Perhaps you have seen the flyers offering part-time employment with incredible pay ($13 per appointment). Or you’ve been intrigued by the mysterious URL www.workforstudents.com inscribed on the corners of blackboards around campus. Is this a great job opportunity for college students, or a scam preying on people who lack business and career experience?

The advertisements are the work of Vector Marketing, which sells Cutco brand knife sets via multi-level marketing. Students are recruited and paid per sales demonstration or “appointment” along with a commission on sales. According to a 2011 article in the Santa Barbara Independent, Vector contracts more than 60,000 students across 200 offices worldwide.

What these 60,000 students are left to discover is that Vector only pays on appointments that meet its strict requirements: appointments must be one-on-one and the potential buyer must be more than 25 and permanently employed.

Vector has a troubled history. Lawsuits and settlements span across the nation from New Hampshire to California over deceptive hiring practices and pay disputes. A $13 million dollar class-action settlement against Vector is currently pending approval in federal court.

The Sunflower urges all students to investigate any job opportunity before making a commitment, especially those that seem “too good to be true.” Jan Mead, assistant director of Career Services, encourages all students to bring their questions and concerns to her office and to use Hire-A-Shocker when looking for work.

“Career Services has a process by which new job listings are checked out before activating them in Hire-A-Shocker,” Mead said. “If you find a posting that seems questionable at all, please report it to Career Services as soon as possible so we can check it out and remove it from our system if it is not a legitimate job notice.”