Work as barback through college or sales?

atticusfinch1973 · 2016-05-03T13:49:54+00:00

Can you do both? Both professions are easy to do part time, a couple of days a week. Sales might be a bit tougher because typically it is full time but it depends on the gig. Best of both worlds imo.

Fielder57 · 2016-05-03T14:05:37+00:00

Can't talk for the bar-tending job, But i'm 3 days away from leaving my Sales Job after 4 years. Let me give you some insite.

I've been selling IT equipment for 4 years. High end sales, Either via e-mail, Face to face or phone. It's mostly with an existing client base i cultivated myself, A lot of business meetings, Meals and drinks, But although it's high end for servers and Networking equipment and I work for a distributor I still had to do cold-calling and trade shows to build that list.

Cold-Calling and Trade shows are the Worst. You will face endless rejection. You will call 100 people in a day and be rejected by 99% of them 99% of the time. And you know what? It's awesome. It makes you fearless, It allows you to realise being rejected is not a reflection of you. It makes you unstoppable when it comes to dating. You also learn how to dress, How to act and how to talk shit and get on with anyone.

You are also the kings of the company, Answerable only to management (at least here). If you stop making money the business stops making money. You and your team are the reason everyone else is being paid that day and you are rewarded for it. The number of free meals i have had over 4 years is probably over 500. I've been able to fly over most of Europe all on company dime.

The drawback is the stress, teh fact if you don't pull your weight you don't get paid commission, So having a sick day can mean less pay in your packet. You will have sales targets to hit and when you hit it it's great and you get rich, But when you don't it's shit and you can find your job on the line. It's not always your fault a deal doesn't close but that doesn't matter to management. They don't care. You can loose entire nights sleep over deals that never close and put weeks into work you never get a reward for.

After 4 years in sales, Working my way from pre-sales to a senior sale exec I'm leaving on Thursday to go back to Engineering, Supporting a sales team with my sales and technical background. I made some good money and good experience, But after 4 years I am done with the stress and sleepless nights. I recommend everybody does sales for at least a year. I also recommend everyone realises when it's starting to damage your health and get's out when the time is right as well.

Ranger_Mitch · 2016-05-03T19:49:37+00:00

Bartending for sure. You'll get exposed to every walk of life, learn to talk to everyone, get excellent access to poon, and probably fairly easily be able to work less if you end up with tough courses. Bartending certainly also has sales aspects, but even if you don't learn to sell, getting to know a lot of different people will get you far along the way.

slcjosh · 2016-05-03T19:54:52+00:00

Serving and Bartending is sales. You just aren't sitting in a cube with a shitty suit on. You are doing much more physical work. Take the bar job. You have plenty of time to jam yourself into a cube jockey position when you graduate. 50-70k a year is phenomenal money for someone your age. I'm in my late 20s and I just barely got to that point in my career.

abdada · 2016-05-03T13:49:09+00:00

Both. Abundance.

bicepsblastingstud · 2016-05-03T17:00:57+00:00

so isn't it sales when you make the customer buy a 100$ wine instead of a 40$ wine with their food?

Not really. That won't get you anywhere in a real sales job.

There is one sales job I know of that pays 11$/hr + commission at a shoe store

Getting into B2B (business to business) sales would be much, much better. There's far more room for advancement and a much more upwardly mobile career ladder.

If you want to do B2C (consumer), sell cars or houses, not shoes.

Title	Work as barback through college or sales?
Author	TRPbarback
Upvotes	3
Comments	10
Date	May 3, 2016 1:48 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/4hnbm4/work_as_barback_through_college_or_sales/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/work-as-barback-through-college-or-sales.104900 https://theredarchive.com/post/104900

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