University

I have been in college for 10 days now. It feels like an eternity though. My last life in Asheville seems like a dream now. My dorm and campus feel like home and I have not had much trouble adapting. College is fun and there is always someone to hang out with and something to do. My roommate, Zach is a great guy. We go to parties together, get food together, do work together, play video games together and many other things. But we don't hang around each other all the time and we are not completely dependent on each other.
I am still in awe of the resources the school has. State has a steam room, Microsoft surfaces, PS3s and 360s with large TVs, fencing, racket ball, super fast fiber-optic internet, pool tables, lounges everywhere, outdoor pools, volleyball courts, grills, and restaurants on campus, just to name a few.

Summer Playlist

What is Oliver listening to this summer?

Here is a recent list of a few of my highest rated and most played songs

"First Contact" This American Life

Hosted by kiwi6.com music upload.Download mp3 - Upload music.

I've had some freetime this summer to do things I wanted to do during school but never had time to do. One fo those things is to listen to the large list of This American Life podcasts. For those that don't know, This American Life is a podcast hosted by Ira Glass (really cool guy) that discusses a different theme every week. The podcasts (also a radio show) are always very captivating. Here is a clip I made from a episode called "First Contact," which is about firsts. By the way, if you have just read this, please play the clip I posted. It's great and amazingly funny. (for those of you who aren't too good with computers or just maybe things in general, click on the triangle to play the clip). PS: it's only a clip that i took from the episode. The clip runs about 15 minutes

My (short lived) Work at Vector Marketing

A few weeks ago I saw an ad on craigslist. It said I could make $13 an hour so I send a generic email with a copy of my resume. Not more than an hour after I sent the email, I got a call from a receptionist saying I could have an interview today, awesome. All I got from her was that I should dress professionally and the location. Before the interview I googled vector marketing but did not get much aside from the site aside from generic phrases that sound like the ones job people would throw out there like "Create your own success," "take a risk, set yourself apart," and "the income opportunity was exciting." But nothing explaining what the actual job entails. I wore a suit to the interview. When I arrived at the location, it was a cheap office building just off of Patton Ave. One thing I noticed was that it looked like it had just been rented out. There was a cheap table, a few cheap chairs, a few office rooms with not much in them, with the one notable item in the main office room being a 50in plasma TV (actually owned by the branch manager who brought it in but plans to use it for himself later).
So, I'm in the office (and yes, most of that was going through my mind at the time). I get an application that is pretty basic and begin to fill it out. Before I could finish, I was called into the interview with Mr. Chris Todd (yes thats what the receptionist referred to him as). Mr. Todd began to ask me some questions that were pretty simple like where my favorite place I travled was (since I put travel as an interest on my uncompleted application). After about three minutes of simple questions, I was told I made it to the 2nd part of the interview and I was put into a room with two other people. The next part of the interview was very intense for me at the time. I believed the job to be legit and took it seriously at the time. Mr. Todd pose questions to the group. He would ask the three of us questions and explain things. I ended up answering the majority of the questions he threw out to the group because I wanted the job. I believed that maybe only one of the three of us would get this great job.

Then, Mr. Todd breaks out knives. But wait - not just any knives, Cutco knives. These are in all honestly good quality kitchen knives. Mr. Todd had us try to cut rope with a regular knife and then with the cutco knife. The Cutco knife cut easier and had a better cut. Then he showed us scissors which he used to cut through a penny. It was pretty impressive. Through out the entire interview I thought it would be so cool to be a salesperson. After the 2nd interview, I went into the 3rd interview. He asked me about a few things he mentioned during the 2nd phase of the interview process then proceded to tell me I got the job. He shook my hand and I was very excited. I thought I had a job that paid $13 an hour.

The truth.... After two hours of interviewing, 16 hours over two days of training, and a fair amount of thought, I decided not to take the job. The "job" is not actually even a job. If hired, you are not a vector marketing employee, you are a "privite contractor" that just happens to do all your work for vector and vector happens to pay you $13 per appointment (or more if you sell enough to get the commission).

To clarify... Vector Marketing is a company that works for Cutco to sell their products. Cutco is a company that sells expensive, yet quality kitchen knives and other accessories.

Few things from the training... training involved sitting in a room for 8 hours a day listening to Mr. Todd talk. Mr. Todd liked to talk a lot about himself. He talked about clemson, visiting europe, facebook, his old boss, his paychecks (which be brought in) and many other personal things. The other bulk of the training consisted reading and re-reading the script. Yes, literally the whole job involves the following: call random people, ask if you can do a demonstration of the knives because you need to meet a fake quota (yes you make up something like "I need to do five more appointments by monday") so the person on the other end of the line feels like you really need to do the appintment, then you tell them they won't need to buy anything and you get paid regardless. If the person decides to schedule a time, you drive to their house, park on the street (it says to in the manuel), show them the knives and hope they buy something, if they don't you call Mr. todd and give the phone to the "customer" and he will give them a "special deal." Do that and you get $13. Other things that are literally in the manuel handbook thing are: knock, don't ring, firm handshake, play with kids and/or pets, ask for a glass of water ( you do this because it supposedly changes you from a salesperson to a personal guest in the person's house), make sure the customer starts the appointment, and the list goes on...

Why they suck... You don't actually make an hourly wage. You get paid per appointment but it can take you an hour to set up the appointment and an hour of driving (plus you pay for your own gas and car expenses). You don't actually use your own sales skills, you literally read a manuel to the person who you are trying to sell the knives to. You have to read that you are "new" and that you need to read word for word the manuel to sell the knives as part of "training" (it's not training, its the work). The real training is unpaid and before you can start work, you need to do about 20 hours of it. Vector essentially uses you (they ONLY hire recent high school graduates and college kids) to make more money and everyone that applies for the job gets it. You are required to attend a weekly meeting to discuss sales that is unpaid. You do work for vector but don't work for them, they just use the "private contractor" scheme to avoid paying payroll taxes.

PS: the picture of the guy in the orange clemson shirt is mr. Todd, the branch manager.