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About 4 years ago I was desperately searching for a new job, since my temp job at a large warehouse ran out.
After a lead at a University job fair, as well as seeing postings on several job search sites, I got an interview for a sales job with a lawn service.
I'd seen their trucks around town, they were one of those lawn care companies that come out and spray chemicals on your lawn to make it look greener and kill weeds.
I wear my best interview suit, immaculate grooming and my most go-getter attitude. My wife drops me off at their office, which is a non-descript commercial building in an industrial part of town.
The manager leads me into his office and begins the interview. I hand over a copy of my resume and introduce myself, and he responds by trying to sell the job to me.
It's $20,000 salary per year, plus commission. I do some quick math in my head, I'm very good at math. That's about $9.60 per hour for a 40 hour work week, plus whatever the commissions were.
I asked. He wouldn't give me firm numbers on how big the commissions were other than "big" and "very nice" and "highly competitive". He wouldn't say what the average income of a salesman in this job was, other than the salary plus commission.
That was a danger flag. This job would only pay, as a guaranteed salary, as well as a typical retail or food-service job, but would require suit and tie and me to be an outgoing sales guy. I ask what the hours and job conditions were.
He explains that the hours of the job are from 10 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week, with 1 hour off for lunch. That's a 60 hour work week. Stepping back to do more mental math, I realize that puts the hourly rate at well below minimum wage. 60 hours a week, every week, all year?!?!
I ask for clarification, since I wonder how you can sell lawn care in the dead of winter. With a few inches of snow on the ground I doubt people will be itching to buy lawn care service contracts. Apparently in the Spring and Summer the job consists of driving around town (in our own cars, at our own expense, but he pointed out that our gas costs were tax deductible) being door-to-door salesmen, and then coming into the office in the evening to make cold-calls to local houses to get them as they are finishing dinner or coming home from work. In the winter and fall, the job would consist of addressing envelopes and otherwise preparing bulk mailings for advertisements and more cold calls. He also says that in the middle of winter, the work week "may" drop to only 50 or 40 hours per week.
At this point I was a little incredulous at being paid below minimum wage with very long hours to be a door to door salesman (using my own car and gas money) and making cold sales calls. He then reminds me I can make "very big" money off of commissions, but again would not give hard details on how much I could make, saying that it depended entirely on how hard I worked.
I thanked him politely for his time, and got the heck out of there. I figured if I wanted that kind of money, I could get other work, at better working conditions. The next day they called me on my cell, I let it go to voice mail, they told me I had the job. Imagine that. I ignored it and pushed on with my job hunt. I got another call a couple of days later from them, this time with a needy & begging slant to it saying that I had the job and to please call them back as soon as possible so I can start work immediately.
Postscript: I got a job in a call center a month later. Paid better than that job would have, for a 40 hour work week. I still see their job postings on job hunt web sites and they have booths at career fairs advertising that sales job.
After a lead at a University job fair, as well as seeing postings on several job search sites, I got an interview for a sales job with a lawn service.
I'd seen their trucks around town, they were one of those lawn care companies that come out and spray chemicals on your lawn to make it look greener and kill weeds.
I wear my best interview suit, immaculate grooming and my most go-getter attitude. My wife drops me off at their office, which is a non-descript commercial building in an industrial part of town.
The manager leads me into his office and begins the interview. I hand over a copy of my resume and introduce myself, and he responds by trying to sell the job to me.
It's $20,000 salary per year, plus commission. I do some quick math in my head, I'm very good at math. That's about $9.60 per hour for a 40 hour work week, plus whatever the commissions were.
I asked. He wouldn't give me firm numbers on how big the commissions were other than "big" and "very nice" and "highly competitive". He wouldn't say what the average income of a salesman in this job was, other than the salary plus commission.
That was a danger flag. This job would only pay, as a guaranteed salary, as well as a typical retail or food-service job, but would require suit and tie and me to be an outgoing sales guy. I ask what the hours and job conditions were.
He explains that the hours of the job are from 10 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week, with 1 hour off for lunch. That's a 60 hour work week. Stepping back to do more mental math, I realize that puts the hourly rate at well below minimum wage. 60 hours a week, every week, all year?!?!
I ask for clarification, since I wonder how you can sell lawn care in the dead of winter. With a few inches of snow on the ground I doubt people will be itching to buy lawn care service contracts. Apparently in the Spring and Summer the job consists of driving around town (in our own cars, at our own expense, but he pointed out that our gas costs were tax deductible) being door-to-door salesmen, and then coming into the office in the evening to make cold-calls to local houses to get them as they are finishing dinner or coming home from work. In the winter and fall, the job would consist of addressing envelopes and otherwise preparing bulk mailings for advertisements and more cold calls. He also says that in the middle of winter, the work week "may" drop to only 50 or 40 hours per week.
At this point I was a little incredulous at being paid below minimum wage with very long hours to be a door to door salesman (using my own car and gas money) and making cold sales calls. He then reminds me I can make "very big" money off of commissions, but again would not give hard details on how much I could make, saying that it depended entirely on how hard I worked.
I thanked him politely for his time, and got the heck out of there. I figured if I wanted that kind of money, I could get other work, at better working conditions. The next day they called me on my cell, I let it go to voice mail, they told me I had the job. Imagine that. I ignored it and pushed on with my job hunt. I got another call a couple of days later from them, this time with a needy & begging slant to it saying that I had the job and to please call them back as soon as possible so I can start work immediately.
Postscript: I got a job in a call center a month later. Paid better than that job would have, for a 40 hour work week. I still see their job postings on job hunt web sites and they have booths at career fairs advertising that sales job.
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