qualified talent. They treat their consultants like garbage and yes, they completely falsify resumes to Bill higher rates. Management uses threatening and intimidating tactics to scare employees into becoming sheep. I wish I could say this is make believe but sadly, you cant make this s#%$ up if you tried. I hope they get everything they deserve and then some!!!!!
Jorge Hdz.
July 29, 2015
This blog helps me a lot, I’m from Mexico and I was really close to work on that place, I belive all their lies but now I know all that shady thinks.
Thaks for tell people about this shit.
Tom Harris
July 30, 2015
This place keeps getting better the more you hear about this place or the more you talk to people who work there. Everything above is absolutely true. Now Im told they are having the experienced people who have worked for them for sometime doing the interviews with the clients acting like they are the consultant. Then the experienced tech person wins the interview writes the questions down that are asked during the real interview and then after the real interview has someone else who works there call the consultant and gives the consultant the interview. So it doesn’t matter if the consultant answers the questions correctly because the other technical person already answered the questions correctly. So then they send the unqualified consultant to the project just to get the money. Ive found out that the clients are getting word of this and once the consultant shows up and they are messing things up they are asking the consultant to leave. Why would they just not doing things the right way by teaching the consultant the correct way. They are being dishonest with the client and with their own consultants. They don’t give the consultants more money every. They pay the consultants at a low rate when the client is paying them Brighter Brain, Mobile Apps Company, TechField, Exchange Hub, Sales Experts, or ATC anywhere from 70 to 110 dollars per hour for the consultants. Now the owner Vik has two people running the company who knows nothing of business. These two ( Jameson and Alex R. ) are so stupid that they don’t see that the owner is setting those two up for when they do get investigated or busted he is going to point the finger at them and say they where running the company not me I have no idea that these things where going on. The drugs the lies the false interviews this place is crazy. New employees have no idea until its to late so hopefully they read these true things before they make the mistake same with the consultants. They are passing consultants through who are not qualified to do the training just to get people in there. Then they take advantage of these people. This place really needs to be reported instead of just complaining about it here. Don’t get me wrong this is great but people should not be hurt or put through this any longer with this place. Sam I am.
Francisco Jiménez
September 28, 2015
I can not deny it actually “looks” like a good job offer. They called me to offer the Opportunity to Learn Android. 10 weeks of training and a two year contract. However after searching just a few minutes I found this blog, this is really scary! How can this happen!? Do they really take away your Visa so you can not leave the country? I would really like to know what happened with RSN and Omar Luna, because I am also from Mexico.
Reach me by email please jimenezf at outlook dot com
Shawna
October 24, 2015
My boyfriend was sucked into this trap. Everything that is written on here is true. He left because of all the lies, deceit and not being paid for “training “. Not to mention all the foreigners they hire who don’t know what perjury and the basic laws are in the U.S. We just got a certified letter that he owes $15,000 for 3 weeks of “training” and if he doesn’t pay immediately they are going to sue us. I say “us” because we have a child together and bound financially. I am trying to figure out the legality of it all but I am going balls to the wall with these scammers. I’m thinking about going to every media outlet to start and go from there as far as legal help. These people still owe him money and have the balls to send us a bill? It’s on!! I’m looking for anyone else who was scammed by this “company” that can give any additional info to help.
Fernando
January 21, 2016
How did everything go? Did they take any legal measure on your husband??
I’m interested on this, because they want me to give theme 20k, obviously I don’t have that money.
Shawna
February 1, 2016
Hi,
We refused to pay a dime and the company knows we will contact every news outlet possible that will listen. He gets a phone call and email every know and then. They even cut the amount in half that they want him to pay. They are liars and cheats and won’t get a dime from us.
thebardog
April 1, 2016
Hi Shawna I’m in Alanta, Georgia too, and I’m having the same problem, I was thinking of quitting but I don’t know what’s going to happen with the payment. You could solve the problem? I appreciate any comment. Thank you.
GuyNO
October 26, 2015
Training built on free Youtube videos, and you only make minimum wage during training
Created an entirely false resume (with LOTS of typos, you better proofread) that you are forced to use
After “training” you actually have to go through the interview process again to acquire a project
You work for ExchangeHub, who tries to get you a “project” through a recruiter by saying they are you, who has a client who you actually work for (example You > ExchangeHub > Kelly Staffing Services > TimeWarner Cable), Why is this bad? TW pays $90 to $120 an hour to Kelly, Kelly is searching for a person to work takes their cut and pays $50 to $80 (yes, thats really what you could make) but after ExchangeHub takes their cut you make 35 MAXIMUM.
THE CONTRACT – it says the “training” based on free youtube videos is worth $12,000, the “soft skills training” (which we didnt get because the teacher quit the company) is slightly less at $8000, a rental car (which I promise you won’t get) is $3000, food and housing is on there, it comes out to nearly $28000, and (according to the contract) you owe them this if you quit. (these numbers I cannot confirm, they could be lower, but they are close, it totaled to something outrageous)
You have to live in an apartment with three rooms, but 6 people, really bad (mostly broken) Ikea beds with discount sheets, no cable or even satellite TV and although there is some food in the beginning, the CEO is a vegetarian and refuses to buy meat products (We had like 64 eggs, 50 pack of tortillas, 2 huge bags of grated cheese PRODUCT, and two boxes of fat free yogurt…wth?)
The interviews must be conducted with an ExchangeHub employee SECRETLY listening in on Skype and (slowly) giving you the answers to the questions, that’s really bad, what’s ecen worse, since the interview you are on is probably WAY over your head, you won’t know most the answers, so you have to stall the interviewer why your lame Skype helper looks up the ? on the net, then slowly types it out (you better be an excellent staller, cuz you are in trouble if you don’t do it well)
the class is 7 weeks of Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013, 1 week of Lync 2010 and 2013 (considering Lync is about 50 times more complicated esp when you get into Enterprise Voice, this is not balanced), and 0 Office 365 (Considering about 80 % of the world is in the Cloud, also bad idea). The interviews I went on: 0 Pure Exchange, 7 Lync w/ Enterprise Voice, 4 Office 365, 1 VM Administrator (wth??? imagine if i got that job, they had NOTHING in training about it, but they would still be taking most of my salary)
I also had a couple unique experiences I hope they aren’t dumb enough to repeat. I actually acquired 4 separate projects (that means theu told me I had a job 4 times, but I magically did not start working for any of them), but they are so disorganized as a whole, they managed to lose them, and attempt to blame me. After they fired me for not getting a project for three months, they didn’t want to pay me for hours I’d worked AND accused me of stealing their laptop. I gave them an empty threat and they paid me and retracted their laptop statement.
Overall, this is a company built on lies and deception, they lie to recruiters, lie about your resume, and lie to you. In the beginning I had an idea of what I was getting into, and I agreed to go along with their deception. Shame on me for agreeing but the travel was an awesome perk.What I actually got was an unnecessarily moody, red-haired manager who sees everyone as dollars, a VERY lazy classroom teacher, a CEO that’s nice to your face, and more lies then I could shake a stick at. Of the four people in my training class, one of them got a project (he hated ExchangeHub tho). I hope my experience was unique, because only an idiot would treat their employees like that. I have tried to remain as factual as possible (I bet you anything they still try to sue me for this review), Please please please do your research. Hope this helps.
PS After I got fired, I was hired within a week as an Exchange And Active Directory Administrator making 55/hr. I am not bragging, just reiterating the EH is a hinderance
Felipe
October 30, 2015
Thanks for saving me, i was really happy, when someone sent me an email, about ID consultant, i am mexican, so i am looking for a job, but that mail was strange, when i called, someone called Elias told to me that i was selected to fly to Atlanta, because they have my CV, an blah blah, they will give me medical support, and etc. i started to search that company BB, and found to many information about illegal stuff. thanks to all.
Jake
February 3, 2016
Hi All,
I’d like to add that everything is true. I’m currently a consultant with them and they did not disclose the penalty of over $20K until after we signed on the dotted line. In all honesty, they did note even disclose the tampering of our resumes until after a few weeks of training. The guy who did it for me his name was Henry. I went from a novice few months of programming skills and he revamped it to 9 years of experience. I was totally shocked that they kept a straight face. I want to get out really bad because I do not want to live like this. At the time I had one child with another on the way so I was afraid to say something because of the steep penalty. I was just a regular person who wanted to do better in life. I have applied to so many Entry Level IT companies and did not get accepted because my skills/experience were lacking. Lo and behold I get cold called one day by a person named Vivia Chengshi and told me about the great opportunity she had. I told her that my skills need some working on and I even asked if she was sure this is something I could do even at my skill level. She said that they offer training and that got me hooked because not everyone (I thought) would fly someone over, give them a place to stay and train them. What they did not tell me over the phone was all the lies that went around with it. I initially searched glassdoor prior to agreeing and I did not see anyone mention fraud on the site at the time. I also did not know that they were called Unbounded until I was already in training and one of the Consultants brought it up. When I looked up Unbounded, that’s when I got all the information about them. The problem is I found out after I signed on the dotted line. I want out because I’m stressed everyday by task given to me that I have NEVER came across. They have a technical support person for if the consultant does not know how to perform a task given by the client then they can just send an email to support. The support’s name is Shafqat Nawaz Balouch who lives in Pakistan or somewhere who gives technical assistance. I really have had it with this company and want to live a life where I know how to do my job based on my skills. If there is anybody else trying to fight this company please let me know as I want out really bad and would like some advice or support.
peersufer
March 25, 2016
Jake, have you heard back from anyone? This company does same dirty tricks with everyone. And they would keep doing, unless we go against them together. Alone, you have no standing. They will put blame on you. I would like to help.
thebardog
April 1, 2016
I’m having similar problems with the company I would like to talk with you in order to get some advices, I don’t really like to be here but obviously I don’t have the money they asking me to pay them back. I’m really worry about and I wish you could help me. Thank you.
shawna
April 3, 2016
Don’t pay it. They are not getting a dime from us. My brother in law is an attorney and he said we should go public with it and out them but, I don’t want to go through all that drama if we don’t have to. But believe me, we will if we need to.
peersufer
April 3, 2016
What does it mean by going public? Aren’t we discussing this publicly? Does you attorney brother-in-law has some concrete suggestion for people here?
Shawna
April 3, 2016
Yeah but he cannot practice law in Georgia, we live in a different state. I contacted an attorney in GA and I will file with the federal trade commission if need be. What I mean by public is airing our case out in an open courtroom, also contacting the companies that they are using as “references”. Do what you have to …do some research on your own or contact an attorney in GA if your concerned. Good luck.
Shawna
April 3, 2016
Also, good place to start is GA district attorney’s office if you decide to go the legal route. Good luck.
thebardog
April 4, 2016
Please mail me gaintegrity@gmail.com if you need some help or be together for this situation.
Enrique
April 4, 2016
Hi there, they’re still with their shit going… I was about to fall in their trap but thanks to sites like this one…. fuck it, I’m staying in Mexico.
rv
April 8, 2016
I also faced the same shit. While reading for job scams, I come across this link – https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/federal-jury-convicts-brothers-visa-fraud-case. See if it helpful to anyone. I guess it is also applicable to TN visa.
Trevor
April 21, 2016
Well, I got a call from this company and had 2 good offers in Mexico to take this.
I dropped one and just read this article, thanks you saved me ! I still have the third interview and im thinking in taking it and record ot and uploaded to youtube.
betosantos1979
May 22, 2016
It’s hard to live by a moral code in this days.
But it’s sooo good to learn there’s people who still belives in right and wrong, not just in profit and looses.
Arthur
July 19, 2016
Man, this has saved me for making the same mistake TWO times! I am from Mexico and went to the US like 3 years ago, of course to another company. They lied to me on everything, at that time I was really excited just to have some abroad experience, here in Mexico that is really valuable. After like two or three weeks I understood what it was all about… I was back in Mexico after one and a half months, I couldn’t take part of that scam, luckily for me, I didn’t sign any kind of contract.
Now I received another email from Brighter Brain, I must say it felt different, they are more straight-forward and answered every question I dropped on them. This time I was being very cautious, they told me what I wanted to hear so I was convinced that this is real. Something still was shady, I just made some more in depth research and found different testimonies like the ones in this page.
I really don’t know how the law can permit this kind of companies, and you would be surprised how many of those exist, all of them with Indian CEO’s.
Thanks for sharing, hope no one else get scammed by this unscrupulous people.
blindman
August 18, 2016
Hi everyone. I’m another one. This month happened all the process. Any advice? They have copy of all my documents and I do sign some kind of job offer
Anonz
August 24, 2016
So has anyone ever been able to legally fight off any of their Contracts? I am currently in dire need of help as they have no care for my reputation, or my future. All these people care about is money. I don’t know how they sleep at night, I really don’t. They are like mind washed robots from hell. Van Damn Rulez 1414 at g mail dot com plz help if you have any info
thatgirlduh
October 7, 2016
Thank God I found this post!! Helen called me saying that she was returning my call (but I never called here) they were trying to bring me in as a “team manager” I am so very grateful I found this blob before returning her call!!
MCBC
October 28, 2016
Hey Guys, All that is said is pure and true, is there no way to stop the fraud business and shut down the LLC and put people behind bars?
Aldo
October 31, 2016
Hey guys, thanks for this post, I knew it was shady but wasn’t sure HOW shady it STILL IS.
——————————————————————————————————————
Short version of my post, they will offer the job even if you don’t do great in the interview and they will raise up the pay if you just say no.
——————————————————————————————————————-
They (Mobile Apps Company) contacted me by my linkedin CV email. I’m Mexican and have my own experience in the mobile GAMING industry, still an American job can boost my career if I come back and it’s easy to get a job as a programmer when you have acquaintances around. So, I didn’t mind asking a little more about the job offer to become an IOS consultant.
They offered “free” training, accommodation, air flights and all the things you have heard here.
My first interview was easy, 20 minute talk, 5 multiple choice questions, I would say random questions since they were from C++, Sql and another random thing. This is the first time I had an interviewer get excited when you get it right and tell you “Great! That is the correct answer!”.
After this interview I was told I would have a 40 minute skype technical interview, no one told me it was going to be with someone that doesn’t give a shit about the interview, he made 5 questions where I failed horribly in my first one, a really basic question that I was too nervous to answer “What kind of pattern designs have you used?”, to be fair I had to ask him “Patte desa?” like 5 times before I understood his accent, he never made follow up questions and when I tried to explain my answers I felt he wanted to go faster, so he would stop me and do the next one.
Then it came the programming part, I was happy, I can actually code, so he told me to make a function that returns true or false for a palindrome (redder). It turns out that I was still thinking of my first mistake so I made the logic in less than 2 minutes but forgot to read the assignment again and said “it’s done”, it did work but it was all inside the main() and had no function, meaning that nothing would “return” it would only print if it was or not (not true or false).
I finished that 2 minutes of coding and was waiting for the next programming thing when he told me “ok, goodbye”, I read again the problem, thought I monumentally failed the interview and lost all hope.
The 40-minute interview was an 11 minutes skype call.
*** First strike: 3 hours later they called me to tell me I did great.
After this call I was asked to tell how much I wanted to earn, I went online, searched for average and told $35 hr.
Third interview a “@BrighterBrain.com” mail comes in for a skype meeting (the way I found you) with the HR in Atlanta. My Mexican interviewer gave me the questions 2 days before this interview because she wanted me to do well, I found this weird but I wasn’t going to say no to some extra help.
In this interview, they told me about the up to $15k fine for training if I quit before 2 years…
*** Second strike:
… that they will “slightly” change my CV so if I ever worked making copies and once I made copies for CocaCola I can say I worked for CocaCola and asked if I was fine with this, I said “I think so”.
They never told me that someone else would do my interviews.
2 hours after that interview I was offered the job but with a pay of $27, I said there was no way I would go down with $27 with no pay at bench time and living off a bag, so they called me later and offered me $30 “$1 more than what they usually offer!”, I said no and quit the call in less than 2 minutes.
On Monday the called me to offer me $33 she told me that they never renegotiate their pay, and I wasn’t negotiating I simply said no, since I wasn’t really comfortable with the money + lying and if they had offered me the $35 in the start I would have “sold” my soul for 6 – 12 months while searching for someone to buy it from the company.
and I call this the *** Third strike *** they would go on my terms with zero Objective-C experience.
I had to look online to know which was the average bench time for newcomers, no way I was gonna work 6 months for minimum while coding for them.
And that’s how I found this blogpost, thanks guys/gals!!!
Bill Howard
November 8, 2016
These guys are scum. Unbounded Solutions, Brighter Brain, TechField, ExchangeHub, The MobileAppsCompany – they’re all the same thing. All by some guy named Vik Thadani.
Aizuki Eki
February 18, 2017
I wish I read this before getting involved with them. I feel trapped and not sure if I can walk away.
I joined BrighterBrain in November of last year, and until the resume rollout day, everything about the company was too good to be true. They said we will be trained, there are clients waiting for us as soon as we finish training, and by that time I would have 4 apps published in the App Store.
Being the shy and introvert that I am, I honestly assumed that resume adjustments and interview training was about helping us better market ourselves, and let clients know of our skills and experience.
Then resume rollout happened, and that when I realized the 4 apps that I will have in the App Store, are really existing apps that I will be taught to lie about and claim I worked on. And everything about the resume adjustments and interview training, is about how to lie and claim you have 5-7 years of experience when you just came out of training.
Having signed the contract and bound by an agreement to pay $15,000 if I leave, my only option now is to tactfully fail interviews, which I was doing for the past 3 months. Eventually, I hope they will let me go. Though, reading some of the comments here, I guess I can walkout of the contract. I don’t know. I just wish I read this post before getting involved. Instead, I fell for the fake reviews on GlassDoor.
(((Aizuku))) (@_iz42)
February 19, 2017
Has anyone managed to walk away without repercussions? I didn’t realize what was going on until I was handed my fake resume, by then I have already signed the 2-year contract.
S.L.
April 6, 2017
Hi Aizuku,
Are you still bound by the contract? If so, the opportunity to breach the contract and walk away without paying a penny is to straight away tell the interviewers the truth. Tell them that you are already employed, and that your employers were contacting the interviewers using your name to secure the interview for you. Tell them also that you thought your employers would dispatch you to a company by advertising you as if they were recruitment agents.
That was how I “got out of jail”, although with the clause that I cannot claim against them. You’ll also find a fabricated LinkedIn profile with your name on it and all the “experience” from your fake resume copied word-for-word on it, so you may have to suspend your own LinkedIn (if you have one) and declare on your resume that you’re not on LinkedIn while you look for your next opportunity. Also, I would suggest not to put your current employer’s names down as a reference because if they instruct their employees to lie, they themselves will also lie about your time there. They’re almost certain to give people bad impressions of the ex-employees who didn’t buy into their surely illegal stunt.
If you need more advice do contact me on shawnno1@hotmail.co.uk.
Keresö
September 17, 2018
Yes. The contract holds absolutely no water. They will call you periodically and claim to have a lawyer, but it’s probably as true as anything else they say. The thing they fear most is exposure and the last thing they want is to set foot inside a court. If you’re still there, just walk.
S.L.
March 1, 2017
I’ve been a victim of this fraud myself, and it happened across the pond as well. This kind of shit’s been allowed to happen in Britain too. Thankfully I got out of it without owing them a penny (although by signing a termination agreement I agreed not to talk about them, big mistake I know).
Shi Rui Si
September 5, 2017
I work for them and I don’t regret it at all. Half the companies I “consult” for will hire H-1B workers from overseas (and train them) before giving an American junior-level developer the time of day, and the other half are convinced they are entitled to a “rock star” developer. I went a year before I got a job in my field, and it was thanks to Brighter Brain. There was no other way for a recent college grad to get a foot in the door.
That said, 90% of what is said here is true about the company. (The other 10% is that the contracts are pretty easy to get out of if you’re smart.) You will lie a lot to other people and the company will probably lie a lot to you. I really don’t mind it at all though. When software companies are laying off thousands of workers, refusing to hire local workers, but demanding thousands more overseas guest workers because of an alleged skills shortage, integrity is the last thing I’m worried about.