Door to Door Sales?
Hi Monkeys!
I'm a Freshman, and I've recently been presented with an opportunity to do door-to-door sales to families this summer. The organization is called Southernwestern Advantage, and I would be going down to Nashville from NYC, working 80+ hours a week for three months and I'm expecting I'll make $10,000+ depending on how much I sell.
I was wondering how relevant the skills I would be developing would be to a job in banking, consulting, or a corporate career. Surely I'll need to sell myself and be able to do presentations and of the like, but would door-to-door sales necessarily help me with it?
Of course, on top of it all are moral considerations. I'll only be taking 40% of the profit while the rest is extracted by the organization. I'll also be engaging in sales likely comparable to a car salesman (at least from the tidbits I've read online).
Does anybody have previous experience with this organization? Or perhaps someone may know of a better opportunity? I'm willing to work the 80+ hours but I'm just trying to find the best use of my time.
Thanks!
Do not do this, it's basically a pyramid scheme. Do some research. Not gonna lie, if I see these MLM roles on a resume I often ding the kids, because it comes off as they didn't do much diligence and fell for the pitch.
There is very little sales ability needed for IB and the like, especially as an analyst. Interview skills for sure, but that's not worth wasting your summer on.
As a freshman you could either try to work/shadow in a small PWM office (relevant/impressive), do something retail or part time if you need the money, or just F around and be a lifeguard/take extra classes or go abroad/enjoy your summer. Despite what this website says, the majority of people headed to IB don't do much of anything freshman summer, and honestly something like this hurts more than it helps.
It's interesting that I would more likely be dinged for such an experience. I guess I'm really looking to build interpersonal skills. I was worried it might be a little late to look for PWM internships. Do you have any recommendations on how I might go about it? Would you recommend I comb through LinkedIn for people who might be willing to accept interns? It seems on handshake most companies are unwilling to accept Freshman.
Not late, if anything early... those freshman things are really informal and they won't plan it a year out, maybe a few months.
You need to network and hop on the phone with people on LinkedIn, the jobs won't ever get posted because it's not a formal program. Do a search on here for good freshman internships and strategies to get them.
Honestly, My school had this one internship that was with a real estate group. Unpaid, and it was like 10hrs a work a week. But, you would help write research reports and what not. Something like this is good because it gives you something that you can speak too.
Firms that maybe open to letting you help with a variety of task that come to mind:
- Brokerage shop ( business sub $5m)
- Real Estate Brokerage
- Local Law frim (filing or admin type work)
- Local Boutique investment bank
-Smaller accounting shops
-Generally anything smaller and unstructured might have more room for freshman to break in
Do not waste your time in this... I know a few people who've wasted years into a MLM scam no matter how much their family members/friends warn them to get out.
Plus it just gets harder to get out the further you go in.
The only great thing about door to door sales is you’ll be told no constantly. That could be good for a week or two for character building.
Otherwise GTFO ASAP
Do any of your family members or family-friends run a small business? Work a small role with them and dress it up on your resume, it'll go a long way
Unfortunately, no. My parents were pretty broke immigrants so they don't connections either.
I did a similar thing my freshman summer, it's a really shitty job—I actually did it twice that same summer. Though, I knew exactly what I was getting into. You're gonna be out in the hot ass fucking sun wearing a suit, sweating your balls off just to get told "no" hundreds of time. Sure, as another user said it builds some character and teaches persistence, but their are more productive ways to go about it.
in terms of transferable skills, there really isn't much. I can gain just as much interpersonal skills by actively talking to people at a party and attending campus networking events-it just takes practice.
How have my experiences in the roles helped/hurt me? I took them off my resume as soon as I could. Because I know they looked sketch. Networked and got experiences in PE, M&A, and finally a summer analyst gig at a BBin a product team/NYC.
if I could go back in time, I would forgo those experiences because they just stressed me out. I was worried how'd they look on my resume. Truth is, only internship that matters is the one you do after u finish ur junior year. Freshman year fuck around and do soemthing on the side like get some certificates or whatever, network to try to build genuine connections who will help u secure jobs later come SAtime. Try to maybe do a workshop or go to a bank summit for prospectives-but really don't stress if u have nothing. Summer after sophomore year, it would be a good idea to have a summer job. You want some experience on ur resume. Doesn't have to be an internship and could be just shadowing. My tip is be willing to do soemthing unpaid-this is the optimal time to sacrifice money for experience. Reach out to boutique firms doesn't matter if it's IB, PE, HF, AM-just anything finance related. This will put u so much ahead even if it's BS work-ask as many questions, take notes, and play it up a bit but not too much. No one will ask if it's paid and really doesn't matter imo-experience is experience. When you apply for SA around junior year, you can leverage that and make some money finally.
As others have said, do not do this. Total waste of time. I got recruited for it in college and turned it down once I learned more about it. Had a friend that did it and it was the worst experience of his life. There are a million other possible things you could do that would both be better resume builders and less painful.
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