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Post by Rob Allen on Sept 5, 2018 18:45:13 GMT -5
Aren't you taking a risk, posting that publicly? |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 5, 2018 20:35:47 GMT -5
Aren't you taking a risk, posting that publically? You’ll never take me alive, Copper! |
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 6, 2018 1:06:36 GMT -5
I'm a lifelong salesman. I should have known it as a kid. I loved to tell stories and influence people. Honest to God, thinking back on it now, my favorite part of kindergarten was show and tell. Wasn't going to do it cause our family businesses of wholesale beverages (soda, liquor, beer, wine) had nothing but jerk salesmen. I could out-sell and out-service em all, even in high school. Remember WKRP in Cincinnati ? Herb Tarlek ?  That is NOT me ! He's what kept me out of it. Got my management degree and was going to be a stock broker. Was really good at all the stuff they teach you in college, except when I went real world I quickly found out it was just a sales job and they literally didn't care what you did or how you did it to move your quota of stocks. Not doing it. Working 2 full-time telemarketing jobs while I tried to get into banking. Everyone starts you out as a teller. A teller ? I went to college for this ? No way. Eventually got hired as a loan officer and promoted to Assistant Manager with my own branch quickly approaching, except they wanted to put me in the Deep South, as in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, of which I didn't want to go and still refuse to live there for many different reasons. Was skip tracing on a guy that worked for Schwans, the frozen food door-to-door delivery company, and was picking his manager's brain as I could never catch the guy. Jim, the manager, said yeah come out to his warehouse and talk with him. I did and we got to talking about the business. How much are you making ? Not enough. Banking pays crap until you get promoted and then it can be okay but I wasn't going down south. We talked about wholesale and he could see I knew what I was talking about from the beverage business. Long story short, he said I'd double what I was making now working for him, on straight commission, if I did what he said. What eventually got me to do it was when he promised me personally if I didn't double it, he'd pay the difference out of his pocket. We shook on it. I more than doubled it and was damn good at it. One of the best door-to-door salesmen in the company's history. In fact, I still wear my President's Club ring. Marv Schwan, the guy did started the company died and his kids took over, way cutting down the comp package that Marv set up to make the company so successful. The next year I bailed as everyone I knew was making half of what they had before. The trouble is, once you make some decent money, it's not easy to replace it. Anyway, over the years I've sold POS systems and credit card machines, long distance services and wholesale pre-paid phone cards, plastics packaging, refurbished gasoline dispensers, wholesale cabinetry and countertop products, veterinary compounded drugs, and finally, what I'm doing now and plan on doing for a long time, vinyl for vehicle wraps and signage / graphic imagery. When I moved back to Iowa from Oklahoma after my divorce I hired on with an interlock manufacturer. They were the original inventor (and best) of vehicle interlocks a.k.a. breathalyzers. Of course I was one of the their top reps. They promoted me and let me work from home, which is great. I still do it on a flexible schedule 15 hours / week cause I'm good at it and the pay is very good in addition to my b2b vinyl gig full-time. I like sales and I'm good at it. Good for me cause honestly I don't think I could do anything else. Believe it or not, I'm not a job hopper, but companies have a way of screwing people especially sales people in my experience. Most, not all, back door you on sales, cut your territory, make certain account "house accounts" without compensating you justly, etc. Finally, the companies I'm with now have both been very fair and decent and I hope to stay with them for a long time. BTW, really cool reading what everyone does. I had no idea about what some of you do. Always fascinating ! |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Sept 6, 2018 2:59:02 GMT -5
Aren't you taking a risk, posting that publically? You’ll never take me alive, Copper! Actually, I'm wondering if you're taking applications... |
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Søren
Full Member
I trademarked my name two years ago. Swore I'd kill any turniphead that tried to use it
Posts: 321
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Post by Søren on Sept 6, 2018 4:25:04 GMT -5
Still waiting to have my first job. Im told I'm not very employable XD. Cool to read what everyone else here does though (:
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 6, 2018 4:59:39 GMT -5
Retail management for the last 25 years; Naval officer before that (out of college). Worked for Barnes & Noble for 20 years; worked for Lowes and Gordmans, briefly; now work for a printing and & shipping company. Was trying to get out of retail a few years ago; but, once you've been in for 5 or more years, no one considers your experience for other work, even though you possess the same skillset. Retail wasn't bad for most of it; but, the corporate mindset (and lack of real leadership, not shouting at people or spouting motivational phrases from a 5th rate management book) really has destroyed retail in this country. At least at my current job there is a sense of accomplishment, when we complete projects. it's enough that you accomplish a paycheck.  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 6, 2018 5:00:22 GMT -5
Aren't you taking a risk, posting that publically? Is this fake news? Rob are you working for CNN too? |
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 6, 2018 8:32:16 GMT -5
Y'know, since so many of you have added jobs you've done other than your "career' work, I should toss in mine, which include four years pumping gas nights and weekends; four years for my hometown rec department doing coaching, running playgrounds, and doing maintenance; various short-term jobs that included overnight clerk in a hotel; clerk at a joke shop; stock room guy at a Shoe-Town; and carpenter's helper; and also did all kinds of jobs from grunt work to cold-calling to research helping my brother-in-law get a nationally syndicated radio show up and running.
My all-time favorite job outside of teaching, though, was working at a bookstore that also had the longest magazine rack (including comics) I've ever seen in my life. I was in pig heaven. My mild, self-diagnosed ADD made me perfect for counting out and shelving the twice-a-week shipment of magazines and almost daily influx of books (primarily paperbacks), which everyone else hated to do. Not me, I counted it out, shelved it, less a copy of everything I wanted to read. I worked there full-time for about two years, then part-time for a while.
Eventually I would go in every Sunday when we were closed to sort and shelve the magazine load for nothing except borrowing privileges. I loved my boss; he hated that part of the job b/c he was also up every day delivering a couple of hundred morning papers so it was a perfect symbiotic partnership. I did this from 1977 right through the store's inevitable closing when a Barnes and Noble moved in three doors away in the early 90's.
We stocked every comic there was, all the related SF and movie magazines, and thousands of books.
Talk about a dream job!
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 6, 2018 8:48:53 GMT -5
and (briefly, as a child) a professional clown. Story please! When I was in third grade, I was recruited by a wonderful gentleman and Tacoma School District administrator named Rupert "Uncle Rupe" Rinehart to join him in his clown act, which he had performed for years around the school district. Rupe was active in the then-new mainstreaming movement to integreate students with physical or sensory handicaps into regular classrooms. I joined his act to help teach able-bodied students (and faculty) that, physical limitations aside, we were just kids like them. For a little over eighteen months, I got out of school for an afternoon every four weeks or so to paint my face white, don a silly wig (I didn't get a rubber nose because once my real nose was painted red it looked like the fake), swap witty repartee with Rupe and, at the end of the act, take a pie in the face. My mom pulled the plug on my stage career because she felt I wasn't paying enough attention to my schoolwork (and because it was making me unacceptably cocky) but it sure was fun while it lasted.
Cei-U! Wish I could remember my clown name!  |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,870
Member is Online
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Post by shaxper on Sept 6, 2018 10:27:39 GMT -5
When I was in third grade, I was recruited by a wonderful gentleman and Tacoma School District administrator named Rupert "Uncle Rupe" Rinehart to join him in his clown act, which he had performed for years around the school district. Rupe was active in the then-new mainstreaming movement to integreate students with physical or sensory handicaps into regular classrooms. I joined his act to help teach able-bodied students (and faculty) that, physical limitations aside, we were just kids like them. For a little over eighteen months, I got out of school for an afternoon every four weeks or so to paint my face white, don a silly wig (I didn't get a rubber nose because once my real nose was painted red it looked like the fake), swap witty repartee with Rupe and, at the end of the act, take a pie in the face. My mom pulled the plug on my stage career because she felt I wasn't paying enough attention to my schoolwork (and because it was making me unacceptably cocky) but it sure was fun while it lasted. Cei-U! Wish I could remember my clown name! That's actually pretty incredible. Do you by chance have pictures? |
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 6, 2018 11:47:53 GMT -5
When I was in third grade, I was recruited by a wonderful gentleman and Tacoma School District administrator named Rupert "Uncle Rupe" Rinehart to join him in his clown act, which he had performed for years around the school district. Rupe was active in the then-new mainstreaming movement to integreate students with physical or sensory handicaps into regular classrooms. I joined his act to help teach able-bodied students (and faculty) that, physical limitations aside, we were just kids like them. For a little over eighteen months, I got out of school for an afternoon every four weeks or so to paint my face white, don a silly wig (I didn't get a rubber nose because once my real nose was painted red it looked like the fake), swap witty repartee with Rupe and, at the end of the act, take a pie in the face. My mom pulled the plug on my stage career because she felt I wasn't paying enough attention to my schoolwork (and because it was making me unacceptably cocky) but it sure was fun while it lasted. Cei-U! Wish I could remember my clown name! That's actually pretty incredible. Do you by chance have pictures? Sadly, no.
Cei-U! I summon the faded past!
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 6, 2018 18:05:40 GMT -5
Maybe it's just me, but the pie in the face bit is a little disturbing.
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 6, 2018 19:08:41 GMT -5
Maybe it's just me, but the pie in the face bit is a little disturbing. Naw, it was fun. It was just canned dessert topping piled up on a paper plate. The only drawback was I couldn't lick my lips without ingesting my makeup.
Cei-U! I summon the Cool Whip!
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 7, 2018 0:43:51 GMT -5
As long as it wasn't a bad experience for you that's all that matters.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2018 1:12:20 GMT -5
As long as it wasn't a bad experience for you that's all that matters. We'll said ... |
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