Basically, my job was to cold-call company executives and get them to attend these web conferences that company that hired me hosts.
First issue: the job was purely commission-based and although the guys who hired me were, of course, all like, "Yeah, you can make some really good money this way," etc, etc. the truth became amply evident when I actually came in my first day and they took me on a tour. They had roomfuls of people doing what I'd be doing, and the guy taking me around -- their boss -- asked them all how many sign-ups they'd managed so that day. By around 4:30, most people were lucky to have had 2 in something like 8 hours of calling people. Naturally, for a purely commission-based position this was pretty ass. Not only that, but each sign-up only gets you $10. So people were earning $20 a day doing a full-time job. Absolutely ridiculous.
Second issue: From the start I was a bit suspicious that it might turn out to be something like this, but I figured it was something to do, there was no harm in giving it a shot and if it didn't turn out to be something worthwhile I could still keep looking while I did it. Problem with that was that it turned they wanted me to work from 8:30 to 5:30 every day. Those hours, added to the other ridiculousness mentioned above made it not even worth my while as a time killer. If I kept at this job, I'd basically be cold-calling angry company executives for 9 hours every day on a volunteer basis. Ass^28.
So I left on Tuesday, had a couple of interviews on Wednesday and got offered one of those jobs Thursday morning. Huzzah! I'll be starting Monday with an organisation that wants me to write the content for their new website, as well as produce various marketing materials (i.e. brochures, pamphlets). My résumé is definitely taking on a certain non-engineering bent, but hey. I frankly enjoy marketing stuff way more than what I'm studying in school anyway. So that works out well. :)
First issue: the job was purely commission-based and although the guys who hired me were, of course, all like, "Yeah, you can make some really good money this way," etc, etc. the truth became amply evident when I actually came in my first day and they took me on a tour. They had roomfuls of people doing what I'd be doing, and the guy taking me around -- their boss -- asked them all how many sign-ups they'd managed so that day. By around 4:30, most people were lucky to have had 2 in something like 8 hours of calling people. Naturally, for a purely commission-based position this was pretty ass. Not only that, but each sign-up only gets you $10. So people were earning $20 a day doing a full-time job. Absolutely ridiculous.
Second issue: From the start I was a bit suspicious that it might turn out to be something like this, but I figured it was something to do, there was no harm in giving it a shot and if it didn't turn out to be something worthwhile I could still keep looking while I did it. Problem with that was that it turned they wanted me to work from 8:30 to 5:30 every day. Those hours, added to the other ridiculousness mentioned above made it not even worth my while as a time killer. If I kept at this job, I'd basically be cold-calling angry company executives for 9 hours every day on a volunteer basis. Ass^28.
So I left on Tuesday, had a couple of interviews on Wednesday and got offered one of those jobs Thursday morning. Huzzah! I'll be starting Monday with an organisation that wants me to write the content for their new website, as well as produce various marketing materials (i.e. brochures, pamphlets). My résumé is definitely taking on a certain non-engineering bent, but hey. I frankly enjoy marketing stuff way more than what I'm studying in school anyway. So that works out well. :)
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