Wanna buy a $20,000 car or a $20 lamp?

September 14, 2015 7:32 PM

Which job would be better for someone who would like to keep their sanity: working as a car salesperson or working at a retail chain store?

I have interviewed at two different places and need to choose one job. I was hired pretty much on the spot at a car dealership. I panicked (do I really want to sell cars?!) and applied to work for a retail chain that sells rugs/lamps/stationery/wine/jewelry/coffee/etc.

Now, the car sales job would pay well and I would have benefits. The retail sales job wouldn't pay that well and I wouldn't have insurance--but I also wouldn't have the stress that is associated with selling cars.

About me: I am a petite, late-30s woman (I pass for about 10-15 years younger). I have back problems, so working crazy long hours could be painful.

Would it make more sense to sell the $20,000 item and hope for some sweet commission or sell the $20 lamp and go home at the end of your shift? I really want the car sales paycheck, but I'm afraid if I don't make my numbers I'll get the boot!

I have already read the article written by the undercover Edmunds reporter. I also listened to the This American Life episode about selling cars. My takeaway: selling cars is rough!

posted by pea_shoot to Work & Money (23 answers total)

The car sales job will pay well if you have mucho hustle, tons of it, and are prepared to elbow men out of your way to get to customers - the customers who are willing to buy from a woman. I have a friend who tried it for a few months, and she had excellent hustle, and it was just a beating every single day.

And I'm really surprised they offer benefits, so you might get some details before you decide that's actually a plus.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:36 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

if you can get a job selling lamps at a moment's panic, why not take the car job and then, if it doesn't work out, apply for selling lamps or similar, again. it doesn't sound like you have much of a problem getting job offers.
posted by andrewcooke at 7:36 PM on September 14, 2015 [12 favorites]

Working on commission is brutal emotionally, especially if you're selling high priced stuff like cars. Unless you enjoy getting people to part with more money than they really want to spend on something they need, I'd go the retail route.
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:45 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Why not look at it as an experiment?

Take the car job for a test drive. Enjoy the benefits of the (health) benefits and see what you can learn from the job. If you don't like it, you'll have had X number of months of health benefits, a salary and potential commission, you'll meet some interesting people, learn about cars, and you likely won't be asked to lift or carry anything heavy (as you might at a retail job). If it turns out to be a lemon, you can almost certainly get a retail sales job later on. Or any other kind of job.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 7:50 PM on September 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

Car sales is a super stressful job.
posted by J. Wilson at 7:52 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Which job would be better for someone who would like to keep their sanity: working as a car salesperson or working at a retail chain store?

my feeling is that this is one of those questions that answers itself. if you are the type of person to ask this question on Mefi, you are not right for a car salesman job.
posted by jayder at 8:11 PM on September 14, 2015 [10 favorites]

Car sales is still one of the more entrenched bastions of chauvinism, so you could find yourself in the middle of a boys club.

Also, look closely at the benefits. A lot of companies have health benefits that don't actually kick-in until you've been working for several months.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:12 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Of the two i would say: neither.
Waiting tables. Just as much skill/experience needed (as retail), pays a lot better.
posted by sexyrobot at 8:16 PM on September 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

Edmunds hired a writer to work undercover at a dealership and he wrote a tell all on the car sales business. It's an interesting read and I recommend it as a glimpse of what to expect from that line of work at least at a high pressure competitive dealership. I say this because my father-in-law worked most of his adult life at car dealerships in sales and loved it. Totally well adjusted guy and the friendly fellow you'd ever meet. A big difference of course is that the dealership he worked for was in a small town and for a slightly specialty product (Jeep). Basically if you wanted a Jeep it was the only place to buy one for 90 minutes in most directions.
posted by mmascolino at 8:17 PM on September 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think you'd have to learn sales techniques, but maybe you'll surprise yourself. I bet a lot of other petite (and not-petite) women who want to buy cars wouldn't mind working with someone who isn't automatically directing her attention to whichever man they might have felt they had to bring along. If you get the boot, you can probably get another retail job.
posted by cotton dress sock at 8:18 PM on September 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

I was going to recommend the This American Life (Cars Episode) so I'm glad you listened already. Also, I remember distinctly in the TAM episode how they DID work long hours, often staying late to complete a sale, especially during crunch time.

I personally would go for the low-stress job while looking for something better (office admin or something.) There's a wide range of lower-stress, better paying jobs between those two extremes. You can always start the job and not continue though if you need an income now.
posted by Crystalinne at 8:36 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Behind the scenes, there will absolutely be a douchebag car sales culture at the dealership. Carve that into stone.

If you can survive that AND be even a little bit smart about sales, you could make a shit-ton of money.

Seriously, most of these guys are dumb fuckers. If you can handle being side-by-side with them, competing with them, dealing with them on a moment-to-moment basis, the world is your oyster.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:36 PM on September 14, 2015

It sounds like you have two mediocre options. Take the less stressful one for now, and keep looking.
posted by Miko at 8:39 PM on September 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Waiting tables. Just as much skill/experience needed (as retail), pays a lot better.

To expand on this suggestion, i'd rather barback at a place, even a divey place, where they hired bartenders from within.

Even barbacks make decent money, and bartenders at reasonably busy places, even if they're cheap, make bank. Like, you could make as much money as a car salesman no problem as a bartender, and there's no "hot season" or "slow season" for being a bartender; people want to get drunk all year round.

The only real problem is that people get stuck in it because if you're competent at all it pays so good. If you go to school and get out, your entry level Career Job will be paying way less than you made as a bartender.
posted by emptythought at 10:05 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I spent a year working in a furniture store while I figured out my life. I stayed friends with many of my co-workers for years (still connected with some on Facebook). It was boring sometimes, and I wasn't crazy about working on commission, but it was a great way to give myself some low-stress breathing room.
posted by bighappyhairydog at 10:17 PM on September 14, 2015

Car dealer, no question. You could build a whole personal brand around selling cars to women (which male car dealers are typically bad at). You could network, advertise, get really good at upselling. Even if it sucks, it's like a thousand times better than mall retail where you are just an interchangeable cog.
posted by miyabo at 10:34 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Jesus flying horseballs working at a retail chain is awful and I cannot imagine how a car dealership could possibly be worse. I believe Cool Papa Bell about the douchebag culture but retail has its own douchebag culture: the doublespeak and disregard of management and the profound pettiness endemic in low-wage workforces. Also you'll have to deal with the stress of not getting a schedule sometimes until the night before you start your week, of clopening, and of dealing with the general public.
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:57 AM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is one of those typical questions where most people tell you what they would do rather than what you should do. It it were me, I’d try selling cars and if that didn’t work out, move on to something else.

But seconding jayder, if you feel the need to ask for directions on AskMeFi, it means you’re probably not cut for a fiercely competitive environment, so you should go the retail route.
posted by Kwadeng at 1:38 AM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My work mentor who's a very kind and successful woman gave me this framework, which I've found useful.

* Choose the thing that stretches you and your skills in a new way, even if it's scary. This sets you up for a better career later on, and regardless of that you avoid stagnation and get the psychological reward of having tried something new.

* Be absolutely upfront with yourself about all the ways your choice is going to suck. Doing this now means you won't have a moment of despair and disappointment later on. Plus having a clear picture of all the challenges you'll face helps you start brainstorming solutions in the back of your mind.

* Have a backup plan. In case your attempt to stretch yourself turns out to be too challenging to take on right now, how will you get out of it? Knowing this makes the change less scary. You can also have a plan for what you want to do next - e.g., I'll do this for a year and then apply for a better job.

* Take the career path that provides more opportunity. This one is a bit vague, but sometimes opportunity is a bit hidden. It's not usually the thing that everyone else is doing - it'll be a thing that you're uniquely suited to where there's a real need. Doing this lets you stand out from the crowd, and companies can more easily see how valuable you are to them.

Also, reading these back it sounds like these tips are just about maximizing your career, but I've found that they've made me happier as well because they maximize your own effectiveness which psychologically just feels good, they put you in a position to play to your strengths and the things you like doing, and set you up for more life stability in general by giving you more valuable career assets.

P.S. If I were you I'd take the car dealership role for a short time and then move into something else. But you should make your own decision.
posted by hyperion at 5:46 AM on September 15, 2015 [11 favorites]

Best answer: It would really depend on the dealership, and some things that I don't know about you.

Anecdata - I have a friend (female) who worked at a Honda dealership here (small/medium market, in the SE US). She seems to have made good money, frequently beat all the men (she was generally the only woman) on the leaderboard, etc.

And from the day she started to the day she left (several years later, to help her husband with his business), she got respect from some but got a lot of guff from others. A lot of her war stories revolve around making a good sale from a prospect who landed on the lot in old clothes or an old car and pushed into helping "that" customer because the others figured that one would be a waste of time. No matter how long she was there, no matter her track record, some of the guys never respected her because: female selling cars.

I'm of the school of thought that you will always have someone at work that doesn't like you, and all workplaces have at least a little toxic element to them, so you have to decide how bad this bothers you.

The fact that this dealership has enthusiastically greeted the prospect of having you work there is a good sign, and God knows women are important buyers in the car industry. I've noticed the faux salespeople in TV commercials, especially in import brands, are depicted as being women. I think it's a stereotype that they're trying to break.

(aside: as a dude who has done a lot of sales work, I've noticed that professionals in business development or who assist the consumers in making decisions are invariably salespeople, while lying scumbags trying to wring a buck out of the sweat of a buyer's brow are inevitably salesmen...)

The big thing structurally about dealerships that I think is baked in is a LOT of pressure to sell cars at least at some minimal level. I know that's a "duh," but what I mean is you have to be prepared emotionally to get fired if you have a couple of bad months. However, that minimum volume is not necessarily that hard to do if you show up and have a good attitude.

If you're good with people and your ego can handle some rejection (both from coworkers and customers), I'd say give it a try. The money will definitely be better, and there is at least a potential upside, whereas retail is definitely - retail.
posted by randomkeystrike at 6:04 AM on September 15, 2015

No question in my opinion, try the car thing a whirl. If you hate it, you'll know, and in the current economic climate you'll have no problem getting a retail job if you decide to go that way.
posted by BibiRose at 8:22 AM on September 15, 2015

Best answer: If you take the car dealership job, I guarantee female potential customers will make a bee line for you, in order to avoid your knuckle-draggin' colleagues. The more women in the industry, the greater to chance to change the culture!
From what I've seen, the guys at any given dealership are former frat-bros with big bellies and a purile sense of "humor." The times Mr. Terrier and I were car shopping, we avoided them like the plague. (It can be done.) Had we seen you on the premises, you would have had our sale!
posted by BostonTerrier at 1:00 PM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Both jobs are going to suck major donkey balls.
If you don't sell enough cars, you will get canned.
Do the car job until you get fired/can't stand it and then go to retail.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:38 PM on September 15, 2015