Hey everyone,
I wanted to talk about something I've had on my mind for a while. Last year when I stopped working at sea I had a short vacation. Mostly stayed at home at the time and I had a lot going through my head. I wasn't feeling happy at the place I was working and felt like I was destined for something completely different.
That summer I hung out a lot with a friend I met in the army and we partied a lot at the time let’s call him CM to make it easier. One day CM gets a message from his childhood buddy saying that he just starting work at a sales company in Spain. He also told him that there was an opening for a job as a sales agent in the company and that he should come try it out. He got hooked immediately and sent in his CV shortly after. I heard that he received the job a couple of days after that. Now I didn't really know what to do. It felt like I also wanted to do something like that. I knew I hated the climate here so Spain would make a perfect place to live and work.
The city he was moving to looks like this so I obviously got interested myself:
One week after that I sent in my own CV and after a couple of over the phone interviews I finally got the job. Two weeks later I was going to move to Spain.
Moving Day
When the day came I was very excited to say the least. My brother drove me to the bus station from where I left for the airport. It felt really hard saying goodbye to him even though I knew he was going to visit and I would see him again soon.
My flight left early in the morning and it was wonderful to land in beautiful Malaga during noon. I got a ride from the airport to the center by my new boss who I met there for the first time. I was actually expecting someone in his 40’s but was surprised to see a guy that was the same age as me. We talked on the way in and he explained the job and also the product that we would be selling. The product was a lottery and it sounded great. It wasn't the company’s own product, they were only selling it. This guy obviously also was a salesman so he got it to sound really good. I didn't really focus on this until later. I had a lot going on. Had to move into a new place in a new city where I'd never been before and work with new people.
I didn't have to go in for the office the first day so I decided to walk around the city and try to figure it all out. The city is Fuengirola and it's on the Costa del Sol of Spain. It's a real paradise if you like long beaches and sunny days. I walked around for hours and the city was so nice. It wasn't too big but still had the city feel to it. I went into stores and bought stuff I'd need for the week and also tried out the little Spanish I had learned in the short period of time I knew I was moving down.
After that I just went back to the apartment where I was living and waited for my new roommates to come home from work so I could meet them. Here is the view from my apartment balcony:
I loved waking up to this every morning. When they finally arrived I was greeted by two guys about the same age as me and they seemed cool. We sat down, had a few beers and got to talking. We actually had a lot in common and got along great. We drank a couple more beers and after that we called it a night.
And here is the street where my apartment was. Right by the so-called "bar-street". It was the perfect place because there was always loads of people around but you could still sleep at night since I was on the seventh floor.
First day of work
I woke up extra early and jumped in the shower. I was in there for a good while until after about five minutes the water got ice cold. Apparently there you only have a limited amount of hot water and this was not something I was used too. My roommates were not especially happy to find no hot water when they woke up either but we got ourselves ready and left for the office.
On the first day pretty much all I did was introduce myself to the team and also of course to CM who I hadn't seen since he left a month before me. I also met my other boss for the first time and he was also a guy in the same age. I got some papers to read through explaining the goals and rules of the company. I read through it and after that I got my script. I read through it about fifty times before I felt ready to make my first phone call. It went really bad. The customer immediately hated me and didn't want anything from me so he hung up pretty fast. I didn't let that get me down though. I called up my next customer and after that the next. I got my first sale after seven calls. Which I was pretty proud over. After that it just started going off. I did really well and the second week I was already competing for first place on the "score-board" with CM.
Weeks went by and I made good friends with my co-workers. The thing that wouldn’t leave my mind though was that I somehow couldn’t honestly say I fully agreed with my bosses. I had had this feeling for a while and I just couldn’t shake it off. They were just completely different than me somehow. I didn’t think too much about it though since I was doing so well at something I’d never even tried before and also having a great life with my new and old friends in sunny Spain. We also did a lot of company parties and events if we’d reach our monthly goals which was always fun. We decided ourselves what we would do so it was always something great! After a while I started feeling pressure from my bosses to change my style of selling and stay with the script more even though I was doing perfectly fine with in my own way. I just didn’t like their way as much as it kind of grey zoned a lot of areas that I thought the customer had to know. I continued on with my own way anyways and it went well so I guess they stopped caring. Another thing I didn’t agree with was that they fired one of the guys that was there from the very beginning and one of the guys I hung out most with there after about a month. That really sucked and I was so pissed cause it was over something so unnecessary so I was starting to get annoyed at the way they were running the place.
We got the opportunity to call one of the lucky winners of the lottery to congratulate them and the one that made the most sales that day got to make the call. I only got to listen but it was really nice to hear their reaction. If I remember correctly he won about 60,000€ so he didn’t become a millionaire or anything but still a lot of money. So that kind of calmed everyone down and got the mood up a little after the friend got fired.
I had a thing I had to take care of back home after I had been working there for about 4 months so I had to take a week off and fly back. During this week I received a call from my employer telling me that they want to offer me the position of team-leader which would mean that I would have a group of five sales agents that I could train in selling and help them out. I would also receive a small percentage for each sale they made so this basically meant a raise as well if I trained them well. I guessed I was the one to receive the position because I was the only one with any kind of leader experience out of the sales agents which I had received in the military. I flew back and after about two weeks my sales agents got there and we started off with everything the same way I had done when I first started. Now I was happy that I could run a team by selling in the same way I did. They started off and it didn’t really go so well in the beginning since they also of course wanted to make a good impression to my bosses so they did a mix of the script and my way. After a few days my bosses take me in for a talk and tell me that I need to have my agents staying with the script. From this point on my motivation started going down. My agents were doing the only thing I didn’t like about telemarketing and I had to do the same. I tried but my mind just told me that this wouldn’t work in the long run and that this just wasn’t meant for me.
Last Day of Work
I was positive when I went in to tell my bosses I was quitting. They were really shocked and didn’t want me to leave but after talking they said they understood and I would get a great recommendation too. So it ended on good terms even though it sucked it couldn’t work the way I wanted it to.
I had saved up some money and I went to live with some friends I had made while living in Spain. I stayed there for about a month just vacationing and trying to figure out what my next step would be. After that it was time to go back home. The day I flew home I received a message CM telling me that he also quit. He was also gonna come back home. It was mixed feelings at this point. I had fallen in love with Spain and didn’t wanna leave it but I was also very excited to see my family and friends back home.
Here are some pictures I took on the flight home. This one is while we were lifting and the coast looks so beautiful. It's such a long and beautiful beach:
And here is one I snapped of Mont Blanc or atleast that's what the captain said I couldn't tell the difference but it was an incredible sight. So majestic all those mountains. I hope to see them from closer one day.
I learned a lot from this job and I took all the good things with me. I still think about it from time to time but as I see it I have a lot of opportunities and it’s just about finding the right path. I am going to visit that city again one day and when I do I will post here on Steemit showing you the place I used to live! :)
I hope you liked this! I really just wanted to share my experience with telemarketing and also with moving abroad for work with pictures.
I have a verification post coming up and a giveaway will be included so remember to look out for that and remember to follow!
Have a great week everyone.
Peace out, Strawhat