I cannot believe they're still in business in 2022!!! So back in like 1988, I came home from college (I lived in a small town of about 5,000) and summer jobs were hard to come by. Anyway, I answered an ad in the local newspaper for a job that promised something like double minimum wage so I was excited for the interview. So, I show up and there's a HUGE line of people at this office. We go through this whole interview process (fill out questions, fill out an application, interview with a hiring manager, HR, etc.) This interview started at 8:00 AM and after each step I was told "okay, we like what we see in you, will you please stick around for the next phase?" And we went from about 100 people to like 15 at the end of it so I'm thinking "holy crap, I've landed this great job working at this water purification facility, this is awesome!" I assumed the water purification factory was down the road, around the corner, offsite somewhere, etc. I honestly thought I would be working an hourly job in a factory somewhere.
So, I mean, after like 5 hours of this I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm worn down, it's summer and I'm hot (ac was not working in the office) so I'm drenched in sweat as it's 1988 so I'm wearing a suit and tie. Eventually they stick the 15 of us "candidates" in this big conference room and they let us know we passed all the tests and we were the lucky ones selected for this amazing opportunity. Then they rolled out the amazing Rainbow Water Purification system and to my shock and horror I discover it's a F-ING vacuum cleaner. . . The only way I can describe my feelings are that I felt EXACTLY like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story." At this point, after they rolled out the vacuum cleaner, about 1/2 the people in the room walked out and the demonstration lasted like 2 hours and at any point I could have walked out but I did not. I did not walk out of that F-ing sales pitch because I desperately wanted to tell that hiring manager "hey A-HOLE, thank you so much for WASTING my time for a glorified vacuum cleaner salesman job!"
So, I waited my turn to be called in to talk to the manager (which took like another hour or so) and I did exactly that. After I got done with my tirade the guy pulls out my resume, looks it over and he said "it says here you're going to college, what are you majoring in?" I said "Computer Science." He said "you know what? that sounds HORRIBLE to me, I cannot imagine anything more boring than sitting in an office all day sitting behind a keyboard." "You can come in here and yell at me all you want but I'll be out there enjoying the fresh air, selling our amazing water purification systems and rolling in the big bucks while you're still paying off your student loans, you think about that and your fancy degree buddy!" After that I just walked out and I thought "damnit, I could have left 3 hours ago, I should have walked out when I had the chance." And, by the way, back in the 80's those damn things were like $1,500 when a really good vacuum cleaner ran like maybe $150 and a commercial Hoover ran like maybe $300-$400. How in the hell could I sell $1,500 vacuum cleaners to people that drove cars that didn't cost that much? Nuts!
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