hi, i'm in sales
What is it with sales? Last week I went to my slightly belated (as I started at the wrong time) “introduction to the phd” talk. For 10 minutes I got told about phds, then for the next 30 minutes a chap from the RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) gave what amounted to a sales pitch.
Huh? The RSC is now my professional body, so I was ready to be informed and learn about what they do and why they’re good (and, indeed, if they’re good). Instead I got some bland business-patter about how many members they have and how many journals they publish, followed by something along the lines of “and if you join up today you get these FREE RSC safety goggles that are ONLY available at RSC presentations and they are GREAT…but you MUST sign up TODAY, RIGHT NOW…” “and a FREE monthly magazine…” What is this bullshit? Shouldn’t a professional body be advertising itself by reputation and the fact that they’re your union? What is this freebies crap? As if I’m going to be sat there thinking ‘hmm, well, they don’t seem to do much, but if I get a free gift out of it then I’m signing up right here right now yes please’. In fact the only result is to make me really not want to join, why should I wish to pay them money to indulge in this shit salesmanship, something akin to the kind of thing you see on late-night infomercials. Utter, utter shit.
And then on Monday my “introduction to the library” (pt 1 of 2!) became “a man from Scifinder talks like he’s trying to sell you something”, and this was even more pointless as he didn’t actually have anything to sell us – the university has a subscription to the service which students use. Just when you think that you’ve shut out most of the business bullshit by returning to academia you find that, no, actually there are a lot of people full of bullshit whatever industry you’re in. Yeah, OK, I knew that before, you just didn't have your face rubbed in it so much as an undergrad.
Huh? The RSC is now my professional body, so I was ready to be informed and learn about what they do and why they’re good (and, indeed, if they’re good). Instead I got some bland business-patter about how many members they have and how many journals they publish, followed by something along the lines of “and if you join up today you get these FREE RSC safety goggles that are ONLY available at RSC presentations and they are GREAT…but you MUST sign up TODAY, RIGHT NOW…” “and a FREE monthly magazine…” What is this bullshit? Shouldn’t a professional body be advertising itself by reputation and the fact that they’re your union? What is this freebies crap? As if I’m going to be sat there thinking ‘hmm, well, they don’t seem to do much, but if I get a free gift out of it then I’m signing up right here right now yes please’. In fact the only result is to make me really not want to join, why should I wish to pay them money to indulge in this shit salesmanship, something akin to the kind of thing you see on late-night infomercials. Utter, utter shit.
And then on Monday my “introduction to the library” (pt 1 of 2!) became “a man from Scifinder talks like he’s trying to sell you something”, and this was even more pointless as he didn’t actually have anything to sell us – the university has a subscription to the service which students use. Just when you think that you’ve shut out most of the business bullshit by returning to academia you find that, no, actually there are a lot of people full of bullshit whatever industry you’re in. Yeah, OK, I knew that before, you just didn't have your face rubbed in it so much as an undergrad.
posted by paul at 8:32 am
2 Comments:
why so bitter and twisted so early in the morning??
and no comment on the music at the weekend! bring on the positivity hockett!
(although i whole-heartedly agree with the above! pensions talks at school exactly the same, good food though!)
no escaping it, paulie... "THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"
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