Both of these jobs made me jump thru onerous hoops designed to torture me.
The first one was debt consolidation company and the lady who interviewed me said that most debt specialists make 6 figures after taxes. Is anyone in this group in that industry? Can you confirm? I don't know whether or not that “6 figures” claim was legit. I have a feeling employers just say that to prey on your greed.
Anyway, for the first 4 days you go thru training then on the morning of the 5th day you are given an oral test and if you fail the oral test, you are fired on the spot. No second chances. No room for improvement. That is how BRUTAL they are. A guy even got fired because he accidentally clocked out early. The screen went black, there was no communication on the part of the manger so this guy mistakenly thought we were only working a half day and logged out. Nobody had his cell phone number, so we couldn't call him and ask him what was going on. The onus is on HIM as manager to say, “Hey! You shouldn't have clocked out! It's fine, just don't do it again.” Nope, don't communicate, just fire the guy. Did I mention that they're BRUTAL?
I have social anxiety so if you tell me, “Pass this or you're fired” it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Needless to say, I was a fucking nervous wreck. The other reason I failed was because they told me I added stuff to the script that wasn't there. I was NEVER told, “You have to recite it word for word and if you say ANYTHING that isn't there, you will fail.” My trainer barely did anything to prepare me for the test except have me recite the script in front of a couple of my coworkers. (He didn't listen therefore he couldn't provide feedback) Ironically, my coworkers thought I recited the script perfectly fine and my interviewers were impressed and told me I passed my interview with flying colors. My trainer taught us about bankruptcies, what kind of debt we can and cannot work with and industry terminology. Ok, that's great, but that doesn't really help me pass the oral test does it?
If I were a manager I would say, “You didn't do too hot on your oral test and THAT'S OK!! Everybody's first test sucks! You're new so we're gonna cut you a lot of slack. We don't expect you to sound perfect. Let's listen to your recording and I will point out where I think you went wrong so you can avoid making these same mistakes in the future. We're gonna work with you! We want to mold you into a great salesperson and see you get better!”
Don't get me wrong, I totally get that sales jobs are performance based, and if an employee is refusing to follow management's instructions on how to get better, and if it's been a few months and they're not selling anything, then sure, fire them. But four days seems a bit harsh doncha think?
Company 2 cold called dentists and here is what they were selling (taken word for word off their website): “Make it easy for patients in your local area to find your practice online, generate more appointments for your top services, and get up to 10X return on your investment.”
You would think because you're a newbie they'd take it easy on you and be forgiving if your performance wasn't all that great right? WRONG! The way they trained was 1st week, you have an oral test, 2nd week you are to set (and keep!) an appointment (if you set it and the dentist cancels it doesn't count), the 3rd week you are to set and keep two appointments. If you fail any of the above you are first given a verbal warning, then you are given a written warning, then a 2nd written warning, then you're fired.
My manager gave off vibes of, “I am not your friend. I am not here to help you get better. I'm here to punish you. I'm here to get you fired.”
In addition to cold calling, we had to the tedious task of Googling each dentist on our list, type in their hours of operation, location, phone, numerical rank on Google and main dentist in charge on our company software.
I signed up to be in sales. Not data entry.
Me failing the first two weeks wasn't what ultimately fired me. What fired me was that a Karen dentist called my company crying that I was “harassing” her. I only called her ONE TIME!!! If I called her multiple times a day and refused to take no for an answer, then yes, I could understand why she'd be pissed. But again she complained after ONE call! And before you want to blame me and say, “You were fired because you said something unprofessional over the phone”, I DID NOT. I spoke to her in a very meek, submissive tone, I didn't use any swear words and I didn't call her any names. So shut up with your assumptions.
Usually we got secretaries, not the dentists themselves because we were not calling the dentists' cell phones, so we had to call like 3-4 times to get a dentist on the line usually, but I got the Karen the first time I called.
I could tell from her tone that she was pissed off, BUT despite being pissed off she agreed to a day and time to do a phone meeting with my coworker about our services. So not only did she tattle on me and get me fired, she got my hopes up for nothing because I actually thought she was a legit appointment.
Why couldn't she had just said, “I know you are just doing your job. But I am a very busy woman and I'm really not interested in changing anything on my website. I would appreciate it if your company didn't call me again.” ??
She literally called my company screaming and crying about how she was harassed and how mean I was to her and manager took her side 100%. He never said, “To be fair, do I think she's overreacting? Yes. Do I think that she's being a bit too hard on you? Yes.”
Losing those jobs felt like being punished for doing nothing wrong.