Car Sales or Journalism...

I grew up at my father's car dealership. I worked there on-and-off from high school through college.

As soul-crushing as this business can be, car sales might be worse. Yeah, you put in long hours for low pay in newspapering. You put in even longer hours at a dealership.

Somebody else mentioned the six-day per week thing. That's pretty standard. Sure, the dealer will let you take a second day. But you never take off Saturday or Monday, those are money days. So you might get Sunday and Wednesday off. If you can stand the idea that you just missed a commission. Speaking of commissions, you know how you close a deal? By cutting the dealership's profit down, which in turn cuts down your commission.

Whatever you do, don't do the math to figure out your hourly when you start selling cars. It will be depressing. And be very disciplined with your personal budget. You might make $1,200 in two weeks and then go two months without a payday.

If you go into cars, bust your tail to get into F&I. That's where the real money is, not out on the lot chasing walk-ins or spending rainy days cold-calling previous customers checking if they're ready to trade.

 

Bit late to the party, BL. But my best advice would be to do something you truly want to do. If you don't really want to do newspapers, then don't. There aren't enough jobs out here for the people who want to be here.

If you really want to work in newspapers, then accepting a job when it's offered to you is a good start ... It might not be the ideal job. It might not be where you want to work, or live, and you may have to eat Kraft dinner for awhile. It's called "paying your dues."

But you put in a year or two, get some experience, and move on. It's what we've all done.

 

My brother, who never met a stranger (or a beer he didn't know) was a car salesman his whole life and loved it. At his funeral, more than 100 of his longtime customers showed up.

So for some people, car selling comes natural. But I think if you gotta ask if it does for you, then you know already that it doesn't.