(no subject)

[dchenes]

I've got a moral dilemma. The only job I'm looking likely to get is a job calling alumni and asking them for money. I hate getting calls like that, even though I know the poor person on the other end is a student and has about as much money as I do (aka not much) and is doing this job to be able to afford ramen noodles. So do I want a job in which I make money by annoying people, or should I just keep telling myself "it's income, shut up and earn it"?

The other annoyance about this job is that I have to work at least one weekend day per week, which shoots the plan to spend my birthday weekend in Ann Arbor with my sister all to hell.

On the up side of things, it's not quite a zillion degrees out today, and I was right about the other B I thought I was going to get, so I've got a 3.5 GPA for this year. And my father's bronchitis seems to be getting better.

Comments

[melopoeia.livejournal.com]

well, do you have any other options for money?
can you really live without that job?

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Ugh, telemarketing. It's a given that you will make everyone you call miserable, so unless you think the world needs more misery, I'd say skip it and look for honest work instead.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

The practical approach, if you really are in a desperate position, is to take the job, and keep looking. Either you'll quit when you find something better, or be canned because you don't make quota, but at least you'll have that income.

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

You know, I worked in Alumni fund raising my Senior Year.

It's not all that bad. I never got yelled at, the people at the other end tended to be polite, and I was always liberal with removing people from the mailing list.

The thrust of the call was updating Alumni on events on campus and fundraising wasn't mentioned until the end. The objective was to raise the number of Alumni who donated, regardless of how much they donated. The idea was to get more corporate donations by being able to say "X% of Alumni Donate to the University."

We were even authorized to tell Alumni this if it got them to donate.

That said, if you'll make more money from a Fast Food job, go for it.

[melopoeia.livejournal.com]

I agree with Lizo.
And you're far less likely to get yelled at
doing this than you might think.
I spent my first three months out of college
doing telephone surveying for the CDC, through a private company. Not only did they give us random numbers, but we had to ask people about their children -- it was a toddler vaccination study.
People who have a college education are not likely to say the sorts of things to you that I heard in that job. At the worst, they'll probably say 'Please don't call during dinner', or let their answering machine answer.

And technically, it isn't telemarketing.
Its fundraising. You aren't trying to sell anything. And it IS honest employment.