I’ve written posts about it, I always talk about it, and if you don’t know by now then honestly you clearly haven’t been a long term reader. Well all jokes aside, in my stupid youth (it was only two years ago, but I’m sticking with the youth phrase) I worked a door to door sales job for a little over a year. The job was horrific, my manager was a disgusting bully and generally my mental health was at its worst – but I did learn a lot doing the job and in all honesty I wouldn’t be who I am today if I didn’t do it.
With bad jobs come a lot of good experiences, and I thought I’d spread some positive things I learnt on the job.
- The friends you make in a really shit/toxic work environment are life long friends, they’re basically family. We had all seen each other in our darkest moments as the job coincided with a lot of personal stuff for all of us, and we still stuck together.
- Working 12+ hour days humbles your soul in a very weird way.
- Not everyone is a dickhead – Yeh I know it’s shocking but honestly some people and customers were so nice that it would genuinely make my day.
- People will feed you when you’re out on the field and honestly you should never say no to the food.
- A little competitiveness is good for you.
- Standing your ground in a toxic environment will make you tap into strength you didn’t know you had.
- Set goals, otherwise you’re aimlessly going through life without knowing what you want to do.
- The goals don’t have to be big, if anything it’s better to break them up so it’s actually dooable.
- Make friends on the field with people you’re pitching, you never know who you’ll meet out there.
- If you can work a job which has you walking for 8 hours in British weather, you can overcome anything.
