I’d always been intrigued by sales, I’m not sure if it was due to competition or if I just had a skill for selling anything. My managers would tell me on a daily basis that I could “sell salt to a snail”. These comments always kept me ahead of everyone on my team and always kept me afloat. After earning my title of being a great sales woman, I decided to take my title up a notch by kissing the banking field goodbye and entering the cooperate industry. I was nervous being a young minority who just happens to be a female, I knew the odds were against me. I applied and interviewed for a position as an account executive at the leading local directory, Yelp!

For those who enjoy drinking, eating and socializing just as much as I do, Yelp! connects people to local directories in their neighborhood with just the click of a button. If you’re anything like me (cough cough, nosy) Yelp! allows you to view, read and rate businesses on their service and post photos. I may sound as though I am selling the company,  however I truly believed in their services, point being, for why I applied.

After almost a nine month wait, I was finally contacted by a Yelp! recruiter who had informed me that I was given the position. I yapped to all my friends and family, had numerous celebration dinners to finally start my career as an account executive and completely freaking hate it…..

Most companies expect a lot from their employees but sometimes I go into work feeling as though my job is to take the blessing stick that belong to Moses and part the sea. Being more realistic, my daily requirement is to cold call small businesses and pitch Yelp! advertisements to them in hopes of selling them an “amazing ad layout ” on Yelp! which can run them between 400 to 1200 bucks a month. Half the time my day is spent talking to “water boys, and under paid waitresses” who hate their lives and hate me more for constantly calling. The perks of free food, beer, and entertainment is fun but the moral of my rant is I miss my 9 to 5 banking experience.

As we enter the world as young adulthood, we will constantly be pushed to start “office jobs” because it looks good on paper. I remember being looked down upon for working at the retail bank and constantly told I needed the “real life experience”. From the time I was informed that I had the position my gut never settled. Working in sales can be one of the hardest industries ever. You can not grantee yourself that someone is going to buy, you can not predict what your commission will look like and worst of all you will always have a quota you must make either annual, quarterly or monthly, of course mine would be monthly.

Be aware of the field you are entering, do not let anyone stare you into a different direction. Only one month in and I already know this is NOT where I want to be…