I have a new job!!! (Yes, Attention Whoring)

[J-Mann]

Oh, BushOK ... be careful here. I echo the other sentiments that are cautioning you about jumping into this one. You didn't even know where they were based as of a few days ago, confusing http://www.on.co.nz/ with http://www.on-company.com/. Are they one in the same? Is one a subsidiary of the other?

I'll be honest ... I'm a vice president of a web-development firm, and I would never hire you or anyone else for an "assistant manager" position (whatever that means) without having had extensive over-the-phone and on-site meetings. That would be for my benefit and comfort-level as well as yours.

So here are a few questions, and if you haven't done so already, you really, really need to get them answered:

 - What is an "assistant manager?" What is the job description, the day-to-day expectations, your short-term and long-term goals and your expected workload?

 - Who will you be working with and will you be expected to manage any staff? In what piece of the company will you be operating (sales, marketing, operations, development, etc.)?

 - What exactly does this company do? The two URLs I posted above show varying expertises ... web design, custom development, a variety of web-applications, etc. It's not that a single company can't do this, but it's best that you have an idea of what their true strength is before jumping in.

 - What do you bring to the table? In other words, why are they interested in you?

 - Why doesn't a web-design company's website look better? Why does it return so many errors and warnings when run through a W3C validation checker? (This is not really a big deal, but it would be comforting if they could give you a realistic explanation of why their home pages return very messy validation when they're supposed coding experts.)

 - How large is their client base? What is their average and expected annual revenue? Are they profitable?

And I could go on ... but I think a lot of the other concerns, particularly those about your bank account, have already been covered. In other words, this is as much your opportunity to interview them as it is for them to interview you ... and it sounds to me like they've done a lousy job of interviewing you to this point. Plus, Patrick has incredibly valid concerns.

Don't jump into this based on faith, my friend. Be smart about it and make them prove themselves to you. They're offering a good chunk of salary for a remote employee with little-to-no management credentials or experience beyond education ... that's rare, and it makes me skeptical. You ought to be skeptical, too.

[J-Mann]

Since it's too late to talk you out of this, how about a job description? Or have they given you that yet?

[J-Mann]

Oh lord ... Jeff, why wouldn't you listen to any of us? Gramps is right -- you need to be kissing Patrick and Boris' feet for stopping you from going any further.

As much as you hate to take other peoples' advice, here's a bit:

 - Slow down. Your rush-rush-rush mentality made you quit ONG way too early (a month sooner than you originally predicted just a few days ago!). Now you're banging out applications to a slew of other jobs. Stop. You probably have your ONG supervisor's contact information -- call him / her this weekend and have an honest conversation, and if you can't reach your boss ASAP, call on Monday. If you were a solid employee, there's a good chance they'll let you back in.

 - Share your job desires and ONG job description with this forum. There are -- apparently -- a lot of smart people here. There are connected people, too. If you want to make more than $31k a year, let us know what you were doing and ... who knows? One of us may be able to help you find something better.

 - Don't do the Sprint sales rep job. It's low-paying, the quotas are stressful and the commission isn't worth it.

 - "Faith" is not an excuse for stupidity. God gave you a brain for a reason. Ears, too. Start using them.

And best wishes. We are here for you.

[J-Mann]

That's what I will do.  I will call my supervisor first thing Monday morning and see if I can get my old job back.  I was one of their best employees, so I don't think it would be much trouble.  I'll just try to go in and act like nothing ever happened.  Plus, we are very near August 1, which means I am just under 8 1/2 months left until a wedding.  It's way too late in the game to be gambling with our futures.

Good man, although if you can, try to call your supervisor this weekend. It's possible that ONG has some HR rules in place that would prevent a sympathetic rehire, but most individuals have a hard time separating their core identities from their role at a job ... in other words, your supervisor will likely be sympathetic to the truth and do all he can to help you out, if corporate rules allow him that flexibility.

Having that conversation before Monday morning means that your supervisor can get a potential rehire in motion immediately at the start of the week. If you wait till Monday morning to call, you risk catching your supervisor off-guard or missing each other completely, wasting valuable time.

[J-Mann]

One of my friends just called me and gave an interesting scenario that I had not thought of, and I wanted to pass it by you guys and see what you think.

Susan and I want to move to Arizona in 2012.  This friend told me to go ahead and start looking in Arizona now and if I get a job down there in the place we want to live, then take my fiancee', elope, and get moved down there.  As far as my house is concerned, talk to people at church and rent it out for three or four years so I wouldn't have to sell it and have to pay back the government.  Of course, she said definitely keep looking up here, but don't rule Arizona out right now, either.

I'd focus on one thing at a time for now. Quick reinstatement of stable employment should be goal number one. There are a lot of factors to consider when making a big move, so I think you ought to clear your mind of any Arizona moves for the time being. A move like that can't be a spur-of-the-moment thing ... it takes lots of planning and, most of all, patience.

Plus, Susan strikes me as someone who wants a traditional wedding, especially given all the planning you've done so far. I'd hate to see too many radical shifts in priority too quickly that may damage the relationship.

[J-Mann]

Just out of curiosity, what are Susan's thoughts on all this?

[J-Mann]

Opie, you could bring some ladies back with you and be a pimp. Lol

Ugh.  Little life lesson for you fellows - don't ever turn what you love into a job.  You'll just ruin the fun in it.

I think you'd probably be able to do better than minimum wage, although you'd have to keep your attitude hidden. As an employer, I don't like it when my employees try to tell me what they believe themselves to be worth. But they're all making far beyond minimum wage, too.

[J-Mann]

The first thing  did, though, was call ONG's HR department and he is going to sit down with the HR manager and the hiring supervisor of my department and see what he can do.

He should let me know by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.  One job I should hear back from either the end of the day today or first thing tomorrow.  

1) Yeah that's not encouraging.

2) How is that possible for any job other than a minimum wage one?  No one knows that fast or is that desperate considering you only called on them today.

Maybe they just don't believe in interviews in Oklahoma? Yeah, weird.

I don't think it's all that strange. He had a job there as of just a few days ago, so he wouldn't need to go through a lot of the formalities of a typical interview. And maybe they're just seeing if they can pull some strings and place him in his old spot or elsewhere within the company where a transition would be easy.

[J-Mann]

He tried calling me back today, but I missed his phone call by just one second.  I called the number back and left a message on his phone since it was already 4:30, so he should try to call me tomorrow morning.  I will also call my supervisor first thing in the morning.

Here is my agenda for Tuesday -

5:30 am - Wake Up
6:00 am - Eat Breakfast
7:00 am - Start Waiting on Calls
7:30 am - Call my Supervisor
8:00 am - Leave line open for any other calls
6:00 pm - Vote
7:00 pm - Watch Election Returns

I'm not going to go anywhere other than to vote unless I get a call directing me to go somewhere or get a negative call.

Keep your phone handy! You missed my call, too!

[J-Mann]

Well thanks for the encouraging words (however little I believe them), but obviously I never reveal anything in real life exept the most obsequious a*s-kissing.  What sort of employer are you, J-Mann?

Ironically, my company does much of what BushOK's scam company claimed to do -- web design, web application development, consulting and hosting ... except we're a legitimate company!

In case Ameripride falls through tonight, I've got another interview tomorrow morning at 11:15 with a marketing company located here in Oklahoma City just north of the OKC Airport.  This would have a guaranteed salary and benefits of $3,000 a month (IN WRITING) for Platinum Services.

So, I've suddenly gone from a hopeless case of despair about 3:00 this afternoon to 2 interviews within the next 24 hours just 90 minutes later at the current time of 4:30.

This is encouraging. I'm sorry to hear about ONG, but it sounds as if a couple of better opportunities may have presented themselves. The administrative assistant job alone pays better than ONG, although make sure to clarify what "light sales" means. Cold-calling or sales in general can be miserable if you're not prepared for it ... I know a few very good salespeople, and a lot of people that just plain suck at it.

As others have said, I think if something seems stable, legitimate and pays more than ONG, you should take the opportunity.

Well how does the rest of the country do it?

(seriously I don't know how about 60% of the population even survives)

I don't see much -- if any -- poverty where I'm at. True, the cost of living is significantly lower, but even my college interns make $11 an hour plus commission and bonuses. I'm not sure I know anyone who makes $7 or $8 an hour as an adult.

[J-Mann]

That is fantastic, Jeff. Congratulations! I'm glad that everything worked out for you and hope this new job works out well ... and hopefully, all of this was a bit of a learning experience, too

It does sound as if you'll be more marketing oriented, but I know a bit about sales  Feel free to reach out to me if you need some encouragement as you get started in this new endeavor.

PS: do keep your ears to the ground for other opportunities. Ameriplan is one of those multi-level marketing IBOs that looks great but can be a lot of hard work and has likely maxed out its full potential for individual representatives. Make sure that there is actually a guaranteed salary involved (beyond sales).

[J-Mann]

The good news is - I already have benefits.  There is no waiting period for this stuff.

I have a conference call at 8:00 tomorrow morning, followed by some online training, but my first day of actual work will be this Friday, July 30, 2010.

Hold them to it! Get an employment agreement, a benefits summary and guarantee, and document everything!

[J-Mann]

Considering the demographics of the forum, I'm mildly surprised we've never had a thread where one of our teenaged posters starts regaling us with the wonders of Cutco knives.  Only a matter of time, I suppose.

I have a set of those! I wouldn't be caught selling them any time soon, but they are damn good knives.

Jeff, have you done sales before of this kind? It's very different from marketing or any other job where you put in your work and you get a salary. You can work very hard but if it isn't something you are good at, you will find yourself out of a job and with less money than when you started. That $600/week will be withdrawn. Perhaps you'll turn to friends and family and sell to them first before reaching that point, and it will destroy your relationships with them. Do you believe in the product AmeriPlan sells? What about the reports all over the web about how hard it is to use and how much it costs for what you get? You need to be able to address that before you can sell it to others in good faith.

I have to wish you good luck in this, but I am not optimistic that this will turn out to be a real job.

At the very least, this one isn't money laundering! BushOK made it sound as if there was a guarantee with this, and hopefully that's not the "average IBO makes $600 a week" guarantee. He'll have to get that all figured out. His descriptions thus far have made it seem like he'll be helping someone else who's doing it ... but I may be misinterpreting the standard MLM speak.

Jeff, brittain is right -- sales is tough. It is the most challenging job I've ever done and is consistently disappointing and stressful ... and I'm selling something I believe in 100 percent! But there are some people who are just wired for it. If that's you, you might be able to make a go of this. If not, it can be miserable.

Let us know what you find out about the weekly pay ... is it guaranteed and not dependent on sales?

[J-Mann]

Aren't they fairly legit though?

I think the advantage Avon has is positive name recognition and a core product line. Maybe AmeriPlan will have that, too, though I'd never heard of them before now. When you think of other MLMs like Amway, there are literally hundreds of products that you can sell and a negative connotation with the name. Avon doesn't seem to have that ... a lot of women not only know it and think well of it, they need it.

[J-Mann]

You can try to make a go of this, BushOK, but I would keep on the lookout for other jobs. I still don't get it ... they "guaranteed" $600 a week. Did you ever confirm what this meant? It could have been an average based on sales, or it could have been a legitimate guarantee. I'm guessing the former.

A few years ago, I had a friend of mine contact me about a "new business opportunity." He drove a couple of hours with a "business associate" to see me in my (very intimidating) office, and ended up trying to get me on board with Quixtar ... which is now been re-branded as Amway Global.

I was pissed that he tried to make me think he was into something legitimate but knew he was under pressure to bring affiliates on board. I ran an office at the time and figured I could use the little bullsh**t online store to purchase a regular stream of supplies. The promised income never came (despite purchasing hundreds of dollars per month in office supplies through the Quixtar store), and I dropped them like a hot rock later. I didn't have the time to devote to making it work, but had I been otherwise unemployed, I possibly could have ... but it was high pressure from the get-go.

Don't take yourself off the job market yet, Jeff -- this could work out, as MLM opportunities do for some people. I have some serious doubts, and since MLMs are traditionally billed as supplemental income, you'll have time to get out there and search for something else while trying to make due with this job.

And again, I'd get clarification on the guarantee. I'm worried that the $600 per week is nothing more than an average statistic that they threw at you. In fact, I've never known an MLM position to provide a base or benefits.

[J-Mann]

Jmann, given the content of this thread, the odds of this working out for Bush are less than negative one.  I already know he'll be posting how he's in even worse financial shape in a couple weeks.  It's pretty cruel to try and give him hope working at a company like that, akin to telling a rape victim thatt maybe her attacker loved her.

Ouch! But I suppose you're right. It's been rather predictable from the get-go.

I'm telling you this because in a few weeks you may be faced with choices of jobs that require hours or travel that conflict with what you perceive as your needs, and if you let "I need to plan every night" become an obstacle to taking one of those jobs, there won't be a wedding and there won't be money to pay for it.

This is true, as well. All the timelines, countdowns and assumptions about "how things need to be done" will only impede what should be a top priority right now, which is legitimate employment. There are a ton of professions that separate couples for periods of time, and the couple is willing to do it because they know it'll make their futures stronger. I wouldn't let a little time on the road scare you from other opportunities that may present themselves.