Hello, everyone I know its been a while since I my last post!😦

I apologise for that, I have been quite busy lately and even tough I felt like writing I never did. Hopefully I will keep posting at least three times a month.

My post for today is about Door To Door sales experience.

Door- to- Door Seles : Lets be honest those are the most scary, unpleasant words a young person can hear when applying for a job.

I applied for several jobs and of course I cannot remember specific details of each one I applied, however one I am totally sure that I would never apply under any circumstances for Door-to-Door sales position, alright I might be a jobless but hey I still got my values and principles and know exactly what I would and wouldn’t consider in terms of workplace.

This is a job that I never imagined I would do, not even in my worst nightmare, the thought of knocking stranger’s doors never appealed to me, let alone talking to them and persuade them to buy a product that I really don’t believe its great quality!

One afternoon unexpectedly I receive an email saying something like ‘ Our manager really liked your CV and would like to invite you for an interview, can you come tomorrow…..?



Well, as you can probably imagine if a teenager, young person that is tirelessly looking for jobs and get an emails like this one, of course no one would say NO!

I replied immediately something along the lines ‘ Yes, of course I will be there tomorrow’

I was genuinely feeling happy, feeling like my CV was the ‘THING’ feeling valued and all those nice feelings you have when you are invited for a job interview.

Still never for a second I thought the position was direct sales ( a fancy word for Door-To-Door sales) .

After I received the email I went online and googled the company, I also looked for their job advert that I applied , it was really vague but one could understand that it was for a marketing position.

Interview day comes, I prepare myself , I am dressed all professional -warning on the email that I got from the job, it was clearly stated that I could not wear jeans or trainers, I should be dressed properly-. Not that I would go to an interview dressing poorly, it’s just common sense I guess. especially when since young age we all know that here in England first impressions count a lot no matter what situation , always dress well, if you want to make a first good impression.

Once my Human Resources teacher told the whole class that a recruiter knows if the candidate is going forward on the interview process in a mere 5 seconds. Basically as soon as you step in , your whole appearance in being highly judged.

Anyway, I get to the building of the appointment, ring the bell and get inside, as soon as I get inside of the building I was already feeling suspicious, not good looking stairs, poorly decorated, cold inside considering that we live in England and is constantly freezing one would expect the heating to be on at all times. simply dodgy (dishonest or unreliable looking place)

So I get to the company main door, I get inside of the actual office , see some people that seem around my age early 20’s , having a meeting with a man that although he is dressed smart he doesn’t look trustable. A cocky guy in other words ( ‘cocky is someone who is overly self-confident. Someone who is very arrogant and assumes they know all the answers is an example of cocky’)

After waiting for about 10 to 15 minutes the interviewer sends me to another room, which again was appealing, I mean is not like it was dirty, but there was something there ‘untidy’ if you know what I mean, in other words suspicious. I think I was just expecting something more professional.

The interview lasted for about 10 or 15 min; simple basic questions were made, at that point was thinking that perhaps I was too harsh on my initial perceptions as the interviewer seemed to be a nice person, and asked questions that actually I thought were appropriated for the position. ( Yes I was still thinking it was for a marketing internship position, not once the interviewer mentioned direct sales, and of course to not look bad on picture I did not asked anything, who goes for a job interview and doesn’t know what position applied ? Me. Remener still first interview and in my country ( Portugal) the old people always tell us young people ( It is better to remain silent and look stupid , than to open your mouth and confirm suspicions !) yeah Portuguese sayings are the moralising or demoralising things you can hear, but one thing is for sure their rarely are wrong ! I will do a post totally dedicated to that :).

Anyway the interview rule was: If I was selected I would receive a call by 6 pm on the same day and would go through my final assessment and start to work. my interview was around 11 am.

On my way to home I was confident that it went reasonably well. You know when you got the perception that you’re going to be hired no matter what? Yes that was the feeling.

It was about 4pm when I received a phone call from a receptionist saying something like ‘ I just wanted to let you know that my manager really liked you and wish to invite for another interview tomorrow’. – Can you see how is this selecting process going rather fast? A bit suspicious no ? Another motivational Portuguese saying – When charity is too much , the poor suspects; poorly translated by google but basically this means that when someone gives a beggar a lot of money , that beggar is going to distrust that person goodwill, is not that he beggar is being ungrateful , he is only surprised. long story short : too good to be true!

Carrying on , of course I was over the moon (how innocent am I) I instantly said ‘YES’.

I went online did my research on the company website once again, stupidly enough, I didn’t read the company reviews (big mistake) I only went to their main website and focused on what was there, I googled all the things I didn’t understand, read over and over again, I was ready ! Ready for My final interview (that’s what they said… only two interviews in total)

This final interview when I get to the office, I was once again surprised, by the large quantity of juveniles there, all of us were applying for the same position.

There was ‘youth’ music type of thing playing in the background, a guy from staff that is making random chats with everyone, I personally think it was to make everyone feel at ‘home’ I guess. Everyone is dressed smartly. To be honest I don’t really know why I was so surprised at the beginning , when I saw so many young people I have done waitress jobs and the majority of the people there was under 25. The difference now is that a waitress job is normally target to students, school leavers etc.

What kind of Marketing company is this one that trust their business to a bunch of youngsters some of them do not even have their A-levels done?

Well after an hour there, filling the application etc. The annunciation : – ‘… It is zero commission , you get paid depending on your sales’ .

PS I will write 2nd part of my experience in another post, otherwise this post will be too long.

Thank you for reading 🙂

SmashingReal Xx