Sunday, September 12, 2010

Jobs I'm Glad I Don't Have

Occasionally, someone will tell me that there is NO WAY they could do what I do for a living. 

My career has been in sales & sales management.  I have to prospect, present, prospect, propose, prospect and also prospect.  I give a lot of public presentations and I make a lot of cold calls. 

A cold call is when you call someone who doesn't know you and try to get them to meet with you to buy whatever you are selling.  It is a really, really, really sucky part of sales. 

Fortunately, I don't have to cold call as much as I used to.  I used to have to make 50 calls a day.  My boss would count my cards to ensure I really did it. 

Another part of my job that people don't like is the "uniform".  I have always sold business-to-business, and always in industries that required hose & heels.  I will never forget cold calling in Phoenix in early June, wearing a Jones of New York coat dress, hose, and Nine West pumps.  It was an adorable outfit.  But it's 100 degrees in Phoenix in June.  Nine West pumps sink into asphalt.  And Jones of New York doesn't look as cute when it's covered in sweat stains.

It's a living.

To me, it's much much much much better than:

Teaching K-12.  Especially in a public school.  If this is your calling, then you rock.  I teach CCD classes for an hour on Sunday.  That's all I can handle. 

Teaching Pre-K anywhere.  All the difficulty of K-12, plus changing diapers.  And you aren't unionized, get virtually no health benefits, and have to work crappy hours.

Nursing.  Any kind of nursing.  Bodies are gross.  Especially sick or injured bodies.  The nurses who cared for me after my C-Sections are SAINTS. 

Accounting.  I am lucky that I get to work with some amazing accountants.  They give me nice, clean, easy to read reports.  If I had to compile one of those reports, I would commit Hara Kiri. 

Architect. Sounds cool and glamourous.  In reality, I would be bored to tears.  Would rather watch paint dry.

Attorney:  I thought I wanted to be an attorney once upon a time.  Then I got to work in a law office and saw first hand what attorneys do all day.  They READ all day.  They read really boring things like property titles. 

Realtor.  I actaully wouldn't mid this, but they have to work nights.  Plus they have to put one of those Glamour Shots photos on their business card.  No thanks.

Chef.  Looks good on TV.  Which just shows you that if TV can make you believe that a job where you are in a hot kitchen until 2 in the morning is a great job, then TV can make you believe anything.

Veterinarian.  If I had to work with animals all day, I'd rather be a butcher.  That's just me.

If you have one of these jobs, good on ya!  You don't ever have to worry about me coming along and trying to take it. 

I probably should have posted this on Labor day.  Oh well. 

Happy belated Labor Day everybody!

3 comments:

  1. LOVED what you said about Pre-K teachers. Used to be one. Pretty much the coolest job I will ever have (get to color, play pretend all day). If it paid more than pennies an hour, I would've done it forever.

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  2. Hi! I'm Rebecca. I'm glad to be following your blog, its very true to life and it never fails to make me smile!
    I teach CCD on Tuesdays for an hour and a half! Although it is quite rewarding, the feeling of teaching students about the good Catholic life, its tiring and loud. I'll never get tired of kids and their crazy questions.

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  3. @Nicki -- The pre-k teachers that work with my littles are my family. Too bad they make no $ at all!

    @M.A.P. - I love CCD now that I teach it & don't take it!

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