Sales isn’t for everyone, but I thought I’d give it a shot. Money was tight and I had promised myself that I would not take another job outside of my home. So, when I saw the ad for a work at home telemarketer, a work at home job after two weeks of training in Atlanta, I was more than thrilled. The work at home telemarketer job carried an hourly pay and benefits after a few months. Not only had I found a work at home job, but I had found a stable work at home job. Although I was not thrilled that it was a telemarketing job, I couldn’t wait to apply. Needless to say, I got the job. I didn’t have previous telemarketing experience in sales but I did have experience as a customer service representative and I had a job calling graduates from my alma mater, asking for money to support the university. I had experience telemarketing. I knew that it was somewhat unpleasant to call people at various times during the evening, asking for donations. I didn’t know that the work at home telemarketer job was going to traumatize me!

I went through the training and was scared to death when they put me on a live call on the first or second day. I remember that there was a lot of information to remember, but basically, I read a script and called someone else to clase the sale. We had a list of questions that people may ask and rebuttals for most questions or comments. Since I was a telecommuter, I had to bring my computer in to the office, and software was downloaded on it. The software enabled me to see essentially the same screen as what other workers saw in the office. Phone calls were also routed to my home phone. After I ended each a call, I clicked a link on the computer, indicating that I was available. In essence, the job sounds easy and fun, but I had to deal with adults cursing me out, little children cursing me out, people using a blow horn or a whistle or something to make loud noises in the phone, people putting the phone down and not responding at all to me, and elderly people who could not understand what in the world they were signing up for! I couldn’t respond to rude comments because supervisors listened in on the calls.

The people were so rude that I began to look at people in the grocery store and imagine how they would answer if I called peddling my wares on the phone during their dinner. I began to think that people were basically mean and obnoxious, and I knew that was against my personal believe system so I had to quit. To this day, I hate the thought of telemarketing for outbound sales. Some people are great at it. I was awful.

Remember that eventhough you may desperately need the work and you are working at home, some work at home jobs are just not as perfect as they appear.