Working in Australia
I’m currently about four months into my working holiday visa in Australia and it’s been rough, but I’ve been able to try on several jobs in a very short amount of time. It’s both overwhelming and exciting to have so much opportunity readily available and the freedom to explore different industries. I’ll start with the two that didn’t work out.
The first job was door-knocking for a food delivery service.
Liked: The product. I truly believe it’s a fun, easy, cost effective way to eat some of your meals for the week, especially when the discounts are factored in. The person gets a box of fresh ingredients and recipes to make them. Each meal comes out to about $5. If I had stuck around long enough, I would have gotten a free box every week.
Hated: It’s essentially a 12-hour day, 5 days a week, for commission only after the first two weeks. Each sale earns you $100 so the goal is to make at least 2-3 sales per day, uncapped earning potential. Cool. But let’s crunch the numbers: IF I make the sales goals and divide that by a 50-hour work week (I won’t count the commute to the office), I’m making about $20-30 per hour. It’s not bad money…but at what price?
Because it’s only commission, they have no incentive to respect my time.
We get to the office and they give us a bit of a pep talk/ sales training. Then we hit the road around 11a. We all pile into a van and drive for about an hour into the suburbs of Melbourne. The van smells like feet, rotting produce and it’s a garbage dump on the floor. And…PENISES.
Look, most of you know the words prude, conservative and easily abashed are NOT words used to describe my personality. That being said: There were pictures of nude men with their penises either tied in straps, firmly held with veins throbbing or mid helicopter with “inspirational puns”, the kind you would find on a motivational poster. Ok...I get what you’re going for…but geez idk…it felt…what’s the word…unprofessional. God I’m getting old. Back in my day…Lol
As we get closer to the location, we stop at a grocery store and buy some food for lunch. I found this to be hilarious because of its hypocrisy. During our sales pitch, we’re supposed to show how our meal service is higher quality and more cost effective than going to the grocery store. Yet, they were dropping their sales people at the grocery store to get food for the day.
Each person is given a map and dropped off at a territory, which is basically a neighborhood. Then they knock on doors from about 12-6. Since it was my first day, they put me with a trainer to knock a few doors with me so I could see how it’s done. Up until this point, I had two hours of sales training with a manager the day before. When 2pm came, my trainer said, “You’re doing really great! I’m going to my territory now.” And she left. I found out later, trainers don’t get extra pay or perks for traning the newbies.
There I was: in the middle of an empty street, in an unfamiliar neighborhood an hour from the city, freezing my ass off because it was COLD AF. And I had to go around this neighborhood knocking on people doors for the next 4 hours, trying to convince them they needed this meal box. And for 90% of the time, no one would be home until the evening.
Within ten minutes of being alone, I was already searching for another job. And I got it!
The second job was fundraising.
Liked: I loved a lot of things about this job except for the job itself. I saw the ad in a Melbourne jobs Facebook group, $24 per hour plus uncapped commission potential. Talked to the recruiter, Cait-gosh, I love this lady. We hit it off right away, two happy bubbles. She scheduled me for an interview, then called me back a few mins later saying, “Hey, I have a really good feeling about you just from talking you. Would you be alright if I started you on the next phase for the practical interview tomorrow?” I was thrilled.
The office was buzzing and bright, with dogs at the reception desk! Cait is just as sweet and shiny in person. She teaches pole dancing and her husband Dave practices jiujitsu. He was my interviewer for the day. We went into the field and I had fun doing the tasks- it felt like a scavenger hunt 😊
I learned so much from having this job. It is harder to ask for something than it is to give something. Always be closing. Give, Ask, Give. Talk to them like you don’t care about the outcome. Let it go. etc.
I felt like everyone I talked to was completely annoyed by my existence…it was a grind. My coworkers were the best and some of them have been doing it for years. Dave told me: You need to have a thick skin and a warm heart.
“There are 36 million blind people in the world. 90 percent of them live in third world countries, which is essentially a death sentence. 60% of children will die within the first year of becoming blind.”
It all became numbers and I needed to make people care. My team leader Sam took tons of extra time to give me extra training. If I remain coachable and do what they tell me, I can do this.
I didn’t want to waste their time or money because by costing the company money, I cost the charity money. There are so many jobs that can feel like “sticking it to the man” if they don’t treat you well. But this company does treat its people well. We all want to succeed in this job, because it helps people.
So the consequences for not being good as a fundraiser means I’m costing someone money to see. O_o
End of the day, I was a terrible fundraiser. I don’t have a problem going up to people and talking to them, but the job wore me down…
Hated: Stopping people who clearly didn’t want to be stopped, having them walk right by, staying positive for 8 hours, learning/ practicing/ honing skills at a rapid pace with no tangible improvement (sales), trying to be relaxed and convincing people to commit to $25 every month for at least two years…within the span of a few minute conversation…and that’s IF they stopped to talk to me.
It was Friday morning of my first week and I had only made one sale that week when people are expected to make about three every day. I broke down crying at the booth because the stress and the failure broke me. Dave and I mutually agreed it just wasn’t for me and we left on good terms.
I firmly believe most experience is good experience even if it’s bad, because that’s how we learn. Thankfully, I learned what I absolutely did not want to do with my time which helped me find the jobs I currently have.
*names changed for privacy