I've been offered a job interview but...

Martynb_

...but it is self-employed. It looks as though they will dictate the hours and it looks as though it is commission based. It selling broadband for either EE or Tesco.


I have an interview tomorrow.


I've never been self-employed before and I don't even remember applying for it cos I usually avoid self-employed vacancies.


If I get this job does anyone know what I'm in store for, because I keep hearing that it is being self-employed is one of those jobs where you might have no income at all for a month or two. How will I pay my rent? And since it might be commision based I would have to be bloody good at selling to make the job worthwhile (so I am told) and I've only ever worked behind a till in a shop.


Definately out of my comfort zone. But I'm just worried about the financial side of things. Plus, being self-employed means you can dictate the hours, surely?


So what should I expect?

Martynb_

Ridiculous. The people who were offered the job all had cars, probably already had a second income, and were over confident of their abilities. Hire an accountant? Declare one of your rooms as an office? Never experienced this before. And earning any money all depends upon whether the customer wants to buy or not. And if they cancel their direct debit with you after a month, you get no money and you may have to pay back the company. You don't set the hours you work, the company does.


These are not proper jobs, surely?

~Beanie~

These are not proper jobs, surely?

Of course they are proper jobs. People who are good at selling can probably make a lot if money from it.

They are not going to pay you anything for chatting to people all day if you don't actually sell anything and make them any money.

I guess they make it self-employed so that they don't have to pay you minimum wage .

I'm not sure why you are so surprised, you seem to know what it was all about from your first post.

Martynb_

~Beanie~ wrote: »

I'm not sure why you are so surprised, you seem to know what it was all about from your first post.

I don't anything about the job except that it was self-employed. That could eman anything. Apparently, E-on have self-employed workers who are on commission but also get a wage on top. Not this job though. Completely comission based. I did not know this.

~Beanie~

They definitely should have made that clear, at least then you would have had the option of applying for the job or completely ignoring it.

I would never make any money commission only as I am rubbish at selling stuff but I know people who do make money from it.

GothicStirling

I work for the sales team for English Heritage (selling membership), I believe I'm pretty good at it . . . but it is hard, and its all down to confidence. I work on a basic rate, and if I achieve target I receive a bonus which is percentage + number of Direct Debits and Gift Aiding members I sign up.

Personally, I wouldn't work for commission only, far too risky. Some days it doesn't matter if your the best sale person in the world, you'll still have zero days, which means you have worked for nothing. I would go along to the interview, if your instincts don't like the sound of it, make an hash of the interview.

[Deleted User]

Martyn, please may I ask how you got on when it come to declaring this no brainer of a non starter job?

Just had similar eeeh been to an open event despite being reassured on invite, it was a paying telemarketing turned telecan job, non targets ha ha! I wanted to say what is the catch!! well now been told it's commission only based and self employed to boot along with unpaid induction (their were letting people walk out but I didn't want to be rude, wasn't in the mood today anyway) they said they won't tell anyone we work there which rang alarm bells!

Managed to print off job centre advert to cover myself I've relooked at and it doesn't mention self employment far from it, though I'm past worrying about a sanction, just wonder how it is seen by the Jobcentre? although their always advertising so I suspect their well known as have to use 'company confidential' because people wouldn't apply knowingly

Thanks for your time

john539

Martynb_ wrote: »

Ridiculous. The people who were offered the job all had cars, probably already had a second income, and were over confident of their abilities. Hire an accountant? Declare one of your rooms as an office? Never experienced this before. And earning any money all depends upon whether the customer wants to buy or not. And if they cancel their direct debit with you after a month, you get no money and you may have to pay back the company. You don't set the hours you work, the company does.


These are not proper jobs, surely?

But they suit some people.

They are not regular jobs with steady regular income, you are self-employed running your own business.

Just watch yourself out there.

paddedjohn

If you can't pick your own hours then you are not self employed

[Deleted User]

paddedjohn wrote: »

If you can't pick your own hours then you are not self employed

Interesting, does that count if you are given an application form which contains a section where you are asked to fill out the hours you could do?

dori2o

paddedjohn wrote: »

If you can't pick your own hours then you are not self employed

Thats exactly what i was thinking.

There are many tests that determine the status of an employee, the ability to dictate working hours is one of them.

This looks to me like a case of a company not wanting to incurr the costs of employing these people properly, or being responsible for providing the rights an employee would have a statutory right to , i.e. holiday pay, NMW etc.

I'd be very wary of such 'jobs'.

Or if you feel like the company have wasted your time you could report them to HMRC and have them investigate the Status of these jobs. Such an enquiry would be very costly to the company, especially if HMRC determined these people are actually employees, and not self employed.