by Carol Dunn

Created on: December 07, 2011   Last Updated: December 08, 2011

When you graduate from college, unless you have served well in an internship, you are not really suited to any “professional” job.  At this point, you’re an amateur, not a professional.  The jobs that are out there beckoning amateurs are jobs in the service/hospitality industry or in sales. 

The best thing you can do right out of college is take a job in sales, especially telemarketing.  That’s not because it pays so well at first, or because you will love the work – it’s because you will suddenly have clarity about what you do NOT want to do for the rest of your life.  Knowing you are fresh and moldable (“Ahh, a new victim. . .”), sales managers will use you up like a two-liter bottle of pop and have no regrets.  Some sales jobs are commission only, and this might include a “draw” on future earnings.  A good manager can paint the brightest picture about your earnings potential.  But face it, if they thought you were going to set a new company record for sales, they would put you on salary and reap the rewards.  Instead, a draw system tells you they have no idea how you’ll work out, but they would rather have YOU owing them money than THEM owing you money.  Any commission system requires quick learning, some degree of script memorization (“Now sound like you MEAN it . . . “) and an unflappable demeanor.  You may have nine hang-ups for every person who will be willing to talk to you and answer the question, “How are YOU today?”  And maybe ninety of those will hang up before someone actually BUYS something from you.    

A sales manager may ask you to work nights and weekends, because, frankly, no one else wants to.  Then, the most disastrous thing of all, your schedule will cause you to miss your favorite TV shows.  To clarify, they can’t FORCE you to work more than 40 hours a week without paying overtime (not legally anyway).  But they can require you to develop your own leads.  Or they can shame you into putting in a “little” extra time voluntarily to improve your performance.  Unless you are born to sales – and few people straight out of college feel that they are – then entry-level sales jobs are the pits.

Another great job straight out of college is waiting tables.  You will know within a few hours if you were meant to serve others day in and day out, seven days a week.  Thirty years ago, waiting tables was a thankless job for most, but it’s gotten even worse over the years.  If you lack a servant’s heart, this job will wear you to a frazzle and cause smoke to come out of your ears.  Oh sure, there will be nice customers once in a while – people who actually appreciate the service.  But then you’ll also have the ones who tear a dollar bill in half and only leave one half as a tip.  You’ll have a guy who asks you, “Don’t you think this celery should have been washed before it was put on the salad bar?”  How do you answer that?  You may have managers who will show up on your doorstep to ask you to work someone else’s shift because they were too drunk to come to work.  There are very few people who are blessed with the temperament to withstand this day after day, and even thrive.  You’ll find out very quickly if you’re one of them.  And then you can set your sights on the job you’re really suited for.

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