I just graduated high school. I got a letter in the mail to "selected graduates" from Vector Marketing. It's a U.S company that markets Cutco knives. They offered me a sales rep job. So I went to the interview and got hired. The job pays $14.25 per appointment.

So here's the deal. I do sales demonstrations in people's homes for these Cutco knives. I just cut pennies in half with them and stupid shit like that. Whether or not I make a sale, I still get paid $14.25 for every presentation I do. There's a 10% commission bonus. So if I sold $200 worth of products, I'd get $20 instead of $14.25. Sounds great, right? But here's the thing. I need to pay $135, before I even start making money, to the company. This is a security deposit for my own demonstration set of knives to take on my presentations. They say that the deposit is fully refundable and I'll get the money back if I quit.

It would take me roughly 9 appointments to break even for the security deposit. The thing is, I am responsible for making appointments. In a sense, I control my own paycheck. I have to ask each customer, or whoever hears my presentation, to give me a few referrals of other people who would be interested in hearing my demo. My manager claims that employees average 25-30 appointments a week. And the employees there that I've seen seem to like their jobs and have no complaints.

So I don't know. I NEED money. Badly. What should I do? Is this some kind of scam? I have my second training seminar tomorrow. I really hope I can count on this job to be a legit source of income, but I need some advice or suggestions. Thanks guys. 

it's a door-to-door sale and only if you can make the effort to personally seek out people to do presentations for is it ever worth it. i'd just get a shitty part-time retail job anywhere if i were you and have the benefit or a secure income.

If anything, I'm thinking I'll just do the Vector job on the side. Then get another part time summer job. But seriously, it's so hard trying to find a decent job anymore for a teen. I've applied to dozens of places and got called but ONCE for an interview. And that was over a year ago.

I almost did this.  basically you have to exploit your own relationships-- friends, family--  and try to branch out from there, sell shit to their friends and family.  I just felt shitty and annoying asking friends to let me do presentations to them so I dropped it.

Apparently some folks make damn good money for it, but you have to be sorta soulless.

lol this sounds like the shit primerica was trying to get me sucked in to

how do they know you've done the presentation? i'm not interested in buying knives but i'd sure like to watch you cut pennies, i'm sure there's plenty of college kids like me. bring them round to parties etc.

jobs like these have the 'potential' to make you a lot of money. don't fool yourself and think you're one of the few over achievers that could sell knives to every man woman and child in your state though. if you're confident enough you could probably make some money doing something interesting for a while though.

This is a really good idea. Find different things to cut and then go to parties and cut them. Take requests. Cut everything. It doesn't really matter if you sell anything, so long as the appointment is less than an hour (effectively meaning you get paid 14.25 an hour!).


My friend did get suckered in by Primerica. The thing is, they actually do have a legitimate branch of insurance brokers, which is what my friend read up on. He paid them a fair bit of money. The thing about Primerica is, though, that you don't make your own contracts. You HAVE TO get people to sign up for bullshit programs, otherwise you don't get to the stage where you can do any actual work. On the plus side, Primerica does give out financial licenses which you need to work anywhere else in the economics sector, and he was able to turn those licenses into a job, eventually.

Pretty much anyone who offers you a job out of the blue is out to get your money/naked pictures of you. Sometimes it can be worth it for the life experiences, though. Or something.

how do they know you've done the presentation? i'm not interested in buying knives but i'd sure like to watch you cut pennies, i'm sure there's plenty of college kids like me. bring them round to parties etc.

jobs like these have the 'potential' to make you a lot of money. don't fool yourself and think you're one of the few over achievers that could sell knives to every man woman and child in your state though. if you're confident enough you could probably make some money doing something interesting for a while though.

Exactly. See, I could extort this as much as possible. It seems too good to be true! I could just call up my friends who are 18+ and say "Hey man, wanna help me make some cash?" I don't really have to be a telemarketer and talk to people I don't know. I just still get a horrible feeling about this though.

Anywhere that you "pay to work" is a scam right from the start. 

Trust me.  Go to your next seminar, keep all your money, and punch that guy right in the face just for me.  Then kick him in the balls.

I'm not going. I'm done with those bastards. I've decided. I have an appointment today with Job and Family Services about getting a new job. I was going to miss it for training.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Well it wasn't even door-to-door, as they promised me it wouldn't be. It's more like psuedo-telemarketting and being an infomercial that comes to your house and won't leave.