Welcome to Jon’s Audio Resume, the Jon of All Trades solo exploration of all the weird ass jobs I’ve had in my life. This series runs in chronological order and here is my second job.

Job: Door-to-door salesman
Duration: September 1999
Pay: $5/lead
Did I get along with my boss? Surprisingly, yes! (An old swim team buddy.)

After one of my swim team friends asked my Spanish teacher to post a message on her whiteboard announcing a job that paid $5 per lead, I called him and signed right up!  How hard could it be?

Spoiler alert: Doing anything door-to-door totally eats hog. You know the feeling you get when someone broaches you uninitiated or dares to knock on your door. Now imagine being the one on the receiving end of that time after time after time. It’ll wither you. It’ll wound you. And it will, even if you only did this particular job for an hour and a half, toughen you right the fuck up.

This job had a profound impact on so many aspects of my personality, it gets its own episode despite being the shortest job maybe anyone could ever have. Everyone should be forced to do door-to-door work. Why? You’ll just have to listen.

Download this episode on iTunes, stream it on Stitcher, or listen at the Jon of All Trades homepage.

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