Adcadet
Storage Freak
Sometime during my second year medical school I ran across another student in another program who told me that he worked with a publisher who have him review stuff, which was pretty easy and he could then sell the books online. He gave me his contact's email address, who seemed happy to have me review some books. Shortly thereafter I got a nice textbook as a gift, and a book to review. I liked the book well enough, did a review which seemed appreciated, and then turned around and sold the book online for some easy cash. I thought this was pretty slick, so I contacted some other publishers who were happy to do the same. Soon I had steady stream of books to review which filled out my book collection nicely and also generated a steady stream of income from selling the ones I didn't want to keep.
After a while, I realized that I could do the same with PDA software. So I contacted a number of companies, and to my surprise, a few were interested in getting my feedback and just having me tell my classmates about what I thought was good software. So I got a bunch of free software that way. One in particular was pretty receptive, and from some stuff I did before school, I really believed in this company and their software product. Whenever their sales reps were in town, we'd sit down and talk about the product, where it was going, and how they could sell to students. Since I was getting some expensive software for free, and since I really liked this company, I was happy to do so. About a year later they approached me about actually working for them on sales since they were pretty new to this market market and wanted to raise awareness of their product. At first I was hesitant as I didn't want to do sales work, but after talking with various people in the company I thought it wouldn't be so bad, and they were happy to accommodate various requests I had to ensure that they couldn't use me to dick over anybody. We agreed on an hourly wage that I would be more than happy to work at, and some sales bonuses which they insisted on. I really wanted to be straight wage as I didn't like basing my compensation on sales, but it seems they wanted to pay me less hourly to protect themselves in case I was a total bum and everybody in the sales area is paid partially on sales. And the hourly wage was good enough for me even without any sales. Since they agreed to my other stipulations, I agreed.
For the first 6 months or so, things were pretty awkward. Neither my immediate boss nor I really knew what we were doing. I put in my hours, usually between 5 and 10 hours/week, and tried to set some things up. Many of the original things we had planned on doing never got off the ground. Most of the things I did just didn't work. So far the number of sales I've brought to the company has been pretty minimal. They don't seem to mind, because they're so new to the market. And I can't say I'm too broken up about it, as I figure students will use the product if they like it and see the value, and I don't want to pressure anybody to buy something they don't want. Maybe I'm too gentle of a sales person.
What I'm doing is pretty boring. I mean, it's actually work! I've been lucky in that most of my other jobs have been fun, or at least significant parts of them have been really fun. So as my old strategies have been failing, I've been loosing interest and struggling to put in hours.
The company has recently adopted a new strategy for targeting students, and I think in the long run it will work great. With this new system, students get access to the program online for free, with an option of purchasing the PDA version for a pretty low price. It's a great deal for students all around. My trick now is to just figure out how to mesh what I'm doing with this new strategy. In some ways it should be easier, as their new approach is actually a great deal for students even if they never buy the PDA version. But now not only have I lost my enthusiasm for the job as a whole, but now I have to figure out how to meld what I've been doing and can do with this new system. You would think the impending house payments would be a huge motivating factor, but so far they just aren't. Strangely, I don't seem to be very motivated by money, even thought I do worry about making ends meet for the next few years. I want to continue doing this in the near future as the money is good, I guess the work really isn't that hard, and they're very flexible with regards to my schedule. The company seems fine with me staying on. And since I'm graduating, I suppose I could approach them about giving me a raise, but it just doesn't seem right as I don't think I've really proven myself worthy of what I make already.
"Meh" seems like an appropriate synopsis of what it's been like so far.
Any of you guys gone through this sort of thing? Any tips on how to manage life as a consultant in a changing environment?
After a while, I realized that I could do the same with PDA software. So I contacted a number of companies, and to my surprise, a few were interested in getting my feedback and just having me tell my classmates about what I thought was good software. So I got a bunch of free software that way. One in particular was pretty receptive, and from some stuff I did before school, I really believed in this company and their software product. Whenever their sales reps were in town, we'd sit down and talk about the product, where it was going, and how they could sell to students. Since I was getting some expensive software for free, and since I really liked this company, I was happy to do so. About a year later they approached me about actually working for them on sales since they were pretty new to this market market and wanted to raise awareness of their product. At first I was hesitant as I didn't want to do sales work, but after talking with various people in the company I thought it wouldn't be so bad, and they were happy to accommodate various requests I had to ensure that they couldn't use me to dick over anybody. We agreed on an hourly wage that I would be more than happy to work at, and some sales bonuses which they insisted on. I really wanted to be straight wage as I didn't like basing my compensation on sales, but it seems they wanted to pay me less hourly to protect themselves in case I was a total bum and everybody in the sales area is paid partially on sales. And the hourly wage was good enough for me even without any sales. Since they agreed to my other stipulations, I agreed.
For the first 6 months or so, things were pretty awkward. Neither my immediate boss nor I really knew what we were doing. I put in my hours, usually between 5 and 10 hours/week, and tried to set some things up. Many of the original things we had planned on doing never got off the ground. Most of the things I did just didn't work. So far the number of sales I've brought to the company has been pretty minimal. They don't seem to mind, because they're so new to the market. And I can't say I'm too broken up about it, as I figure students will use the product if they like it and see the value, and I don't want to pressure anybody to buy something they don't want. Maybe I'm too gentle of a sales person.
What I'm doing is pretty boring. I mean, it's actually work! I've been lucky in that most of my other jobs have been fun, or at least significant parts of them have been really fun. So as my old strategies have been failing, I've been loosing interest and struggling to put in hours.
The company has recently adopted a new strategy for targeting students, and I think in the long run it will work great. With this new system, students get access to the program online for free, with an option of purchasing the PDA version for a pretty low price. It's a great deal for students all around. My trick now is to just figure out how to mesh what I'm doing with this new strategy. In some ways it should be easier, as their new approach is actually a great deal for students even if they never buy the PDA version. But now not only have I lost my enthusiasm for the job as a whole, but now I have to figure out how to meld what I've been doing and can do with this new system. You would think the impending house payments would be a huge motivating factor, but so far they just aren't. Strangely, I don't seem to be very motivated by money, even thought I do worry about making ends meet for the next few years. I want to continue doing this in the near future as the money is good, I guess the work really isn't that hard, and they're very flexible with regards to my schedule. The company seems fine with me staying on. And since I'm graduating, I suppose I could approach them about giving me a raise, but it just doesn't seem right as I don't think I've really proven myself worthy of what I make already.
"Meh" seems like an appropriate synopsis of what it's been like so far.
Any of you guys gone through this sort of thing? Any tips on how to manage life as a consultant in a changing environment?
