Job Responsibilities
My position was working for a national publisher of yellow pages
and directory websites. My job entailed consulting on and
designing advertising for small local businesses. In addition to
my list of clients I was required to recruit a certain amount of
new business as well. After the sale I am required to maintain a
good working relationship with my customers, and facilitate
whatever reasonable requests they may make.
Each TAR is assigned a list of returning customers for a specific
project. Typical yellow pages publishers focus on one area at a
time. In Chicago this translates to various suburban areas, and
the largest project focuses on the city proper. Each TAR focuses
on his assignment and recruiting new business in the specified
geographic region for about 4-6 months.
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Job Requirements
The only requirement is that you have a degree. Don't worry about
grades or field. There are a few TARs that have no college
education, but do have prior sales experience. I would not
recommend this route.
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Uppers
There's a rumor that you can make a ton of money in advertising sales. It is
just a rumor. My experience has been miserable. The only upper I can think of
is that I've met some very entertaining and creative people in my office.
Oh, the hours are good too.
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Downers
Everything. This is an industry built on misleading people, and
they're quite good at it. It's been truly miserable for my
co-workers and me.
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Lifestyle
It's a strict 8-5 workday. You're expected to log extra hours, but nobody does.
The company has strict performance guidelines and tracks statistics to make sure
you're pulling your weight. There is an extremely high annual turnover (60%+).
The job is frustrating, annoying, and unfulfilling. Also, a company that
publishes advertising is probably pretty good at publishing internal propaganda.
Take most of what you hear from management with a grain of salt.
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Compensation
Sales compensation varies. I can tell you not to expect to earn
what they claim you will. I've never encountered a sales job that
set realistic expectations. There are people who have earned well
above the expected compensation, but they are in the minority. My
target compensation was $52K, I have earned $32K. It's typically
$24K+Base.
I will give my company credit for offering a really stellar
benefits package. I am unsure if this is industry standard
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Advice to Jobseekers
Keep your expecations realistic. A lot of people want to do
advertising right out of college. So... there are a lot of
terrible jobs to go around.
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