My Illustrious Career...Part Five

The year was 1976. I had lost my potential career job at
Rockwell. Time to search for something else.

The only way I knew to look for a job was the want ads in the
newspapers. And pretty much the only jobs that you could get
without being actually experienced in anything was a sales job.

So, off I go getting interviews. They always tease you with
lines about 'Management Opportunity' in the ads, making you
thing it is some high-class operation. But all it really means
is that you could possibly be such a great salesperson that you
could some day open your own office.

Sales is a tough row to hoe. They have all these motivational
meetings in the morning, telling you great you are, and how much
money you can make. The money part is true...if you are a good
enough salesperson, you can make a ton of money regardless of
what you are selling.

Most of these sales jobs blend into one long nightmare for
me...I know there was one where I was trying to sell food
packages to homeowners. These things are around today even,
where you buy massive amounts of bulk food, and it gets
delivered right to your door.

I hardly sold any of these during the months I worked for them,
but as I recall, the commission for one sale was several hundred
dollars, so I think I did all right. But it was not my bag.

I found another sales gig soon after where I was going to sell
cassette decks door to door. Keep in mind that in 1976, a cool
high-tech cassette player was a pretty big-ticket item. 8-track
tapes were going out of style, and cassette was the next big
thing technology-wise.

This was a hard-sell job, I don't recall that I sold anything.
Time to move on, I next secured a job servicing Fire
Extinguishers...I was already beginning to see how my life was
going to go! Part 6 will outline this job.

Until then, peace be with you.