Got Commission ? ? ?

By Ashley Randazzo

The Phone Call

I received a phone call mid-afternoon one day from a phone number I didn't recognize. I picked up and it was this direct marketing firm trying to get me there for an interview. They told me they found my resume on careerbuilder.com. I got excited and went home for the weekend to explore this exciting and new opportunity, or so I thought it.

Interview Day

Put on my nice new suit, heels and I was off to this interview. Got there pretty early and just chilled out for a few. As soon as I walked in I was handed a clipboard with an application attached. The receptionist asked me to fill it out and attach my resume. O.K., not bad yet. As I was sitting there, the same receptionist was surfing Career Builder and calling random people she found on the site for the same job I was applying for. Same spheel she said to me and everything.

It was my turn for the interview and I went in, sat down, and had a great interview up until the portion where it was my turn to ask the questions. I asked if this was technically a sales job, and my interviewer said yes. Then I absolutley had to ask this undying question in my brain, "Is my compensation a salary or commission?" He replied, "commission." I froze. And he also knew I wasn't pleased, because the next thing he asked me was, "Does something worry you about that?" Of course I said yes. All of a sudden he was telling me something about some selling principle thing where mathmatically I would be making at least $150 a day. He was literally trying to sell me this job. Are you kidding me?!?!? That's what I felt like saying. I just smiled and nodded. I then thanked him for his time, shook his hand, and I went on my way.

The Call

Oh it's not over yet. The gentleman who interviewed me called me around 5:30, a few hours after my interview, and offered me the job. Politely I refused the job and asked him to keep me in mind if something else comes up that's salary based.

The Lesson

ASK IF THE POSITION IS COMMISSION ! ! ! In fact, I just got a call today regarding another "marketing firm" for the same position, "account manager." Go figure! I asked if the position was commission based and the person said that she was unauthorized to give me that information. So I told her, "Well then I'm not authorizing myself to waste my time." I told her to have a nice day and hung up, that was that.

Maria: Slap It Down!

It may sound vulgar, but that’s what my editor told me to do when it comes to my writing—slap it down. Don’t think. Don’t edit. Don’t hesitate. Just slap it down. This new style or approach to my writing made a huge difference. Now I write whatever comes to my head. I don’t write articles based on my notes anymore. I write my articles based on the information from my interviews that goes through the filter of my brain. Try it. The next time you have an assignment, just write down as much as you know.
The other pointer I’ve learned—create an outline. How simple is that?! Well, it took me almost 22 years to realize that’s what people do to get a streamlined, focused story… Looks like I have some work to do in the writing department, but I know that with these new approaches, I will become a stronger writer. Hopefully.

Back it Up! Jillian Milam

As an intern, it is always a great feeling to learn that a recent Request for Information (RFI) I worked on turned into a Request for Proposal (RFP). In other words, if I provide a client with quality information in an RFI response, the client will become interested and ask for more detailed information in an RFP, to help them further in choosing a Clinical Research Company to conduct their proposed trial. In summary, if an RFI turns into an RFP, it is one step closer to winning big business! So, when I learned that we received an RFP from a client we previously submitted an RFI to, I felt satisfied and happy to be part of potential new business growth.

However, as it turned out, the client wanted a detailed listing of our trial experience we claimed to have. We told the client we had 35 trials in their particular therapeutic area of interest; however, we did not keep record of how we came to that number. I realized the seriousness of the situation when I saw that we truly only had 3 relevant trials – not 35. Big difference. The situation was brought to everyone’s attention, including the client, and we handled it as best we could. Yes, we only had 3 directly relevant trials, but we also had 34 indirectly relevant trials that we provided to the client as supplemental information. There were many lessons involved with this situation for me, but the most important was the value of keeping supporting evidence for every single RFI or assignment. This industry values accurate figures and evidence to back those figures up.

Although this obstacle seemed as if it were the “end of the world,” causing me to have sweaty palms and a ridiculously fast heartbeat for the good portion of the day, we overcame it as a team and dealt with it in an honest, straightforward manner.

Much more than I expected

I know I haven’t been very helpful with blogging on this website, but today I have a free moment to gather my thoughts and share.

So, this is my very first (and sadly last) internship ever. I’m a little bit upset that it is my only because I really see the value of internships now that I have one. The one I have now though is probably the best one.

I’m a news reporter for my local newspaper. It’s completely different than I thought it would be and completely different from The Loquitur. What they have given me to do (and they keep me pretty busy) are mainly feature-type news stories and occasionally biz.

I found that at first I was really uptight and scared about going to meet random people in Chester County to interview them. But after I did it for a couple times, I realized that it wasn’t so bad. People were very happy about being in the news and were more than happy to help me out too.

I find that the most rewarding part of being a reporter is when you finish your story. To get in the last sentence of your article in is the best. At first there is slight writer’s block, the lead is always the hardest. But once I start writing it’s awesome. I like to sit back and think, “hey maybe I really can do this.” Without this internship I don’t think that I would have the opportunity to find this out about myself. During my J1 and J2 courses, researching and writing the articles sometimes seemed less than desirable. But I have changed my mind about it. It’s exciting!

As part of something that I have started for my own benefit, I have begun to pull aside people I work with and do mini-interviews. It’s amazing how much you find out about people and where they have come from. Usually they say something like “It just kind of happened and I stuck with it and I love it.” Everyone is also always happy to help me out. I found out that many of the reporters were not even communication majors in college. There were some who were political science, English and even Biology! Crazy how they ended up at a paper.

That’s about all I can think of at the moment. But, I’m definitely happy about what I’m doing.