Eager to get some experience in ‘my field’ of marketing and media, one day I stumbled upon this advert for a Marketing and Events Sale Assistant job which didn’t require 5 years of past experience, none at all actually, so I went ahead and applied. Immediately I got a response back to come for a meet and greet. Unknowingly I met the founder of the company and he seemed really impressed how motivated and ambitious I was, so I moved on to the next level and had to attend an all day induction.
I was told that it would be from 9am to 6pm, and after 6pm I was free to go home.
So I turned up looking all smart at 9am to their office (which frankly looked like someone's house, a very mediocre one) and after filling out some forms, and waiting for a long time I met my mentor, and the two young guys he was working with and teaching. We then took the tube and DLR to Lewisham where they were holding their ‘event’. Now no-one had previously told me what their events were, turns out it was one of them things where you have a gazebo and you stand in the middle of a shopping centre selling pointless shit to people walking past. Oh but noooo, we were outside the shopping centre, and even though it was July, it was freezing cold and raining, and I was in the worlds thinnest top and blazer, no-one had told me that from 10:30am to 6pm I would have to sit outside and observe them whilst completing a bunch of useless tasks. (Well not completely useless, I’ll come back to that later). Anyway, so they set up their old and broken gazebo, but it was so windy that it kept falling apart, and my mentor instructed me to go sit on a bench in the rain and watch what they do. I thought fine, whatever. I sat for about an hour and a half in the cold, rain and wind and was questioning everything, and the way that they were working was so patronising. Like, a person would walk by, they would approach them and the customer said they weren’t interested but they would still follow them and persist… and I’m sorry for being a bitch but whenever sales people approach me I tell them nicely that I’m not interested, but if they continue to follow me I just tell them to fuck off. Anyway, I wasn’t a fan of the job to say the least.
At that point, my mentor probably took pity on me and let me go sit in Burger King where I could complete my tasks that he set, they were:
Where do you see yourself in the future
Why should we hire you
What can you bring to the company
Create a 5 year plan for a business of your choice
15 of my strengths, and 5 of my weaknesses
30 ways to be successful
Learn 5 stages of selling
Learn 8 steps to becoming successful
And some more bullshit I can’t remember now…
Well creating the business plan made me realise that I am more than capable of starting my own business by myself if I just worked my ass off, and all the other tasks just helped me to develop and actually put in effort into my answers for future job applications or interview questions, so I have all that ready, they just need a few tweaks, so that’s one positive that came out of this.
So anyway, I was back in Burger King working on one of the tasks, and my mentor comes in for the so-called ‘lunch’ that I was promised. No it wasn’t a lunch, it was more of an attempt to brainwash me… I’m not kidding.
So he explained the company to me and how it works.
So when you first start our you’re in phase 1. This is basically where you stand and sell TalkTalk to people walking by, and it’s 100% commission, so if you’re unsuccessful, you’re screwed and probably homeless.
But once you fulfil all the criteria which is pretty damn basic, you move up to phase 2, (which can take anywhere from 4 weeks to months.) Here you hold your own events and you’re a mentor to the new employees.
Once you fulfil all the criteria you move on to phase 3 where you’re assistant assistant manager, honestly I don’t remember what you do there.
Anyway, if you’re motivated and good enough you move on to phase 4, where you open up your own company, have a Bentley and make lots of money……
Now my mentor told me that it’s completely possible for me to reach phase 4 in 6-12 months. Thats right!!! I could have my own company with my own clients and drive a Porsche and earn a lot of money in only 6-12 months…. Sounds too good to be true? No, they reassured me many many many times that it’s completely possible.
Now….. How many millionaires do you know that have started out selling TalkTalk in a run down shopping centre in Lewisham? Please enlighten me. So I did what any responsible mature adult would do, and called my mum. She was like “??? are you listening to what you're telling me? Do Not be an idiot, don’t do it” and I agreed. I was tempted to just go home, but no, I decided to stick around and see if they saw potential in me and whether I would officially get hired and what's next.
So 6pm finally comes around and only just then LEAVE LEWISHAM to go back to the office… We go to the office and due to some issue everyone is locked out. So we stand outside of this house for about 40 minutes in the cold waiting for god knows what. Anyway, we eventually get in, fill out more forms and a quiz about what we learnt today blah blah, and hand it my forms. Now, my mentor was the only one to come back to me and make me change my answers to make me stand out…
After more waiting I had my final interview with one of the managers. At this point I was tired, still cold, moody and just fed up, I didn’t want the job and didn’t have enough energy to even pretend I did. The manager told me that I didn’t look like I wanted this that much and I said I did it’s just that I had my doubts just because it was commission only and I was worried. He continued to tell me that if what they do wasn’t effective or successful would TalkTalk continue working with them? Now, if you were such a successful and an established business, would TalkTalk be your only client? But I kept my mouth shut.
He left the room and came back, said he had his doubts about me because I didn’t look like I wanted it enough and he asked me how I would prove that I want this… This was the only time in my life where I was just speechless after an interviewer asked me a question, I just didn’t know what to say, and I don’t remember what ended up saying.
Anyway, he left the room and came back again and then offered me the job.
Then my mentor walked me out, I was forced to exchange phone numbers and I was due to come back Wednesday morning 7am to sign some papers and shit. Now he said he’d call me the next day to confirm. So I finally left the office after 8:40pm!!! And a few hours later got a text from some number saying they were excited to work with me. Wasn’t my mentor because I had his name saved so I don’t know who it was.
I didn’t reply.
I didn’t go that Wednesday 7am.
All day they made it seem like this was one in a lifetime opportunity, that it was such a competitive position, and also that they really wanted me. Bullshit. Just bullshit.
Some red flags that I ignored from the start:
Their office looked like a house.
We had to take the tube to lewisham rather than company cars (pretty sure if you’re a successful company, they provide transport, no?)
No bentleys parked outside the office either.
They wanted me a little to eagerly.
They were only selling TalkTalk and not doing a great job of it
So I learnt a lot that day… Surely it shouldn’t be legal taking advantage of naive young people promising them the whole world within 6-12 months and delivering nothing.
And bless my poor mentor, he has similar dreams to me, live in New York, expensive car, own business, huge penthouse etc etc and he actually believes that this is the ONLY way to get that, and I told him that that there are other ways and he disagreed.
So moral of the story, if it sounds too good to be true, it 100% is. Get out while you can. I never signed any documents or provided them with my passport/NI number so it wasn’t too late.
Oh and if anyone is curious what company this is - Citipeak Events
My best friend from home and I had booked tickets to Amsterdam, and my friend cancelled on me last minute. I had considered not going as I was afraid of going by myself, but then I remembered that I’ve done scarier things before, so I went. Since we booked though unitrips, this meant that other students from your university also can go, so I knew that I could find people to hang out with. I’m so glad I went!
Visiting Amsterdam was a next level experience, it was so weird having such easy access to drugs that are illegal everywhere else. Since we only had a day and a half there, I was with people I’ve known only a few hours I knew it would be better to just play it safe.
But I learned a few things;
- Everyone is high all the time.
- So much delicious food, everywhere.
- It’s extremely easy to get run over by a bike.
- It’s also extremely easy to fall into the canal (surprised doesn’t happen often when you’re high).
- Take advantage of free breakfast and don’t oversleep.
- You’ll never be alone if you just talk to people.
- After visiting the sex museum, your perception of world history will never be the same.
- There are girls that tap on their windows inviting you to come inside. That’s not something you’re used to seeing.
When I got back, I couldn’t believe I had actually considered on missing out on this trip because I was scared of going alone, but truth is, I had the best time and I’m not sure it would’ve been the same if my friend had been there just because she’s very anti everything that is only legal in Amsterdam. I met cool people that enjoyed doing what I do and learnt a lot. A lot about me.
Also, Amnesia Cafe is the best cafe there. Nice and warm inside but with a nice breeze. Music with a good beat to keep the mood up. Also yummy food (and pineapple juice was my new favourite).
And the sunset was incredible.
After 10 hours of travelling and being stuck in bus, I fulfilled one of my biggest dreams; to go to Paris. And honestly, it’s everything I expected it to be.
I can’t begin to explain to you how familiar everything felt, as if I belonged there. As if it was already my home.
Alright so, one of my friends and I decided to go to Paris for the weekend but make it as cheap as possible as we both are poor university students. Hence the long coach trip. To save money on accommodation we used Couchsurfing to find a host to stay with, show us the city and even hang out with us (for free) and we got really lucky as we got this really cool guy.
On the first day, we had to leave the apartment early as our host was working from home so we set off into the centre of Paris and since this was my first time, the Eiffel Tower was our first stop. And my oh my, it was magnificent. As typical tourists we had crepes for breakfast whilst overlooking the Eiffel Tower, and then we ventured out though the city to various museums, shops and cafes. Walking through the city and seeing the architecture, French fashion, French culture and just everything else was an experience I could never forget. It all felt so familiar, so real. The streets were all so beautiful, all the apartments are just so elegant. Definitely made me want to own an apartment there one day. Towards the evening we went to this Mexican restaurant for dinner and to meet a few friends for drinks. Pretty good first night.
This is where it hit me: I must be in a movie. So on the second day, I woke up to our host coming back with breakfast from the bakery, after I went to get ready for our day two Paris adventure when to my surprise our host decided he needs to practice playing his harp. Yes. So as I was in the bathroom putting on my make-up I had the most amazing and elegant background music playing and I looked at myself in the mirror and had to pause for a second and get back into my reality. But I honestly cannot explain it in words how surreal it felt for a moment. So that day we ventured out into the Chinatown of Paris for lunch and then went for a long walk though some parks and then went for a tour of the Latin Quarter with the guy we were staying with. And it just kept amazing me how beautiful Paris was everywhere.
On our third day there, we went to The Louvre and then to Montmartre. I got to see the famous Mona Lisa, and we waited until the sunset to climb the million steps in Montmartre to see the whole of Paris lit up in the night sky. I know you’re probably tired of hearing this by now, but oh my god, it was so beautiful and perfect in every way.
Obviously I am aware that things aren’t always so ‘beautiful’ there but I was fortunate to just see the positives of the beauty of the city and I just felt at home there. But don’t you worry, I’ll be back there very soon!
Finally! Finally! Finally!
My friends left me and the others don't arrive until the 19th :)) where am I gonna stay tonight? who knows ?? I'm just tagging along with Tobias and Andy for the time being.
I'm finally here, I know I'm stressing about the fact that I'm literally homeless right now but, as I was walking through the humid Manhattan Streets, it started to storm. No rain, just lightening. Just lightening and the moonlight lighting up the city. I've never seen anything more peaceful or beautiful. I made it
I did it! I moved to London and started university (back in September) and it's now almost been 3 months later and all I have to say is that - I'm loving life! London is the place for me. I love how busy it is, I love how there's always something happening and I just love the atmosphere. I know that some of my friends and family from back home have found London way too busy overwhelming, but honestly it's the best decision that I made. Even though it does get a little lonely sometimes, there's always something to do to take your mind off things.
I am just so glad that I was able to move out from home and experience living on my own (well with flatmates) and just learning to take care off myself, and it has been going pretty well.
I feel extremely lucky to have the flatmates that I do just because all of them are pretty amazing people and we all get on well. The whole university experience has been pretty incredible. I have learnt so many new things, being one of the youngest people here I felt like I didn't have enough life experience but that's slowly changing. I remember the first day of moving here, I got homesick after about 2 hours, but that shortly went away as I met new people and made some friends. Not going to lie, it was hard to try and balance a social life and university work (especially since I'm the biggest procrastinator you'd ever meet) but so far so good.
Ah! Where do I even begin? How about: I MET MY FAVOURITE BAND! You heard me! I was able to meet my favourite band Catfish and the Bottlemen! I was so very nervous, my legs were shaking uncontrollably whist talking to them, and I may have proclaimed my eternal love for them which now just seems creepy, oops. This happened in the signing tent so no photos were allowed so I only managed to get a sneaky photo of them signing someone else's photo.
But I met them, I spoke to them and I shook Van's hand! Sorry I sound like such a fan girl but they're my favourite! Then later than evening I saw them perform, literally it was the best day of my life. I am seeing them in November in concert, so I'm determined to somehow get a photo with them.
But anyway, the rest was the festival was pretty incredible! I got to see so many bands that I love like Years & Years, Panic! At The Disco, Gaslight Anthem, Alt J, Don Broco, Echosmith, Pvris, All Time Low (briefly), Bastille, Limp Bizkit, Metallica and so so many more that I can't even name them all now. So it is safe to say that the music was pretty damn good.
The Arena ft Funfair
All Time Low
Catfish and The Bottlemen
Olly from Years & Years
This was also my first time camping out, and it was pretty fun. I am quite an easily adaptable person so I didn't find it hard as I can fall asleep anywhere and anytime. I also met some very cool people who are also into the same bands that I am into, so that was nice.
Even though I almost got crushed in the mosh pit, rained on until I was soaked, got covered in mud and I won't get over how awful the campsite toilets and showers were or the amount of people that approach you looking to buy certain things, but nevertheless this was one of the most amazing weekends I have ever had. It was just such an incredible experience and I cannot wait to go back next year!