Wednesday 19 January 2011

Door to Door Selling


My eldest son is desperately looking for a job since leaving university in December.
He has left his CV with about 15 of the temp agencies in our area, and has been ringing them every few days to see if they have any jobs, but to no avail.

Last week he found a job advert on one of the free internet sites and went for an interview. He was told the job was selling door to door and at the moment they were selling teddy bears, which had been bought in the UK. I don't know what the significance of this was - maybe people would think they were better quality!

He would have a fixed salary of 800€ per month with bonus on top depending how many teddies he sold.
You can imagine our reaction to this job. As parents you want the best for your child and always hope there may be something more suitable round the corner.

Not that I have any problem at all with door to door sales, providing it is for a reputable company, selling reputable products.

As this was the only prospect he had, he decided to have a go. He was told that the first few days would not be paid as it was classed as training days and if he wanted to work for the company they would then decide if he had been successful.

On Monday he drove to Tours to start the job. From there he was taken in a minibus to another city about 1h30 minutes away. There were 4 or 5 young men.

He rang me mid afternoon to say that he would be back home after 21.00 because they had to work in the evening to speak to people when they got home from work.

This morning I called him to find out how he had got on, as I did not speak to him all day yesterday. He said he was outside the company's office and did not know whether he should continue today. We spoke about how he was feeling, how much it was costing him in petrol to get to Tours and what other jobs may be available. In the end he decide to not work with them any more.

He came to our office and we talked. He told me how the person he was with was making the sales and how much money he was making....

When they got to the designated city, they were taken to a housing estate or flats and told to get on with it.

The spiel was that the young man had been offered a CDI contract (permanent fixed contract) with this company, but he had to prove that he could sell before he was given the job. They had to sell these teddies and the more they sold the more points they got, which meant if they got enough points they would be taken on permanently. (This young man had actually been working for this company for over 2 years and last month earned over 2000€)

The teddy bears are sold at 40€ each.

People took pity on this young man and to help him get a permanent job they bought the teddies!!!!

I think after this experience he has seen that it is easy to earn money if you con people, but you have to live with it.

Also hopefully he will be able to use this for his next job interviews when he says he did not work with this company because he did not like their methods of selling.

A good learning experience all round - I hope


4 comments:

Diane said...

Thats terrible. My daughters boyfriend had a similar experience working for a well known charity who were using "heavy armed" tactics to get people to donate. The best way these days to get a job, seems to be to do some voluntary work experience in the area that you are interested in. The work experience seems to go a long way to proving you are interested over and above others. My friends son has just got a job at a local hospital pharmacy by doing just this. I wish your lad good luck. xxxx

Unknown said...

Life's road from Here to There is a curious one, but for one reason or another your son needed this experience. Tucking it firmly under his belt, he can now step back out into the job-hunting arena, another notch worn in.
Good luck to him...I have two kids fighting the same fight right now. It's not easy.

Sue from Ky. said...

It is amazing how one can look around and see what folks are needing badly, and put themselves in a position to do supply what they need. Pop has a cousin, whose son started a business pulling dents out of cars that were damaged by hail. When a bad hail storm hits, he drives his portable business to that city. He is making great money, since the insurance companies are the ones paying him. He has a luxurious travel trailor he lives in while on the jobs. He is able to take his wife on occasion, when he is going to be there for a few weeks. Wouldn't it be great if your son could luck up on something that folks have a great demand for and make a business doing just that. It's a good thought.

BadPenny said...

Good to hear he has good morals. So so difficult - I wish him good luck