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[disnut8]

One of my podmates at work, Stephen, is this guy who thinks everyone should be making a ton of money, it's easy to find a job, and if you aren't raking it in, you're not applying yourself.

I brought up a certain member (and founder) of this forum who, even though he has a college degree, is having a tough time find a "real" job.  That delivering pizza what he does.

Stephan shot back that when he was in college (he's 29), he "researched" all the different pizza deliver options and Papa John and Domino's were the best.  And that if you applied yourself, you could easily make $30K-$40K/year.  Because of mileage and gas reimbursements.  Plus tips.

I about snorted out my drink with the tips thing.  Stephen insisted most people tip the drivers.  And the reimbursement for mileage and gas?

I'm very interested in hearing about others' experiences with trying to get a decent job and the obstacles they had to endure.  I know RichN's story.

Stephen thinks you can walk into anywhere and get a job on the spot.  Opinions?

[elmono311]

You can, if you want to serve up greasy fast food or annoy people into buying things over the phone...

[Supermercado]

My area of expertise... Anything about delivering pizza, I can tell you. Well, anything relating to Papa John's, anyway.

I don't know about $40K/year or even $30K/year, but I think you could certainly clear $20K. You could maybe do $30K.

This is how it works at Papa John's. I got minimum wage ($5.15 in SC), paid every 2 weeks. Working my normal 35-45 hours/week during the summer, that check was usually about $300-$350 or so, if I remember correctly. We also got a "commission" to cover our gas costs. It was 5% of our sales for the day. This can easily add up, especially if you're working the day shift and there's a few company or school lunches. I remember one day I did more than $500 in total sales. 5% of that... bam, that's $25 right there and you've not gotten a single tip. Our scale had a few variables in it. If you didn't put a car top on your car, you only got 3%. If it was dark and you didn't have your top lit up, you only got 4%. If you closed and had more than 20 orders, you got 6%. The people who closed on busy Friday and Saturday nights could make some serious bank with that extra percent.

As far as most people tipping, "most" might be a little bit of a stretch, but I'd say greater than 80% of people give you at least a dollar and the remaining change on the order (like it's $18.60, a lot of people will give you a $20 and call it even). There's of course the nicer people that would give you $21 or even $22 in that case. It's not out of the question for someone to give you $25 in the above scenario, either. Not often, but it does happen. A lot of the bigger orders will give you $10 or so, too.

That was probably very poorly thought-out and hard to read, but what it adds up to is this: every two weeks, I'd take about $750 to the bank. That's roughly $20,000 if I would have worked ~40 hours/week, 52 weeks/year. Probably not going to happen. I don't see how you could make more than $25K/year. At least, working at the exact location I worked at. It might be possible downtown where most of the deliveries are probably to dorms and you can make 75 deliveries in one night. Even with cheapskate college kids, 75 deliveries would add up. I knew a driver at that store and he said he'd make $100 in a night, easy. Add in the minimum wage and you might be able to do $30 or $40K in a year.

If that was unreadable because I'm a scatterbrain, let me know and I'll clarify

[Vengeance]

I don't think the problem is that the jobs aren't out there. I think the problem is that we, as in the public, don't know about them. It's very hard to find the job that we want, too.

elmono mentioned serving up greasy food and how you could get a job doing that easy enough. That's not really true. Those places tend to target teens and seniors for employment. Teens because they don't need the benefits or the salary as badly as adults. Seniors because they're reliable.

I was amazed when I found out that I could get into a county office starting at 20,000/yr. No, I haven't gotten in, but I could if I went in and volunteered. All I needed was two years in college(I didn't even need a degree, just a certain number of credit hours.)

Can someone walk out their door in the morning and be employed somewhere by the evening right now. Absolutely, but only if they seriously drag themselves nearly everywhere and if they degrade themselves AND if they know what jobs are out there.

Having all of that going on to fit well for one person is rare. A certain forum founder could have a job tomorrow if he connected with the right person during his search, but I'm not that person and I don't know that person so for now he'll just have to drift in the wind until that connection can be made.

I don't know if that makes a lot of sense, but I'm extremely pissy right now about something and I tend to type fast and frantic. 

[bigjerkface]

I think he was blowing smoke. If by "applying oneself" he means working 60 hours a week or so and putting up with the likes of some of the moron customers you'd be sure to encounter, I suppose $30K might be possible. $40K? Please. Besides, if you're going to put that much energy into being the most bad-ass pizza dude on the face of the planet, you could probably make your way in somewhere else and make just as much doing a lot less time.

As for the possibility that anyone can get a job anywhere, that's BS. Vengeance touched upon one reason it's impossible - the requirement of degradation and sending out resumes in bulk quantities - but the other is just simple overqualification.

I've applied for jobs at KMart and Wal-Mart and didn't even get a callback. Why? Who knows. I remember at first wondering whether something was wrong with me or the company if Skippy the Neighborhood "Special" Kid could get a job there and I couldn't...but I digress. Movie theaters and hardware stores wouldn't touch me, nor would gas stations, and at that point I was a 19-year-old college dropout (albeit from Northwestern - maybe I shouldn't have put that on the applications). Overqualification or over-education will kill your chances just as fast as no experience will.

Nevertheless, I think he's wrong. A friend of mine is a pizza delivery guy, so I'll check with him to see how much he makes. I'll take the figures he gives me and annualize it, or figure out how much he'd have to work to get the $40K Stephen insists is possible. Stay tuned, I guess.

[Supermercado]

I'm interested in seeing your analysis, bigjerkface.

I think it partly depends on the area, as well. I mentioned it briefly in my post about a driver at the Clemson Papa John's. I'm not totally sure I'm recalling correctly, but he said that he could regularly do close to or more than $100 in tips and reimbursement alone. Add in whatever wages he's getting (I assume it's minimum) and that could add up. I think that if someone were to try and make a decent living on delivering pizza, they'd be best off doing it in a college town.

I had the hardest time finding a job following my freshman year of college. I applied everywhere. 2 Wal-marts, Kmart, Target, Best Buy, Office Max, Office Depot, Burger King, you name it. Then one day I saw a sign at Papa John's saying they were hiring inside workers. I knew it would suck but I had no choice, so I filled out an app. I was pretty much hired on the spot. When I went to talk to the store manager (he wasn't even the one that told me I was more or less hired), he saw that I was 18 and asked me if I wanted to drive. Went from being the crappiest job I've almost ever had to the best job I've ever had. Keep in mind this is all part-time work up to now. I definitely think that there's such a thing as overqualification. I'd like to think they took one look at my app at Best Buy and saw that I'd completed a year of Computer Science and were no longer interested.

At any rate, that's enough babbling. Welcome to the forums, bigjerkface, and I look forward to your pizza delivery stats.

[Vengeance]

I couldn't find a job once. It was when I was looking for one. When I don't look, I always fall into one. Weirdness.

[RichN]

Well, I'm one of those overqualified/underqualified guys that bigjerface mentioned.  I too have applied at the places Skippy can get a job, with no further contact from the companies.  Haven't hit the big 100, so I don't qualify to be "peter the greeter" at WalMart.  And for jobs in my specialty (IT), you will find a position you qualify for (and so does 1000 other people) and they will say you need to have 5 years of experience with Rational Robot and it's an entry level position.  Or, you have every qualification and they then add that you must have experience in the mortgage industry, or some other niche area.  I'd take that pizza job, but my car can't travel on some of the roads in this area.

[bigjerkface]

Rich,

Just look at it this way: they didn't take me anywhere Skippy can get a job either, and I kick ass, so you're in good company.

IT is a difficult field to be in these days...I think it has a lot to do with about five years ago there was this huge demand for IT pros, so it was easy to get a job, and everyone and their mother started studying it thinking it would only get bigger...but it didn't reach the stratospheric level everyone thought it would. Niche markets hurt just about every profession - you see it in accounting too - but I especially see it a lot in the classifieds for IT. Good luck with the job search!