By Marley Malenfant/feature editor
Every year, thousands of high school students get letters in the mail from companies seeking workers.
In 2007, I was one of those students.
This company was a firm that sold fancy cutlery. Employees sell through demonstrations and get commissions for the knives they sell, plus $15 just for setting up the appointment.
That’s if some knives are actually sold.
Having little job experience at the time, I was excited to know that some foolish kid could make $15 an hour like the letter claimed.
Once someone is hired, and it isn’t hard to get hired, the person must attend three mandatory training seminars. Each seminar is long, and no one gets paid for attending them.
Once training is over, employees have to buy a sample set of knives to demonstrate to customers.
Employees are then asked to sell to family and friends, then ask them for more people to contact.
It’s a hard job. Who wants to buy a bunch of expensive knives?
Whoever gets hired better like driving because that’s the majority of the job. Nobody gets reimbursed for all the driving that comes with the job.
Worse than all the driving are the phone calls. People will hang up on you the second you mention you’re selling something.
After a month, I stopped trying to be Don Draper and looked for another job.
With the high pay and flexible schedule that it advertises, the idea of the company seems good to students. After setting up meaningless appointments and wasting gas going to those appointments, the only thing I got from the job is a nice set of knives, which I bought with my own money.
College is expensive, but no one should waste their time with these types of companies. Students may be better off flipping burgers.
Do yourself a favor. If you see a letter from any of these companies in the mail, shred it.
