So, since I've been here in Boston, and since before I got here, I've been frantically looking for a job. I really didn't want to move to a new country and sit on my behind all day, in a cramped appartment, just waiting for my husband to return from his classes. So, I spend an average of two to three hours a day, polishing and refining my resume and cover letter for different employers, highlighting what they are each looking for and praying to get at least an interview…I applied for literally a hundred jobs, and honestly I’d almost given up, until…yes, until my mailbox chirped, “You’ve got mail.” Excitedly, I went on to check out the employer, and set the date and time for an interview straight away! The job was for a marketing related position – wow, I thought, my experience in Egypt actually counts here! Frankly, I’d thought that all employers would dismiss my experience because it’s in an ‘under-developing’ country – yes I know the new label is ’emerging country’ but I refuse to use it. Anyhow, a few days later, (first red flag) I went to the interview and it seemed like a pretty decent credible agency, with big clients like AT&T and Staples. Everyone was dressed formal and there was a professional atmosphere that got me thinking, “I can’t believe I got an interview here!” Moreover, they seemed to instantly love me! (second red flag haha) They said my personality was perfect for the job, because I’m quirky, confident, and quite the ‘people-person." BAM! They offered me a position right there on the spot. (third red flag)
But what does the job entail exactly, I asked in my final screening? “Well, basically we work on marketing business to business. You are expected to prepare presentations for our client and sell to other businesses. You should expect to spend most of the day outside the office doing your presentations.” This is absolutely perfect, I naively thought to myself. The pay is GREAT, the job is simple enough – I rock at presentations, and I don’t have to sit at a desk all day – so this will be a piece of cake!
We'll need you to start this week. (How many more red flags can they fly?)
After the first couple of hours on my first day, I was intent on quitting. Now let me tell you what the hell happened...
At 8am, after a 30 minute bus ride, and a 15 minute walk to the office, I attended my first staff meeting. I walked in to find an extremely cheerful and happy mob, full of some sort of weird edgy energy. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they were all high on something a.ka. drugs. After all, it was quite unnatural for all those people to stand there beaming so at 8am in the morning. I mean seriously, no matter how much you love your job, there is no way on earth you’ll be arriving to work that early and that cheerful. And screw you if you say you do – I’m sure that's a big fat lie! Everyone has morning blues! Anyhooooowwww, I discovered that the staff meeting was a daily thing, and that it was very natural for them to be in this odd state where they are all high-fiving and WoooHoooing every 5 minutes in the meeting. I think the weirdness was magnified because they were all dressed in suits…and we were all standing in a small room…and there was a white board in the meeting room with drawings on it…in Chinese. The meeting was all about how to respect and treat our ‘customers’ and the manager kept stressing on words we should use to make the customer feel ‘comfortable’ during our selling presentation. In my short and junior years of agency work experience, I'd never been told how to interact with clients - it was presumed I was professional enough to figure that out. But okay, they do things differently here. That's fine, I thought. At the end of the meeting the manager went over the commissions each person earned last week…wait a second, commissions?…customers?…selling? It finally started to click. I don’t think this is the job I signed up for. I told myself to wait and see what happens anyway. I was partnered up with a South-Korean man of small build, who came off as a bit eccentric with a baffling sense of humor, but nonetheless very polite. We got in his car and left to do our ‘presentations’. On the way, he told me that his girlfriend just broke up with him and that he felt he deserved it because he was mean to her... then he started tearing up…uhhhh what should people do when that happens? When the guy you met less than an hour ago – who is supposed to mentor you on your first day on the job – starts crying? Anyyyywaaaaaay, we finally arrived at a business block – and he mumbled something about a 10-80-10 rule, where 10% of people are rude and obnoxious and 80% are nice and 10% are great. Yeah, and? I asked him if he was going to show me "the presentation" before we actually go and meet the client, or even tell me who our client was, but he just said, “Wait wait you’ll know everything.” For a moment I felt even more uncomfortable and wondered, “What’s up with the mystery? Is he going to kidnap me?” Then I looked at his sad face and laughed the thought away. We walked into the first office and he chirped, “Hi I’m Q from Quill.com and..” he was cut off by a very stern, “out.” Then it hit me. Shit. This is a door-to-door sales job. I am a solicitor. I was enraged. I felt so deceived. That is not what the interviewer sold me. No one mentioned anything about door-to-door sales. I have nothing against sales people – but I absolutely hate that job – like I would hate to be a doctor or a computer engineer. It’s simply not my thing. Shit. I want OUT right now! Unfortunately, I was stuck with the guy all day, in some town in Boston, with no way home - as I literally had no idea how to go back except from the office.
This is how people reacted to us:
And this is how I felt…
So yeah, of course I quit. And I’m back to my computer, job searching. Next time, I’m going to make them show me a video of what they do all day before I accept an offer!
Sincerely, Still jobless
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