Job (Nearly) Secured

So I have a theory, well a superstition really.  If I talk about a good thing too much before it happens, then I’ll jinx it.  In response to my life’s curse of Murphy’s Law, I have been reluctant to share much with anyone about some big news.  But now I think it’s time to share; I (probably) have a job!

Looks like Anthony really pulled through for me.  I’ve already signed a written agreement and right now the only that stands in the way of me being officially hired is the drug test I took yesterday. I shouldn’t have a problem passing that, so I’m supposed to start my new job Monday.  I’ll be doing sales for a security monitoring company.  If I meet my monthly sales goals, I should be making nearly $20k more a year than I did at the church, which is nice.  However I have to go through training first, for which I only make my base salary of $2,500 a month, which is not much for a family of four.  But I’m still excited to get a job and work for this company.

Part of the reason I’m so excited is because every interview I’ve done for sales positions has ended up with my interviewer being excited for me to work with them.  Everyone keeps saying,

You’ll be perfect for this job!

Even my buddy Anthony, who is not in sales at his company, was excited to recommend me for the job

Anthony: Dude, you are going to kill it at this job!  Seriously, you were born for this and all we need to do is train you on our systems and you’ll go out there and conquer the freaking world!

Apparently his company is completely overhauling their sales department.  The founder/CEO has made a huge sales goal of doubling contracts within 2 years. WOW, that’s intimidating!  So they headhunted the competitions sales manager to turn their sales around. And I like this guy.

To me, the sign of a good talent scout is someone who can see past job history or education, and look to the raw talents and transferable skills of the individual.  This guy…he gets it.  He didn’t start out as sales, he started out as an installer and 17 years ago and his boss asked him to go into sales for the company.  This is huge for me!  Because that means he not interested in someone with sales on a resume but rather he’s interested in the potential of what someone can do with their given talents.  I’m the second sales person he’s hired, and neither one of us come from a sales background.  I know I’m being redundant, but that means he sees me for what I can do, not based on what I have done.

During the interview we talked about training:

Sales Manager: I see here that you are really concerned about training.  Now we will train you, but I’ll be mostly at the corporate office [90 miles away].  I’ll be up here once a week, but I’m not going to be here all the time to work with you.  However Anthony will teach you all you need to know about our security systems.

Me: Honestly, I’m not too worried about learning the product.  I’m more concerned with learning how to sell.  I’m not a salesman in the traditional sense, I’ve never done something like this.  I need sales training.

SM: No you don’t.  [Shakes his head]  You, you need far less trainging than you think you do.  You are already going to be great in this job.  I’ll give you a few techniques that will help you, but you’re going to be awesome.

I cannot express how good it feels to be wanted.  I cannot tell you how good it feels to have people believe in you even after only one meeting.  I went into all my interviews for sales position testing myself, can I sell me?  And with every person I sat down with and talk with, they clearly wanted me.  I’m excited to call up the local cable company and say “sorry, I’m going with another employer.”  And I KNOW that their sales manager will be bummed.  That’s such a good feeling.  It’s an unbelievable feeling to feel like I can believe in myself, especially since so many others clearly already do.

I hope to start Monday.  And I hope training isn’t too long because I need to start selling ASAP so that I can make a decent living.

But things are starting to look up.  YAY!