The one job that isn't on my resume

that I think about every day

The summer after I graduated from college I would wake up early, shower, shave, put on a suit and tie, and ride the train east into Boston to then go south to Braintree. There I’d pick up my assigned territory for the day and hitch a ride further outside the city to start knocking on doors.

If anyone answered I would pitch them on switching their home phone, internet, and TV to Verizon. I was paid on commission, poorly trained, and thought I was too good for the job. I learned a lot that summer.

In the office, where we gathered before and after going out into the field, the most training we ever got was a little role-playing for handling objections. As it turns out, there isn’t really a good way to role-play getting the door slammed in your face so we had to figure that one out by ourselves.

Though some people had a knack for it and would return to the office to ring the bell every day, I only lasted a few months before I threw up my hands. In the immediate aftermath, it was easy to dismiss it as a lost summer where I tried something new, made dirt, and came out the other side with a few funny stories. Almost 13 years later I’m still thinking about it.

Maybe the rough edges have dulled with time, but I’m glad I did it. I’m glad I suited up every day for a couple of months and tried to get better at it.

I remember the days when no one answered the door, the days when no one nice answered the door, and the days when things were easy, people wanted to chat, and it gave me hope that I was finally figuring out.

This job has never and will never be on my resume, but the experience was formative. It was hard and humbling and hugely important.

I learned I could knock on a lot of doors and talk to a lot of people and keep working on something. It’s a time I couldn’t wait to forget that I’ll always remember.