Day 67: 8/3/13
This morning I was absolutely wrecked and I had to get ready for this interview. I was trying to be thinking of stuff I might say for general interview questions like my strengths, weaknesses, what I can offer, etc..... All a pile of crap!
I had to get a tram there which took about a half hour long, which gave me time to think about questions an answers. It turned I didn't need to bother too much as it wasn't really an interview at all. The girl that interviewed us brought in the three of us together- an Aussie girl, a French guy and me. She explained what the company was and stuff first. They are a marketing company hired by Energy Australia. Our job would be to go around door to door and try to convert people to Energy Australia as their electricity supplier to save money. She asked us what personality trait we would have that would make us good at it and how we would deal with rejection. It was weird that all three of us were listening to each others answers. She then said she liked all 3 of us for different reasons, but she could only hire 2 more people this week. She asked who could start immediately and we all said we could. Then she asked who could stay for training today and only the French guy and I could so she signed us up and the other girl was to come back for training on Tuesday. We had an hour to go and get a drink or food and then comeback for training. It was all very sudden!!
There were four of us for training- a German girl, an English guy, the French guy and me. All of them were early twenties I think, the English guy was only 18!
The trainer was a New Zealander. He gave us a million forms to fill out and then started teaching us how the supply of electricity works in Australia, how the bills are calculated and stuff like that. We had to calculate the savings a fictitious person would have on their bill and I had it done fairly quickly. The English guy kept saying he was thick and couldn't do it! I think being good at maths would stand to me when I'm trying to show someone quickly how their savings would work! We had a quiz aswell. Most of us got the same result so he picked the winner out of a hat. I won and got two cinema tickets!
The boss man spoke to us then about the pay structure. There's three tiers- bronze, silver and gold. The gold is for the managers in the office who earn up to $5000 a week! Everyone starts on bronze. In that you get $300 a week and then $20 for each account you sign. You won't make a huge amount of money on that, but $300 a week is a start! On the silver tier you make no set money- it's all commission. So you wouldn't move to that until you know you can sell. You got $60 per 1-10 accounts, $65 for 11-20 and $70 for 21+. There's a $250 bonus if you sign $30 a week. If you were good at it there's huge money to be made. They say the average person makes $1100 to $1500 a week. The good guys are making $3000, the worst guys are making $800. I wouldn't mind that!! They were talking a lot about the culture of the office aswell and they all meet every morning for meetings and training. Then a team go out together to the one suburb and you go door to door on your own. They have lots of nights out where the boss puts down a bar tab and stuff so it sounds like there could be a bit of Craic! They took our photos then for an ID card and signed us up, ready to start on Tuesday morning at 9:30! So I was all signed up without even thinking too much about it!! You can leave any time you want so its no major hassle! They take lots of backpackers and travellers so they said they know that everyone could up and leave next week.
There's a few negatives. They work long hours. I probably wouldn't get home until 8 in the evening. They also work for a while on a Saturday. The one positive is I should be able to save a bit! You have to get an ABN number- it's a tax thing which means your self employed. All the sale reps are down as contractors or something. I don't think it's a big deal. Shane has an ABN and I think a lot of the lads do. It's just a matter of sorting some forms. Also, when you sign someone up you have to ring the centre for them to verify the transaction. The calls are made in your mobile so I'll probably have to change to a new network with unlimited calls. These things were thrown in at the end too which left you leaving kind of wondering what you'd signed up to!
The other bad thing for me is that I won't be able to attend the interview for teaching now on Wednesday. I will have to email them moving it to the start of term 2.
I wouldn't even consider doing this job really except there's school holidays coming up for 2 weeks so if I got registered for teaching on Wenesday there's only 11 possible days I can work. There's less money for teaching down here so even if I got all of them I'd make the same amount of money at the sales if I had just one of the five weeks of $800+ and the rest just at $300. So I think I have to do it for the five weeks- there's no guarantee of getting any teaching, no guarantee of getting any other job and the possibility if I was very good at this to make loads of money!!
I'm not sure if I'd be good at it. I think Id look pleasant so people wouldn't think I was a gangster or anything. I can explain things and do the Maths well. Also, I have the advantage over the others that I have paid bills and I have signed over to different companies so I know what that person at the door would be wondering about. For the first few days you go around with your manager anyway so you see how it's done. So, feck it, I'll give it a crack and see can I make a fortune!! It's something totally different from teaching anyway which is probably a good idea as I will never have this opportunity again!!
There were some girls Laura knew going to see Grease in a cinema near us so we went to that. It was a sing-a-long version so when the songs came on, the words came on the screen and everyone got up, singing and dancing. People were dressed up as the pink ladies and Sandy in the leather trousers and everything! There were even a few Danny's around! If was good fun but I got fairly tired, after my restless night last night! Laura has been feelings bit sick the last few days aswell so we weren't the best company. They went for drinks after and we stayed for one. There's another Irish girl, Nuala that Laura knows from home- so I'll probably see here again. It was a bit of Craic anyway tonight!