In the past year, I had the opportunity to work for a start-up company called Job Machine as a customer service representative. The company works with schools that have programs/boot camps for veterans to teach them skills to get jobs in the IT field. While in the programs the veterans get enrolled with Job Machine and we assist them with getting a job. Our role as a company is to apply to jobs for them, follow up with companies about applications, and set up interviews for candidates. Personally my responsibility for the company was to call candidates and check in on how their job search is going. I would make money off of every time I connected on the phone with a candidate, every interview I learned they had, every job offer they received, and if I learned they signed a job offer. Ultimately, Job Machine would only make money off of every signed job offer they received for a job we applied that candidate for. While this was not a sales role there were many aspects of the job that were sales oriented. With the fact that I was making money off of every call that was answered, I had to make it so that every time I connected with a candidate I was being helpful for their experience with Job Machine so they would continue to answer the phone when we called. Selling them on the importance of my calls ultimately helped them in their job search and helped me earn money. Another problem I had with calling candidates was that some of them didn’t see Job Machine as a valuable tool to them and they were simply doing the job search themselves. When contacting these types of people I had to explain to them how Job Machine would help them get a job and explain to them certain features that make it so we apply to the jobs for them. This aspect was very beneficial in achieving the end goal of getting the person a job and getting paid. Through this job I learned that trust is the most important part of sales. When I was transparent with candidates about what we did they were more receptive and used the site more. On the other hand when I was new and couldn’t properly explain things or answer question I did not have success with repeat calls on clients. Truly helping people with their problems, which builds trust was the most important selling part of working this job.
andersonsa22 
riehljb21 
trischlerba23
This seems like a really cool experience. While it might not have been a direct sales job, you definitely were using sales skills. It seems like you learned a lot through that job that will be beneficial to other parts of your life.
Job Machine sounds like it could make you some serious money. I should look into getting involved with that site. Nonetheless, very exciting post Andrew! It sounds like you have to use a lot of sales skills.
Andrew! This sounds like a great experience. I think that Job Machine is a very good tool for getting started in sales and potentially pivoting to a larger sales-based company. I look forward to further hearing about Job Machine.
Working for Job Machine sounds like a really interesting experience. It’s cool how you helped veterans find jobs and the way you made money based on your success with candidates. I can see how balancing between sales and customer service must have been hard, especially when some candidates didn’t see the value in the service at first. I agree that trust is very important in sales. It’s cool that you figured out that being transparent and genuinely helping people made them more likely to work with you. It sounds like you learned a lot about communication and persistence in this job. Have you found that these skills helped you outside of work too?