Here it go's. I'm looking through ads on craiglist and find an ad for PolarisNYC: entry level, with no experience needed. The job description is sales, marketing, training and management. The pay is described as up to $40,000 with benefits included. I submit my resume and surprised that this company who deals with fortune 500 companies contact me the next day...
A lady named Rashna calls me and sets up the first round interview. She is very persistent and sounds like she's reading from a script and tells me the sooner the better in coming down to the office. I felt obligated to schedule it ASAP, the next day in fact because she said many candidates are applying for the position I'm applying for. The next day comes and my babysitter cannot take care of my child, so I call her and she kind of rudely tells me that it is impossible to reschedule the first round interview.
I begrudgingly come in and interviewed by a lady named Alana. She tells me that the job is a year long management training program going business to business selling quill office products. She was very pervasive and careful dealing with any of my questions about pay, benefits, travel expenses etc (RED FLAGS ARE FLYING). After some initial doubt on my behalf if I was going to get the call back (later did I realize that she uses these marketing methods fear of loss and sense of urgency) on me.
So my 2nd round interview (aka day of observation) comes and I'm going to spend the day with a guy named Tyler and another girl vying for the same job I'm going for. We're informed that we are taking the subway to the Bronx and after about 90 mins we get to his territory. Keep in mind I still at this point have NO IDEA what we will be doing, I thought he had a SCHEDULED appointment with a business owner who was a prospective client, boy was I WRONG. The first 3 businesses we solicited the person in charge threw us out and said not to come back.
I thought to myself I cannot do this on a day to day basis. He sensed that both of our attitudes went down and he said he had a presentation for us at lunch. A few more "hard no's" and the other girl said she wasn't fit for this type of abuse. Lunchtime came and he told me that this job DOESN'T have a base salary ($40k out the window) and that you make 28% of everything you sell. So I was like what is 28% of nothing??? My next obvious question is how do you pay your rent, food and other bills and he said we all have these payments to make.
I was later offered a position after another long (3rd round interview) and started. After a few more training days like the 2nd round interview, I got to go han solo and have my own territory in the Bronx. That day was by far the HARDEST day I've ever worked, I must have walked 10 miles to close 1 sale that was $55. After a few more days like this I had a huge sale (that's what they tell you to keep you going). I worked my butt off cultivating this deal for days and then my commission was $500 on the deal.
Friday came and I was thinking I was going to get paid, to my dismay you don't get your FIRST CHECK for 2 weeks. I was like I can't believe this, I'm spending over $20 a day in taking the train, bus, food, water (walking around for 6 hours in the heat). So finally 2 weeks go by and I'm expecting my check to be around $600 (exactly what I was told is in the average per week account executive range). I got my check and COULD NOT believe that my $500 commission wasn't on there. Tyler told me that the order had been canceled. I thought to myself I've been breaking my back to get that sale for days and it get's canceled??? Then he acted like it was my fault because I didn't get the sale "pre-paid". That was the end of the line for me and I quit after that.
You work like a dog to close an "app" and the customer doesn't pay= you don't get paid. I did some research on the internet and read that the customer feels obligated because your persistently in there face and want to get you out of there asap. When quill calls them to get the payment (when you are not there) they cancel the order when they realize they just ordered $3,000 of office supplies.
If your looking for a job make sure you ask a lot of questions up front, to avoid wasting your time and going through an experience like mine. These companies all have different names but work under the name cydcor, if you hear this questions at the interview ask if the company is under the umbrella of cydcor. They by law have to tell you. I would run out of that room ASAP at that point!
0 comments