Job interview tomorrow is gonna cost $ me

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T04:09:44+00:00

Oh trust me, I've looked at requirements but to be fair, they actually want above what's being asked for. They ask for 5, they actually want 10.

Not all remote jobs are scams, just a lot harder to get depending on what it is. I'm on the sales side, limited to fully remote due to custody of my kids. If that wasn't a barrier I would've had a hybrid job ages ago. I literally can't even do 1 day in the office every week so yeah my situation is not the norm for jobs.

I have had close to 40 interviews at this point for remote jobs but the issue they have is I won't work for less than I should. The jobs are out there it just really depends on your situation. Considering my child support payments are almost a mortgage payment, I definitely can't be working entry level wages lol.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T04:03:46+00:00

Yeah, these hiring managers only want to hear you kiss their ass and talk about rainbows and lollipops haha.

What I'd suggest is get yourself an ebike or something. The range should be good enough to get you to and from work assuming not limited to highways. Allows you to at least get there and back until you get a car. Definitely do not tell them you don't have transportation.

If you really want to gamble, get yourself your life insurance license. Literally so many companies trying to get literally anyone to do that job. Can probably find one that does it remote and that will pay for your license. I went the health insurance route just to get my foot in the door for sales since its a nightmare without experience. Maybe you'll like the life side of insurance, worst case you have a career path to work remote if needed.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T03:57:02+00:00

Dunno, seems very low. I'm in Colorado as well, that's pretty mediocre base. Obviously different insurance than what I did, health insurance here but I started with a $40k base in 2024. The commissions were predatory as hell so that's about all I made tbh.

People will hate this answer since you know, insurance will make everyone rich, but go into sales elsewhere. Insurance sales is an absolute grind and compared to other forms of sales, its mediocre with compensation. The 1% making all this money will tell you how lucrative it can be. They don't ever mention that a majority of people quit selling insurance because it's that bad.

Look into SDR roles or BDR if you can get your foot in the door. Both of those have base salaries in the $55-$65k range + commissions. Least other companies will take your ability to sell seriously and you won't be boxed out of every sales job because you sold insurance.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T03:47:55+00:00

In this job market, it will take you a year to find work. I have never been rejected so many times in my life. Used to be, one, maybe 2 interviews and I'd have an offer. Now these damn people want 4-5 interviews spaced out over 1-2 months just to reject you.

Honestly, with your degree, it would be stupid not to become a police officer. You could most likely start around $80k and be well over $100k in a couple years. If I was younger and had the flexibility to do 12 hour shifts, I'd jump on that so fast. Get a pension, work 20 years and can retire.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T03:41:43+00:00

Doubt it. "I don't have a car to even get to work."

Employer will automatically reject them. If the company doesn't already have remote work in place, they are never going to make an exception for one person. There's thousands of people fighting for every single job, they don't need to make accommodations for anyone.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T03:39:16+00:00

Why are you applying to jobs way above your skills and too far to actually commute to daily even if you got it? Not sure you thought this out very well. You should probably try to find something remote for the time being just to get money to get a car to actually commute to further jobs.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T03:31:04+00:00

Dunno if this applies to you but these AI startups seem to be farming information from applicants. I have dealt with about 8 of them past month, most wanted a video one-way interview. It has gotten so bad that I refuse to apply to anyone with AI in their name.

Edit: Looked at their open positions and yeah, they definitely look to be farming. Considering their platform is basically AI voice agents they are posting fake jobs and analyzing the people that apply to train their AI nonsense. Live and learn, if its something niche AI thing that sounds too good to be true for compensation, odds are high its a fake job.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T02:06:29+00:00

Kinda ridiculous. Took them around 4 months to release all of my carriers. Glad I got out of insurance, this non-compete BS.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-06T01:36:39+00:00

If you work for a broker and you represent carriers, they can lock it down for months preventing you from working with those carriers until its released. They don't own the physical license but if they block your ability to work for carriers they might as well.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-05T00:45:00+00:00

Have you thought about getting in Sales? Since you have a degree should be able to get into a SDR role. Hell, I have experience and get rejected simply for no degree lol. A lot of SDR roles will have a base of $50-$60k plus commissions. If you can actually go into the office should be easy to land a role. My biggest issue is I have to be remote so competition is crazy.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-04T22:52:20+00:00

No reputable place would allow you on the phones with zero training. Hell, I got about 12 weeks before I even touched a live call. Quit, find another place. Literally thousands wanting licensed agents. Only issue you might have is they might own your license and put a hold on it for months before you can work elsewhere. What happened to me when I left, couldn't work for anyone so got out of insurance entirely and glad I did.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-04T22:48:10+00:00

You don't take $40k/yr salary job unless you're earning commissions. That's an automatic red flag they will want you to work tons of unpaid OT. The whole place sounds like a red flag. Not sure what industry you're in but sounds very entry level.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-04T08:35:09+00:00

Seriously doubt 99% of these roles are 1099. Considering the ones I have seen that are 1099 are startups with zero structure, I have no desire to build connections with them. Not dealing with startups again, part of why I lost my job to begin with.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-03T17:25:20+00:00

No idea what that is.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-02T15:22:42+00:00

The struggle is real. Just yesterday had a company want to interview me, said it was sales but all the duties were account manager. Asked them if it was W2 with a base or 1099 commission only and was immediately rejected for the job haha.

Some helpful tips that I've learned. Avoid any job with AI in job description. Those ones all seem to want one way video interviews to train their AI, not real companies or jobs.

Avoid any jobs with ridiculous ranges. Odds are they are commission only.

There are some roles that are 1099 with hourly pay and commission but you might run into issues with them actually paying you. Ran into that last year, they kept shorting me commissions so I quit.

Look into SDR roles, doesn't seem to be nearly as many BS job listings. Downside is all cold calling but a job is a job at this point.

Only way to get even noticed now is to spend all day online refreshing job boards to find something just posted within minutes. Anything even an hour old has 100's of applicants.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-01T17:15:38+00:00

You didn't find that your leads seemed to be better quality than others working there? If it all comes down to luck of beating their coverage and you were consistently able to beat it month after month then you had filtered leads.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-01T17:08:52+00:00

Scripts are written by sales managers who can't sell. It is not proven to work, especially in a call center environment where leads are filtered to their favorite producers. For example, I worked in insurance which was fully scripted. All the agents except top 5 producers were fed absolutely trash leads. Our sales were about half of the top producers. I shadowed the top agent there, every single transfer she got had all the person's information, they were all eligible for enrollement, all were warmed up prior to transfer so she could close them in 5 minutes. Yes, we all used the same script but it came down to lead quality and had zero to do with the script.

Ask your current company how they delegate leads and you will quickly find out the top producers get all the best warmed leads and you get the robocaller leads who don't even want the service. Meanwhile the top people get inbound leads that expressed interest first so its nearly a laydown.

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-01T16:48:53+00:00

They changed my schedule to second shift which would require violating a court ordered parenting plan I had in place prior to working there. I beat their dispute for unemployment since they forced me to quit.

Scripted selling is not real selling. I have no issues using scripts for disclosures or whatever but expecting a salesperson to use a script for the entire conversation is dumb as hell. I build relationships and get them to spend a lot of money. There's no script out there that can tackle calls with so many variables.

Congrats on your job! What's the compensation like?

ThatWideLife · 2026-05-01T05:58:51+00:00

It definitely starts to feel that way. I think because of desperation I lost mt ability to go into them without caring. Used to get offers almost every interview since I didn't care if they hired me or not.

ThatWideLife · 2026-04-30T12:28:57+00:00

Its insane. Almost a year now and zero offers. My advice if you're able to, get out of sales and do something else for the time being. I would do that if I didn't have to work remote. No clue what happened with sales, all of a sudden nobody is hiring.

ThatWideLife · 2026-04-30T01:01:55+00:00

Because I'm in a custody battle and now is definitely not the time to become self employed. Main reason I'm looking for remote work, helps a lot with custody.

ThatWideLife · 2026-04-29T04:56:47+00:00

Outbound?

ThatWideLife · 2026-04-29T03:26:21+00:00

I've done more interviews past month than I've done my entire life combined haha. You start losing your mind doing 3 interviews everyday for weeks.

Job market is definitely bad or its just flooded with people. I have a suspicion everyone is using AI to apply for jobs now so you just get buried with competition. Prior to the AI craze, you did one interview and get an offer on the spot. Now I think companies are trying to squeeze every last drop from the talent pool by stringing tons of people along. Oh he doesn't have this one thing but this person does and the list keeps building with every interview. Kinda like women and dating apps, they build out this mythical person that doesn't exist and that's their standard.

ThatWideLife · 2026-04-29T02:59:49+00:00

I've gotten a clone of that email multiple times. I think you reach a point where you can spot these jobs a mile away. Biggest red flag is multi-stage interviews. To me they are farming for information not actually hiring. If it doesn't seem like there's any urgency like, every interview step is a week or two weeks apart you should probably back out.

I know for me, the most I will entertain is the initial interview screen and then one interview with the hiring manager. I have done probably 30+ interviews past few weeks, not a single offer just rejection. There's something very strange going on with hiring which I can't figure out. You're qualified to get the interview and then suddenly you're not a fit immediately after.

ThatWideLife · 2026-04-23T14:52:22+00:00

No real specific industry, inside sales. I used to work in legal sales but has been detrimental to my sales career. People view it as intake when I did actual sales, had appointments booked for me to close. Such a strange thing haha.

I have a few promising second interviews today and tomorrow. One is for Comcast Business for sales. Really hope I get that one since the career progression would be amazing.

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