Gradually degenerating into ignorance and complacency.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

What I got

I did get some very useful information on money, how it works, how people get paid (including comissions which can be steep). The intersting bit, I never heard was the rule of 72.+ Another point I found was "importance of presentation".

The Indy opportunity head person stated that he felt communication and presentation were critical, more than prior knowledge of business and laws. He would train people for that. I thought it was a bunch of lines strong together that sounded pretty sinister++ I thought later about it and recylcing my experience in my mind I got this general impression:

The conference room was a small, ten person room. The white board was still smudged with some wall smudges as well. The training TV hooked to video unit (VCR/DVD) was on a composite/RCA with one jack not used (not stereo input) on small screen TV. Since this was a business that handled $4 billion in assets and the branch itself was in the top ten performers, this little bit was incongruent. I then thought about the general size of the office, NY apartment with narrow hallways and some small rooms, roughly decorated. While I didn't get the impression of unclean ... I also didn't get the impression of professional and "been there for years". The local was a small office in a remote building on a "cheaper lease" campus near Castleton. The head person's lax in speech didn't convey professionalism.
Today, the rep from Michigan wore a tie, but no jacket and was stuttering a little and had a really boring approach to selling the idea, using what looked like printouts from a powerpoint presentation. He stumbled a bit on his own language and jargon. His parting comment told me more than all the time we spent. As I declared that I was not going to dislose the name of any person (prospective clients), he asked if I knew anyone who would be suited and interested in the job he was offering to me.

Indeed presentation is very important and during today's "interview" as it were, I found myself drawn away from the guy and gave MANY non-verbal clues that he had long-since lost my interest. At one point I even tessed the waitress (server) in his mid-sentence. I have two up-coming interviews and a third possiblity in Philly, though there isn't a hurry on that.

+It's not nearly as difficult as "The Eiddle of Stel", Conan the Barbarian
++ paraphrased from Pulp Fiction

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