Confessions of a Serial Interviewer by Steven Ra Ga

May 2022 – Today I had an interview with a company that sold security systems. Their target market are Farms and Small towns.

This position reminds me of the time I sold steak knives and $5 radios, check out that blog post for more details.

Today’s interview was wild.

It’s started off by a youngish man named Leonard who lead me up a series of stairs to the upper loft of a building that housed a real estate company. The office space was nicely decorated.

Leonard and I sat down in big comfy office chairs at a big oak style desk. Leonard was one of these guys who didn’t go to the gym, lived on high sugar drinks and relied heavily on fast talking to win you over, he wasn’t the best looking fellow, on a guy scale of 1 to 10 I would give him a solid 4 for attractiveness. He reminded me of another fellow I met from A previous employment , they work hard, grand it out and have a charming personality.

Leonard immediately starting putting up red flags when he kept wondering aloud where Bobby was the owner. Whom I guess was supposed to be at the meeting.

I went with a calm, very little talking approach as I just came from an hour long interview for an Art Teaching job. I was a bit tired.

Leonard began to proudly boast about the position, his sales and his new found role as assistant sales manager. He was building a team to work with and for him. He said things like “I just hired an 18yr old and he is killing it in the field.” I wasn’t sure why he mentioned the age of the reps but I assume he was trying to make a reference to age and experience.

He was like “I am 34, and look at me.” Well Leonard I am 37. I am not sure what he was referring to that age some how plays factor. Perhaps he felt empowered being 34 and his teammates were 18. Made me wonder if his dates were younger too.

Leonard then whipped out a scene from shitts creek that had me in held back tears of laughter. He said “have you ever been an independent contractor?” I replied “yes” though I haven’t really I just didn’t want to get into the details. He then said “It’s great I get to write off everything, like I am getting face surgery soon, that’s a write off, it’s great, I can write off my car, my gas, even lunch!” I just paused quietly, I know a bit about that stuff but not enough to look smart. I found it best not to say anything in case I looked dumb. My father taught me that a write off still has to be paid you just don’t have to pay a lot in taxes at the end of the year, it’s not like the government gives you a full reimbursement for your troubles.

Bobby eventually showed up, slightly unaware of my presence, he soon started. He was a bit nervous at first but that might have been an act. I have spent the better part of the last ten years studying Psychopathy (on YouTube) there are a number of channels that analyzes personalities. One person in particular is James Fallon the author of the book Psychopath Inside, the book really sheds light on the topic and breaks it out in a spectrum between homicidal maniacs and lawyers/surgeons.

Here are a few links I recommend to do your own research on;

1) click A doctor studying psychopaths and their traits.

2) click A lawyer Psychopath – she talks about grey rage and the misconception of violence.

3) click James Fallon talks about his own research and revelations.

Back to Bobby, he was interesting, he wore a gold watch that looked expensive, a bracelet and a ring. He talked about his wife a lot who worked in healthcare, his boat, his trailer and new home near a lake. He could just be materialistic or narcissist. Or a focused individual but his sales pitch told a different story.

The interview didn’t go like most do, there was no introduction, no HR behaviour questions, basically this is what we sell, this is who we sell too and this is why we sell to them, oh and it’s a 6day work week because we are 100% commission.

Oh and they kept asking if I wanted a bottle of water, although I needed it, I didn’t feel like taking it, maybe because I have been watching too much Russian history as of late and the whole poisoning everything.

Booby then asked how much money I wanted to make, my response was $84,000 when he asked why, I just responded with “I love that number”. Bobby didn’t care he was just trying to determine my ablution and what drove me to get there.

He then started being hyper focused on the math on how to make that happen and ultimately determining I needed to make 1 sale per day to get there. At 6 days a week, talking to at least 5 customers. But the kicker is it’s mostly farms so that’s a lot of driving.

Booby slipped it out later that the guys stay over night at hotels so I am sure that eats into profits, because the hours are 1pm to 8pm instead of 9-5.

Now I am not saying it’s not a legit company but when I promoted Leonard about his “pushbacks” customers saying why they won’t buy or excuses they make, he opened his binder and tossed a business license at me to show the company was legit. In all my years I have never seen a wrinkled laminated business license kept in someone’s binder. When I looked at it, he mentioned they also have ID badges, I inquired “ID badges?”, he reached into his pocket and tossed a laminated ID badge with dongle at me (slide it across desk).

These guys loved laminated items, their sales collateral were all laminated with cheesy print and colours. No thought into graphic design or appropriate marketing materials. Their website has pixelated graphics that look like someone did the old copy paste method.

During the interview reps kept walking in and out, smiling at Bobby like he was their master and they were puppies looking for a pat in the had for their excellent day of sales.

Bobby spent the 1st 20mins of the interview talking to me about Crypto. I had listed it on my resume and he had just started investing. We chatted about his purchases from 8billion SHIBA INU coins to the usual suspects. I recommend he look into Nexus ASA an Algorand blockchain project.

From there he explained the pay structure in-depth to going through the whole sales pitch, he was good, very good, I would have given him my life savings good you know because he’s a father of four and the rent is coming due 😉

He happened to mention his typical bread and butter were Anglo-Saxons everything except the ethnic peoples of the world. He had mentioned that a lot of the ethnic community wants a discount or a deal of some kind. And usually avoided the mormons and Hutterite’s, they don’t take kindly to outsiders trying to hustle them.

Bobby sat next to me, he went into the documents and broke down how selling works, it’s basically just offering a service and if you sell the most expensive service you get paid the best commission. Everything seems legit but I am certain there is a catch, I have often found with 100% jobs you will most likely take on some kind of debt before you can make good money.

Bobby went so far in his pitch to do a mock hand shake and a slight touch of my arm, it was weird, I am not used to being touched by another man. I think that one might be crossing the line in a sales pitch to a client, it’s that seductive charm that worries me. Bobby was already to sign me up for a day to shadow his team in the field, he wanted me to start the next day, but I already had plans (another interview) so I push the date to the following Wednesday. I could already sense he didn’t like not being in control, yes potentially he would be my employer but it’s important not to submit control to these people.

I think in some way people forget themselves when they take on a job, if you are afraid of being fired all the time it would be hard to do your job, especially if someone is paying you 100% commission you owe them nothing, except you will show up and do the job to the best of your ability.

I made the mistake years ago of being fearful on my manager, of their wrath, these were often in No HR environments. i will never make that mistake again, I am not in a gang and in debt to a gangster. You also should only be loyal to yourself, if it’s not working plan your escape. Go on an interview.

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I just got a text this morning from Leonard exclaiming how excited he is to show me the job, and that he sold two contracts today. I get the feeling these young men are just looking for praise.

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Perhaps I am too cynical, from being scammed over the years, promise the golden goose by conmen who felt like surrogate daddy figures. Or maybe I have gotten old, and able to see through the vail of parlour tricks that work on the simple minded folk.

For the moment I have booked a one hour shadow day to get a briefing on “a day in the life” which I am sure would be entertaining. I will update on that once it happens if it happens.

I just moved my second interview with Leonard to next week I figured it’s an already packed week and need a breather.