Src

A relatively long time ago now, almost five months back, I made my 3^rd ever post on steemit. It documented some of my knowledge at the time on the UK fundraising industry and on my experiences as a fundraiser.

If you've never done door to door before, I highly recommend it.

It's most certainly not for everyone as 99% of the time you will be rejected. But it's not all bad, people, despite rejecting you, will be friendly and will often stop for a chat. But if you wanna read more about the sales tactics, the charity sector and the kind of shenanigans that went on at my old place of work, I strongly recommend reading the initial post here.

For this is a story of betrayal and triumph!

So I left my old fundraising job just after I started here on steem. And, unfortunately, that's not because I was earning enough here to go full-time! University changed my timetables around, they pushed all my lessons to the end of the day and I was essentially forced to choose between university and work.

Anyway, three or four months have passed since and I'm now broke. I'm £1000 into my overdraft and I'm living off my credit card right now. I'm at the stage where you just don't check your bank account because you know it'll send you into a spiral of depression.

So, as soon as my year finished at uni, I still sat around unemployed! It was only when I hit my bank's interest-free overdraft limit that I decided it was time to make a change. So, I thought I'd give myself a chance to see what else there is other than fundraising.

After being politely reminded why I became a fundraiser in the first place, I saw an ad, it read:

---

• Sociable, friendly environment
• Immediate start
• £8 - £14.50 an hour
• Work with the UK's biggest charities

---

Baller, it was the company my old employer was in competition with. It was at that point that I reached a moral conundrum.

Do I apply to my old competitors and start a new life on the other side with higher pay and a more selective recruitment process and essentially say fuck you thanks for the experience to my old employers?

Or do I go back to the old place, with the same people (some of which I got very close to), more demands and less pay but guaranteed acceptance?

I'm an ambitious guy, and in general, I won't let guilt or sentimentality get in the way of my own success. The same happened here, why would I limit myself to £7/£10 an hour when I could be getting £8/£14.50?

---

So, after applying, I had a day or two long wait, I thought they weren't gonna get back to me so I contacted who I thought was recruitment manager at the old employer; turns out I messaged the wrong Claire! It worked out in the end though, because just after the wrong Clarie rang me back, the new employer got in touch.

The interview was a piece of piss, I basically used my past experience as a free ticket in there.

The "second stage" of the interview was training. So, if you don't succeed after the training, well you've wasted two days of your life! I knew all the stuff, so I did slack a little bit, I got too cocky and didn't bother learning the pitch properly but I made an effort to socialise.

So, me and "the trainees" as we called ourselves, were outside having a smoke on the second day and we saw a ton of ambulances and police cars just underneath the bridge. Two of us went to investigate, we strode past in a way that the police could probably spot as suspicious to get a sight of what was at the base of the bridge.

A man had jumped from the bridge, missed the water and hit the concrete, there was a ton of blood, it was unsightly, to say the least. The crazy thing is, if he'd jumped 30-50 metres to the side, we would've actually seen him fall from our training room.

Anyway, when it came to finally pitching the big boss, my lack of recent practice put me at a disadvantage. Now that I think about it, he was probably expecting more from me than just the minimum, he was probably expecting better from me.

So, when he sat me down and said
"Listen, I don't think I'd be able to give you the job based on what I've seen."
I knew exactly what to do.

I noticed that he got to this step before the exception handling stage of the training where you learn how to turn a no into a yes, he passed the applicants he liked and didn't want to risk losing. But he didn't turn anyone down, when he said no to my face, he gave me a chance, I knew it was a test of character. Can you convince me to go against my own decision?

Four months of sales experience taught me that you have to know you're going to get it in the end, as long as you believe in yourself and you're determined, you do get what you want.

After I blabbed and used just about every tactic I knew, he realised that my strength wasn't in the pitch, it was in my ability put pressure on people and to change their minds without force or intimidation.

So, he gave me an extra night to learn the pitch to prove that I wanted the place. So, I stayed up till 2 am reciting the pitch in the mirror, recording myself and playing it back, I even phoned my mother and one of the trainees that were recruited to get feedback.

My flatmates likely heard me shouting about the National Autistic Society and yelling "HELLO MATE! HOW ARE YOU?!" for 7 hours, no one asked me if I was alright.

Then I lay in bed till about 5 am worrying, but we don't talk about that.

I got up early that next day and I pitched my heart out. I knew I already had the job, just as long as I didnt fumble it (I didn't, thankfully).

---

So, I start on Monday

He said he'd give me a chance, but I've basically got this in the bag, he's likely unwilling to outright admit that I exception handled my way into his company.

I won't be in debt soon and I might even have some spare capital to direct towards cryptocurrency after shelling out the money for Leeds Fest!

I hope there was a lesson to be learnt here, there probably wasn't because it was just a story about getting a job, but you never know.

---