From telemarketing tragedy to something a little more Remarkable

Somewhat desperate for consistent work, we started working as telemarketers in a call center. Our job was to call Australians and try to convince them to meet with one of our consultants to discuss purchasing investment property. Rachel and I spent a few days in college calling people in Dallas inviting them to an investment meeting on behalf of an investment company. It was brutal and left us feeling dejected and annoying each night after interrupting hundreds of family dinners. Our telemarketing in Queenstown made our Dallas experience seem like a breeze. The system in Queenstown was much more high tech and automatically dialed up to 75 calls per hour for 5 hours a day. We both got some pretty interesting rejections, but it was fun to laugh about with each other in between. I was terrible and got 0 meetings booked (that’s almost 2000 rejections). In all likelihood, I would have been fired during my second week because I was so bad. Instead of trying to counter someone’s disinterest like I was taught, I usually just told them to have a great night. Rachel, however, was much better and made at least 3 bookings (so much harder than it sounds). She also had a fun call when she was patched through to a man turning 86 years old. Rachel followed the script, “Hi, this is Rachel calling from Future First…” The man didn’t hear anything after “This is Rachel” and thought his granddaughter, also named Rachel, had called to wish him Happy Birthday. He was so excited that Rachel needed a couple minutes to calm him down and explain she wasn’t his granddaughter, but she wished him a very happy birthday anyway.

My dry spell with job searching changed mid-week and Rachel’s changed shortly after. I got a job up in the restaurant on The Remarkables - one of the major ski mountains on the South Island. The people I work with are young and most are traveling in NZ just like us. Days off and some very long lunch breaks are spent skiing on the mountains. It’s good fun, fast paced, and I’m getting to ski more than I ever have before.

The most exciting news is Rachel just heard back from her top job choice today. The clothing and lifestyle brand, Billabong, is opening a new store in Queenstown on September 4th and Rachel was chosen to be the new STORE MANAGER! She starts work tomorrow and is very exciting about her new role.