Nightmare Job: Scams in Sales

Crowded into a tiny office with no windows that could barely fit one person, let alone 3, I was excited. I had a job. Finally. I was desperate for employment and this job was my saving grace. I was searching forever after quitting my retail job to find something better, hoping the lapse in income would motivate me.

I was motivated but no one seemed to care. I had a Bachelor's degree and no real work experience or internship to demonstrate I could hold down a full time job. So my phone and inbox stayed cryptically silent and at zero.

I searched through the usual suspects in terms of job boards scrounging for anything. It seems you only ignore warning signs from your gut when you are feeling desperate. I submitted an application with a company that sounded attainable. The only thing I remember was Marketing in the job title.

I went to an interview at a Sam's Club which seemed weird but not weird enough to deter me. While there I realized we would be selling stuff in Sam's Club for minimum wage. I wasn't too worried because during the “test” phase of the interview when I was supposed to approach people to sell I didn't talk to anyone. Because I am so good at selling they will just come to me, right? I thought this would automatically fail me. Instead I got a call back. Congrats you got the job!

Really? That should have been another red flag right there. If you were alive and didn't say anything too stupid you would be hired. I figured I should see if there was some redeeming qualities to this place. I drove through typical Dallas rush hour hell and arrived at a tiny building complex.

The surrounding roads weren't great and the bathrooms reminded me of the compact ones on planes. I waited outside the office in the hall because no one else was there yet. My perky interviewer strolled towards me in a bright pink blazer and heels that screamed juniors department. I would know I had just left the junior's department. She seemed surprised I was there early, another red flag.

I spent an hour filling out paperwork and was sent home. They didn't want to start paying me the big bucks yet. Another warning sign, the boss who I overheard talking about how she got a Saturday off for a special occasion, some kid's birthday party. I was not excited to start working weekends for minimum wage again.

So I went to my boyfriends apartment in Dallas and hung out there for the rest of the day. We discussed what I should do. I was leaning towards quitting because of the first day encounters but I still wanted a job. Even if it wasn't the greatest.

Then came the second day when I really knew I was in trouble. I remember in the job post one of the requirements being a Bachelor's degree. Then at “training”, ten or so people crammed into another tiny room with no chairs and a huge white board, half the people were students. Also the training was spitting back specific words and phrases to trick people and get more sales. If I wasn't sure before I knew it now. This place was not for me.

I got sent home an hour later because by the grace of God they didn't have the product they wanted me to peddle in stores. I sprinted out of there and promptly unloaded at my boyfriends apartment again with tears of frustration streaming down my face. I told him how I couldn't go back there but I still had regrets because I wanted a job.

But I refused to take a worse job then the one I just left. I should have told them when I left but instead wrote a nice email saying I didn't realize the position was so sales oriented and I was looking for something different. They were very cordial and accepted probably because I wasn't saying, “Your company is a sham and none of your employees make any money! Bye!”

From then on I stayed away from scam marketing and sales position listings. Sales is not my forte. I learned that in my retail job. I liked helping people and putting together outfits because fashion. But when my manager and other upper level sales people are telling me to sell, sell, sell, I can't do it.

Organically selling something you like is easy. Selling something ugly or something you don't like is hard. The products we were trying to sell to poor Sam's Club members were Infomercial level bad. Everything is a learning experience.