I was 17 years old and fresh out of high school. It seems so very long ago now. I had just quit my job at a local casual dining place and was looking for something new and exciting that could usher me into untold riches as I started college. What I found was something so unexpected I doubt I will ever forget the lessons I learned.

I saw an ad in the paper for a marketing consultant. They stated it was “inside marketing” work and that I should come in and apply and be prepared for an interview that same day. I know now that if it seems too good to be true, it is probably a scam. I didn’t know that then. To me, the prospect of working in marketing (you need a college degree for that!) with no experience required and to get paid up to (catch that? UP TO!) $50,000 a year right out of high school was amazing. Heck, it was great!

So I call to get directions. A young lady answers the phone with “Marketing, how can I help you?.” When I ask about the job she is evasive. She says I should just come on in and meet with the manager – he knows more about the job than she does. She neglects to even mention the name of the company. So, I head on over.

When I arrive there are four other guys filling out applications. We are called back, one at a time, and offered the job. No questions are allowed. We are told we will find out about the job on Monday. We should show up in casual attire and good walking shoes. I never even think twice.

Monday comes around and I show up ready and excited for my new job. I meet with Nick, my new team lead. He tells me about how this company changed his life. How he has been promised that he will own his own company in five years. He dropped out of college and never regrets it. This is great. I’m not invited to the “team meeting” upstairs. None of the new folks are. We are ushered out to the waiting vehicles and given our teams. Turns out, this isn’t inside marketing at all. It is outside sales – door to door sales.

The first day I am taken about 90 miles away from home to this small town in the middle of nowhere. I watch the salesman go from business to business selling glass chessboards, dolls, books, and trinkets. Twelve hours in the hot sun and then we head back. During the drive back, Nick starts his sales pitch about how he thinks we’ll be great (I’m out with another newb) but hey, if we can’t cut it there are plenty of other folks that want this job today!

It will be several weeks before I realize that Nick just used the same sales pitch on me that he taught me to use on unsuspecting customers.

As we drive back to the office, we are “quizzed” on the company standards. Our acronyms, our mottoes, our chants (more on the chants, yes chants, later). We are asked to repeat things “to make sure we will pass the test.”

When we arrive back to the office, we participate in the mandatory “social time” that occurs for one hour in the lobby every night. I noticed one guy, Terry, get walked outside when he mentioned he didn’t make much money that day. He sounded down. He was immediately whisked outside. Nick assured me he wasn’t in trouble, they just wanted to make sure he was ok and he didn’t “bring down the group.”

I never once questioned why there was not test when we got back.