General

I went to a job interview for a debt collections agency. Listened to someone doing a good job on their call, and someone doing a bad job on their call. I could not tell the difference. The way I see it, you owe money, you pay. If you don't like the way someone talks to you, pay your debts.

Dry Cleaning Delivery Service.. They guy I worked with was an asshat.. Lasted one day..

I'm not cut out for sales at all. When I worked at Circuit City, they really tried to push us to sell the extra warranties. I thought most of them were a waste of money and told people so. Even the ones that I thought were worth it, if the person said they weren't interested, I gave up immediately lol.

Back in the day, I was in a punk band, and we played a show with this hardcore band my friend was in. Their bassist was the manager at the coffee shop at the Barnes and Noble near me and offered me a summer job there. I was excited about it, but, when I came in for training on the day she told me, she looked confused and then said “I’m really sorry. I completely forgot that I gave you the job.” She had already started training someone else. Since pretty much all of my fun money in high school came from working in the summer and on breaks, I was scrambling. I ended up getting hired to sell knives door to door for Vector Marketing (i.e., Cutco). While overpriced, the products were actually really good. (I still use the knives from my starter set, and they’re still going strong.) However, their training and sales tactics were really problematic. We had to call people in the morning to try to schedule home demos while they were getting ready for work for after work. A manager told me to try to get appointments with women during the day when their husbands were at work and then say “When was the last time you bought something for yourself? Has your husband ever bought something without asking you first? Don’t you deserve things you like?” I had to quit. I just wasn’t willing to treat people that way.

On the flip side, I love being a professor. I hope I can do it forever. The research is exciting, my students keep me on my toes, and my colleagues are really supportive of each other and friendly.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

"And if he complains, let me show you the knife that will quickly and easily cut through bone"

Those demos were wild. One of the things I did for them was cut a penny into a spiral going up into the air with a pair of scissors. (They're great scissors.) One time I did actually cut my finger while showing how you could cut a rope in a couple of slices with one of the knives. I finished the demo while holding my fist clenched, trying to keep the blood from being visible. I got through the demo, and no one was the wiser. That was pretty rough.

benstylus wrote:

After almost 5 years as an Assistant Manager at GameStop in my early twenties, and putting up with about all I could handle, I left and for some reason started at Best Buy. Two weeks in and the routine was the same, push preorders, push credit cards, etc. Not sure why I would expect anything different. You rarely see/talk to anyone that is actually into gaming and you routinely sell Call of Duty to kids under the age of 12 to parents uncaring of the content. I left Best Buy after a month. Right after I was handed my 3:00am scheduled start time for Black Friday. Bye!

Now, mid 30, I do the IT work at a school. I can't see myself working anywhere other than a school now. Lots of time off (Summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break) and great benefits package. Pay could be a bit better, but the benefits are tough to trade away.

I use to work for a large retailor selling electronics and it was a struggle. I love technology and really enjoyed helping people pick out items to meet their needs, however my problem was the extended warranties. Often we would have to try to sell a $300-400 warranty on a $1000 TV, ridiculous! Due to my conscious, there was no way I could sleep at night ripping off a family like that... especially older people who didnt know any better. I specifically remember 2 of the sales ladies were brutal - for example as a couple would come in they would say "here comes some suckers, watch this!." They would also steal sales, for example if you sold something and it had to be exchanged... they would do the return under the original reps name and then do the "exchange/new purchase" under their name to get the commission. So if you weren't there when an exachange of your item happened, you could get hit with a negative commission on your next paycheck.

I lasted about a year and then called it quits.

@Bleed_DukeBlue You're a professor? Awesome. Of what?

I did teach in the past, and that was a pretty great job. You actually get to see the students making progress and applying what you've taught them. And you get to be a sounding board for some students who really need to be able to sort their thoughts. It's a job that, imo, doesn't feel empty.

incubus421 wrote:
I know a couple of people who work at schools, and most of them love it.

Sociology. That's cool. What did you teach?

nonamesleft wrote:

Math and English.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

@sa330206 That's terrible, with those sales ladies. No care for the other person.

I lasted 1 week at a customer support/misc task stuff job. But mostly it was due to a health problem. The universe has a way of working out - the same day I was melting down, I got a call with a job offer for a role I'd interviewed for a few months prior, who had low-balled my salary. They offered me the job, at a higher salary, and agreed to pay my health insurance cost until their stupid probation period ended. I accepted the job, started after a month (gave me time to treat the health issue).

I think my dream job would be playing with Corgis all day.

My career has not been a straight line, it's more like the path of a drunk chipmunk. I seem to stumble from one job to another. Currently landed somewhere super nice, thankfully.

I worked doing collections at a crapty buy here, pay here car lot. They were racist AF so I dipped the second I could. I work at a Costco call center for online orders now. Not great, but I get paid decent for it so there’s that.

LoL... if I could only tell you about all my jobs. My worst was without a doubt detasseling. Get up early, walk through corn fields that are soaking wet. Boots caked in mud after a few minutes. Spiders and all kinds of bugs. Hot and muggy later in the day. Crap was soaked in roundup. All for $6-7 an hour, good money for a kid at the time. Fudging criminal nowadays.

KCPenguins wrote:
Very interesting. First time I heard someone say they used to detassle (corn I'm guessing?). Is it still done these days?

Alaisiagae wrote:
:)

Scott wrote:

Also worked at Circuit City, in the warehouse. Receiving, stocking shelves, etc etc. My manager was an absolute assdick, so I was out of there real fast.

nonamesleft wrote:



Yes, corn. I haven't seen it since moving back, but I'd assume so. I know they remove most of it mechanically nowadays, but I don't think they can get it completely.

theJaw wrote:

I started out on the floor. It was ok in some ways, but dealing with the public sucked, and my manager was a jerk. I later switched to the warehouse and loved it. The warehouse manager was cool and didn't care what we did as long as we got our jobs done. They still sold CRTs back then, mostly 32" and 36" Trinitrons, so I was ripped the whole time I was working there.

Telemarketing. I routinely teach in front of large audiences of 50-60 people, but over the phone I collapse. I hate drive through intercoms too. I get crazy anxiety.

razeak wrote:
I definitely hear that. Something about face to face conversation vs phone conversation. World of a difference.

nonamesleft wrote:
I prefer telephone to face-to-face with strangers. I did a year of phone & email tech support for lab products. Mom says I have a great phone voice! 🙃

Alaisiagae wrote:
Wow. Didn't expect that. But everyone's different. If that works for you, great.

Which did you prefer, the phone support or email?

I once worked in a warehouse that only dealt with frozen foods Kroger grocery stores. I only lasted about two weeks before calling it quits. It was just too damn cold for me! I had to keep stopping and going into the break room to warm up. That's the only job that I had that I couldn't handle.

citizen_zane wrote:
That's exactly why I didn't take a certain job once. Would have been working near an open fridge/freezer. Too cold.

Makes me think of this dessert/ices factory that I've been to. The workers wear coats/sweatshirts and work near/in freezers/ice.

I worked at a meat market for a summer. I enjoyed cooler time, but I'm guessing spending an entire shift would have been too much. I spent a decent amount of time some days turning over (rotating/stacking) whole loins and boxes. That was one of my favorite parts of the job as it was completely alone, and I didn't have to deal with customers.

I also worked in a factory on the line. I would shut my brain off for 8-10 hours doing trivial tasks. The facility had no air conditioning, so it'd get over 100 deg F regularly. In the evenings the mosquitos would come in through the windows and tear me up. It was pretty bad, but sometimes I miss having a job where I don't have to think and have minimal interaction with people.

My son currently works in a warehouse, shipping Yoplait and Pillsbury products for General Mills. It's a nice 46 degrees in there, which is a much better alternative to the your typical non-air conditioned warehouses. Summers here in the south are miserable. I've sweated my balls off on the second floor of a factory, mixing rubber for over 20 years. Last year, I finally got a position in the clean, air conditioned testing lab, so life is good... finally.

@nonamesleft hmm, email. Lets me gather my thoughts. I have some social anxiety, I'm an introvert, and I have Aspergers. So... I can't say I miss that customer-facing job! But I don't have fear of making telephone calls, or answering them. I know some people dread phone calls and talking over the phone. It's no big deal for me. So, that job gave me a good skill.

Sales. Doesn't matter what I would be hocking. I hate sales. I wasn't even good at selling donuts. I worked at a donut shop third shift. The majority of the orders I would get would be cops and other First Responders getting breakfast. That was grilling & fryeevfoods.. Nothing to that. At least we all knew the stuff was as fresh as it could be coming out of the freezer. People would come in for donuts and I'd tell them they didn't want to eat thiat crap. I didn't know how long it had been sitting there. It could be a day. It could be 12 hours. It could be two days. I'd give them directions to Dunkin' Donuts. Shoot, a bunch of my friends came in to visit me one night and brought in donuts from Dunkin' Donuts. We didn't care. We just left the box right out on the table. Dunkin' Donuts written all over it.

I hate fundraising too. That is really bad for somebody who started two nonprofits and has volunteered for countless non-profits. I absolutely hate it. I hate it more than sales. Not much more, but I do hate it more.

I loved doing home care. I loved my clients. It wasn't a easy work. I didn't get light housekeepoling duties like personal care aids do. People often think that's what I did..Not what I did at all. certainly didn't get paid enough, but I had some of the best clients you could ever hope to have. The majority of my cases were hospice patients. That gets hard. That's why I finally left. The burnout rate is high. I've met some of the most wonderful people I've ever encountered. I saw how loving, kind, generous, strong and courageous people can be in an incredibly horrible time in their lives. I've also seen how awful people can be. It's unbelievable how awful people can be when someone around them is dying. Overall, I saw far more wonderful people than I did horrible people. That's why I stayed on even but I didn't eat the job.

The last convenience store I worked in before I left New York was fantastic. I could do and say whatever the hell I wanted to customers. And I did. I had no problem throwing somebody's happy ass out if they were being a jackass. Thankfully, I didn't get stuck at the register very often. I loved doing all of the stocking and the cleaning work that needed to be done every night. Everybody I worked with hated doing it. I hated people. They hated working. Worked out perfectly.

Alaisiagae wrote:

Even with complete strangers, face to face is a breeze.

Door to door solar panel sales i knew immediately was not for me

lightslime wrote:
Oooh, I could imagine that's not an easy one. Sales pitches can be difficult enough as it is, but to convince someone to get some sort of supposed energy saving device installed on their roof?

Was the work based on salary or commission?

I've done sales my whole professional life. There are good sales roles and many many more bad ones.

1. Avoid sales that say the word 'hunter' in any way shape of form. The real benefit of sales is REPEAT sales where your client knows, likes and trust you. Hunter roles are ones that go out and get new business. If that is all you are doing (and they aren't coming to you, such as retail sales) you are gonna burn out.

2. It takes a really special person to sell both the concept AND the product. Much of advertising sales, for example, is convincing the person that they NEED to advertise. After you sell that...you then have to sell your product. They are often closely intertwined, but it's like being able to get rejected two times before you get to a yes.

3. In the right sales role, it is the closest you can get to owning your own business WITHOUT all the headaches. The problem I'm finding today is that companies don't want to really pay their sales reps. One of the best people I ever worked for kept telling me "I to write BIG commission checks!" and he did. Because he understood that he made more money when the reps were out there selling the right way.