Disheartening job searching
Jun. 18th, 2009 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterSo I went on a job interview yesterday. It was for an insurance sales position.
From what the interviewer (who is the regional manager) said, the job would go like this. I would be trained (unpaid) for four weeks (one night a week). Then we would do some three-way calls to prospects, and then he and I would go out to visit the prospects in their homes and try to sell them life insurance. (The prospects wouldn't be cold-called; they would be referrals from friends or relatives who also purchased the program.)After a few weeks of that, I would be on my own, running down prospects, calling them, and visiting them.
The guy thought that I had it in me to make a good living at it. And I don't know, maybe I do. My parents are always telling me I'd be good at anything I set my mind to. But the thing is, the job is 100% commission-based, plus I would be needing to use my own car to drive around and make the sales. I don't know if I'm confident enough to do anything entirely commission-based yet, plus I don't know about putting miles on my car that way. (Though to be fair, it is possible that a job like that might put fewer miles on the car than driving to and from work day in and day out.)
So today I applied for a bunch more jobs—mostly Customer Service positions. And I got a response back on one of them: words to the effect of "sorry I can't give everyone a job…but why don't you go take inspiration from the story of my life?" and a link to a work-from-home SCAM site. Another blogger who had the same experience manages quite easily to put my annoyance into words.
It is so aggravating to be looking for a job in today's economy. Most of the so-called jobs turn out to be scams, and you never hear back from the ones that aren't. And so many of the jobs are penny-ante crap that it would be beneath me even to apply for—barely-over-minimum-wage stuff. I have experience, darn it! That should be good for something!
Well, I applied to a whole bunch of positions today. I can only hope something will come of them. I just have to keep plugging away, because there is a car waiting for me.
From what the interviewer (who is the regional manager) said, the job would go like this. I would be trained (unpaid) for four weeks (one night a week). Then we would do some three-way calls to prospects, and then he and I would go out to visit the prospects in their homes and try to sell them life insurance. (The prospects wouldn't be cold-called; they would be referrals from friends or relatives who also purchased the program.)After a few weeks of that, I would be on my own, running down prospects, calling them, and visiting them.
The guy thought that I had it in me to make a good living at it. And I don't know, maybe I do. My parents are always telling me I'd be good at anything I set my mind to. But the thing is, the job is 100% commission-based, plus I would be needing to use my own car to drive around and make the sales. I don't know if I'm confident enough to do anything entirely commission-based yet, plus I don't know about putting miles on my car that way. (Though to be fair, it is possible that a job like that might put fewer miles on the car than driving to and from work day in and day out.)
So today I applied for a bunch more jobs—mostly Customer Service positions. And I got a response back on one of them: words to the effect of "sorry I can't give everyone a job…but why don't you go take inspiration from the story of my life?" and a link to a work-from-home SCAM site. Another blogger who had the same experience manages quite easily to put my annoyance into words.
It is so aggravating to be looking for a job in today's economy. Most of the so-called jobs turn out to be scams, and you never hear back from the ones that aren't. And so many of the jobs are penny-ante crap that it would be beneath me even to apply for—barely-over-minimum-wage stuff. I have experience, darn it! That should be good for something!
Well, I applied to a whole bunch of positions today. I can only hope something will come of them. I just have to keep plugging away, because there is a car waiting for me.
