Interview recap

"I am so smart, I am so smart, S-M-R-T" - Homer Simpson

I'm in rare form tonight and a little hyped up, so I'm not sure how this blog post will go. I'm just going to write it and not edit, so here you go:

I had my interview with Primerica today and I was right to not be nervous. It was a typical sales "farming" interview. I should know, I used to do use this technique on a weekly basis! What I don't know is why I didn't ask more questions in the initial call, but I didn't and I wasted my time and his because of it. Oh well, live and learn right?

So, I found out in the first 2 minutes what he was looking for and knowing I wasn't interested I decided to have a little fun. You know, knock an interview out of the park so any future ones won't be so nerve racking. =) After he had given me a glowing overview of his company, he started to ask me a few questions, and I of course had perfect answers for everything....I am after all the ideal candidate for ANY company (whew - at least my confidence hasn't taken a dip!). I let him have his turn and when it seemed he was ready to push me out and schedule me to come back for his farming class, I whipped out my interview questions and started asking him questions. Needless to say, he was less than affluent in his responses. He even said "I've never been interviewed in an interview". Well hello! - you're trying to figure out if I'm the right candidate for your position and if this job is what you say it is, then I'm trying to figure out if you are the right fit for my future boss and if this is the right company for me. I should get to ask whatever I want, and you should appreciate it!

So after a few zingers (I really like my interview questions), I asked about the salary. He of course goes into his spiel about earning potential. This is always the clue folks. If they give you numbers over 100K and you aren't a real VP of some sort, then it's sales. Always. So I pushed and asked if the pay was 100% commission. Yup - and there it is. I'm not interested. I don't give a flip if my earning potential if 500K a year if I'm commission only. It's a known fact that 83% of all commission based people don't even make enough to live off of, let alone the earning potential they're lead to believe they can make. (That statistic brought to you by Barney Stinson - for all you HIMYM fans out there. =)

What was funniest to me was after he gave me the real deal, I said "Well let me be honest - I'm not interested in working for 100% commission. If I'm going to be 100% commission, I'm going to work for myself". He looked at me like I had shot his daughter or something. I get it, people who work for commission are used to it. I have been a salary + bonus person for the last 6 years - I can do that. I enjoy the challenge, but I also like knowing in an economic downturn that I will have money to put gas in my car and pay my mortgage. Judge me if you must, but that's how I feel.

Anyway, the first interview of this season of my life is over and I'm glad. It was truly the most painless and borderline enjoyable interview I've ever had. =) Oh, and what did I learn? It is OK to ask if a position is 100% commission over the phone. And there it is.