Well, needless to say I got an email from the one that I applied to to get the free cover letter. I was feeling a bit desperate, as I had no money and needed a job. I decided to go in for an interview and see what it was all about.
I was lied to from the first phone call I had ever made to this company, "First Choice Associates." I asked strait up if this was a direct sales/direct marketing job. Of course the answer was, "no, this is a position open on our marketing team." Lie. So I decided to say what the fuck and just go on the interview.
The waiting room was filled with upwards of 10-15 people interviewing for this one position. If anything I was going to just take this interview as practice and move onto the next one. I get in there after waiting for a good 45 minutes in the lobby, she gives me a short rundown of what they actually do in their business, which was very vague and not descriptive. At the end of the interview she tells me that there is 2 positions open and they will be breaking it down at the end of the day for second interviews. Of course, because I'm awesome, and pretty much anyone who can muster up a paragraph of English, got one.
The next day was an "in field" interview where I went and met this really nice lady at a Home Depot in the Sacramento area. She was training another girl there who absolutely sucked at pitching people the "product" that they were "not selling." The lady seemed to like me so she sent me back to the office for a 3rd and final interview with the Manger/Owner/Ceo/Whatever her real title was.
She took all my information, took a picture of me for my badge, copies of license and social security card, and said if I passed some sort of quiz on Tuesday, I would start training that day. Booyah.
So when I arrive on Tuesday I waited in the lobby to be called in again for around 45 minutes. When I get into the office it is a mad house. People are writing on white boards about "business theories," none of which I had heard throughout the many classes I took at Pacific. Also, people were set up in pairs practicing their pitch to one another. It was absolutely nuts. The lady I went on my second round interview with started teaching me the 5 points to a conversation. The open, short story, pre-emptive strike, etc.
Everything was really fast. I learned the pitch within a couple days. I didn't go home and study or anything because I really didn't care that much. When you open and pitch like 100-150 people a day, you can get good at anything. Please ask me to pitch you sometime. It is ingrained in my brain. I did it so much I even dreamed about it while I was working there.
The manager would come out of her office and yell something out and everyone there would respond with something. Then they would proceed into a highly motivational meeting. Ironically enough, the lesson was Joe Schmoes vs. John Elway. Basically saying that Joe is not willing to sacrifice his entire life to be good at selling shit in a Home Depot. But John sacrifices everything to be good at it. Everyone would circle up and I have never had any more high-5's within a two week period than ever before in my entire life.
So I had a pretty decent pitch. I was put out in my own store the second week I was there and I ended up getting 20 leads in that week all by myself. Oh yeah, thats what the whole job was. I would basically run around a Home Depot selling a free promotion to people. The promotion was to have the Home Depot Designers come out to your house for free to help you get a good look for what you kitchen or bathroom might look like in the future. It basically was a dude that went to your place brought you some samples and then slightly pressured you to buy the new cabinets or bathrooms.
When I was interviewing for the job they said that their would be a base salary of $8/hour plus commission and every lead that you got that called and confirmed their appointments. It ended up being that you got $8/hr if you did not make above that with your commission. So if I made over $300 in commission I would get that, but if not, I made the $8/hr. Also, I was told that the job was Monday through Friday, but it ended up that Saturday was a mandatory day if you wanted to get promoted. I was going to get promoted on the start of my third week to Leader. Leader is basically the person that just trains new people to become leaders in two weeks and start the cycle all over again.
There are thousands of these offices around the country all run under their parent company The Smart Circle. It is a multi level marketing business/scam who offer promises of fast advancement through the company so you can one day run your own office and repeat the cycle. I havent quite figured out how the money works within the organization but somewhere, someone is making a shitload of money. I don;t think you find that out until you are actually an assistant manager or a manager.
There were many closed door meetings. If something came up things would be said behind closed doors so they could "talk shop"
To be honest, I liked everyone that worked there. They were all a really good group of people. Even my manager and assistant manger were nice people. After I ended up doing more research on The Smart Circle, I realized that the job definitely wasn't for me. I feel really bad for the lady who trained me. She was really nice, and was always seeing how I was doing. She really didn't train me that well though, I learned the pitch by practice and the lessons from everyone else, but my success in the company was directly related to hers. If the leader can keep a team together they get promoted to assistant manager and get put in charge of their own campaigns. So I fucked up her shit a little bit. But I know that today there is a fresh batch of employees sitting in the waiting room, waiting to be trained by their new leaders, probably thinking that they have finally found a decent job.
The job is definitely for some people, it just wasn't for me.
If you would like to read more about it:
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/smart-circle-c124174.html
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/the-smart-circle-group-c43210.html
http://www.complaintsboard.
And the search continues....
