Living Dell

July 24, 2006 - 8:00am
Walking into the Dell building in Oklahoma City for the first time. Its my first day of training of my first "real" job. If I only knew what I was getting myself in to...

I never really wanted a sales job. Never saw myself as one of those guys who stretched the truth or played "let's make a deal" with a potential customer just to make a sale. And I'm still not. But there's always lessons to be learned.

I don't really remember a lot about the first day. I remember walking into a room to take a photo that would be for my badge. I remember being directed down the hall into a large conference room for a quick orientation. I remember the brunette sitting two rows in front of me. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

Training class was actually kind of fun. Our group of 20 newbies got along pretty well. I recall having a lot of laughs during class. There was even one point where I won a contest, beating out that brunette, for $50. She tried to make me feel bad about it. I don't think she liked me very much.

I remember our first day of TQ, where we were on the phones live for the first time taking sales calls. My first cubicle. Wow, is this it? Its so....blah.
We had trainers and other reps walking around helping us out. We also helped out each other since we were all still learning how to use IDD, and not all of us were so tech savvy back then.
That girl is sitting behind me. She's very intriguing.....and hilarious. We made each other laugh a lot.

After TQ, we all went our seperate ways. Actually, I went a seperate way from everyone else. For some reason I was sent to a different team of reps while the rest of the group formed a new team. Most of us advanced pretty quickly though. Through the ranks of the Consumer Sales queues. Super Queue, PQ, Gold/XPS Queue. We fought through all the 3 hour overtime days/weeks/months and all the cold Sonic tots we could handle. In 30 minutes of course. Yep, those were the days. Didn't think I would last more than a year. That brunette likes to talk to me on IM at work. Makes the day so much better. I can't begin to explain the tingly feeling I get when her name pops up on my computer screen.

Nov. 2, 2006 - Our first date. Tapwerks downtown OKC. I think it lasted about 6 hours. Wanted it to last 16 hours. Something very special about that brunette.

June 2007 - The opportunity to apply for Consumer Sales Coach. We both wanted it bad. And we got it! FINALLY! Off the phones and into a role where we had some freedom and ability to use our talents. It was the greatest job at Dell. And it came with a nice pay raise.

Dec. 2007 - So I've known for a while that I'm going to marry this girl. We got approved for a mortgage loan, bought a lot and started building our house. Wow....my first house. Little scary, but we got a great house and a good rate. I guess this Dell thing wasn't so bad after all

Feb. 2008 - Consumer Sales division laid off
Oops.....So....if you don't finish building the house, do we still have to pay for it ?
Out of 300 people, Dell let go about 275 of them. Somehow we are safe. Transitioned to the 3rd floor to Business Sales. Back on the phones??? Really??? Geez.....

At this point we are pretty unmotivated and demoralized for having to start all over on the queue after we worked so hard to get off of it. I only lasted a few months before I had a chance to jump over to the ARB sales division. Open 8-6 and no weekends?? Yes please.

March 2008
I ask the brunette to marry me! Told you I would

Jordan worked her way up to relationship sales. We are finally on the same schedule.

March 2010
So almost 4 years, 1 marriage, and countless phone calls later, here I am. My department laid off, again. Sure I had an opportunity to interview for the same job they transitioned me into back in Feb '08, but honestly I'm too jaded to start over again. I feel like the time has come. Take the severance and run.

While I have mixed feelings, I do feel like 4 years at Dell is equivalent to 10 years of work experience elsewhere. And that can't be all bad. I have dealt with so much ambiguity there its ridiculous. And they are proud of it. I can't even tell you how many different managers I've had, how many different schedules I've worked, and how differently I would run things if I could. After working for one of the largest companies in the world, I'm not sure I'd want to work for a company that large again.

But it wasn't all bad. There were definitely good times, good experiences, and good friends. I can even consider myself a bit of a techie now, atleast compared to a lot of people.

Its odd to think how much has changed in my life just by accepting a job. Especially one that I had to wait months to hear back from and didn't really want in the first place. All in all, it was a good run. I have one week left to go and then I'll be a house husband, until I get another job.

There's a brunette in the other room asking me to come to bed. We have work in the morning. I'm so glad she will be going with me, walking into the Dell building for the last time.