Pros
-If you are sub-25 or in your late 20's/early 30's and immature, this place is a dream. Free Friday happy hours, forced drinking, aggressive men who outnumber attractive women almost 3:1, it';s easy to make $5,300 of a single phone call and get laid by the aggressive guy pulling down just as much cash as you in the same day (I would know). -GREAT MONEY ... provided you work for it. After working really hard and prospecting in the smartest way possible, I had an amazing five month streak that paid for a year's worth of rent in an east side walk-up, 20+ pairs of designer shoes, a personal trainer at one of the most expensive gyms in Manhattan, dinner in the best restaurants, and all the single-malt scotch I could drink. In short, I lived the quintessential New York life before I turned 23. -In-office social life ... because it's a cult that encourages you to drink and screw your deskmates, you do bond with these people (even if it's only due to the excessive drinking that makes you feel close to relative strangers). I left there over four years ago and I still have some friend there (though most of the people in upper management and those kissing up to them treated me like a pariah after I decided to leave). -Lack of high intelligence needed to succeed ... As a recent college graduate with a dual degree and the “cum laude” stamp on both aforementioned degrees, it was a kick in the you-know-what to see people with no college degrees who could barely read crush it on a given month where I was not performing as well. To the street-smart and not book-smart weasel, however, this job is amazing because it can open the door to a salary your average uneducated and unintelligent person could never acquire under normal circumstances. -The Training ... I've worked in the Fortune 50 and I've worked in slightly more professional sales pits since I left 33 Whitehall (the office before the Trump Building on Wall St.) 4.5 years ago. I'll say this about the training there: it teaches you to close and accept no excuses from the client who hesitates to buy. It might sound cheesy or "Boiler Room," but they teach very early on that if you're not closing, then someone is closing you -- like the military or Catholic school, such a rigid mindset will never leave you. Moreover, I had the honor of working under of one the fairest and most fun managers (who didn't dip his pen in the company ink as often as his peers) whom I still consider my best boss ever (despite working in 3 positions since then). -It is a throwback to the days of Mad Men, where over-confident men chase women around the office and they cannot/do not want to say "no." As a girl between 21-23, it gave me a rush, if I had to put up with that now, I'd probably knee a lot more guys in the groin.
Cons
-Some of my cons are weighed against the pros in the above section. -No social life outside of the GDS circle. -Feast or famine mentality. If you have a dry month or two (it happens to all us), it's really tough to going from a 20k check one week to a 1,200 check the next week. -The constant boiler room pep talks. -Being cast off by upper management and it's eager-to-please subordinates when you decide to leave. -Lack of morals inside work ...Selling a "trade publication" that never reached decision makers in its industry, selling conference seats to nobodies in an industry looking to rub elbows with the leading industry decision makers who have no idea that they've signed on for 8-12 closed door meetings with said nobodies, lying to administrators to get cell phones of decision makers, lying about affiliations with major industry organizations to set a meeting, lying about people you're working with to set a meeting, etc. -Never being allowed to sit unless you're closing (I cannot tell you how many times I've heard a British accent bark at me "motion creates emotion!"). -Lack of morals outside work ... encouragement of post-work drinking and a cavalier attitude about excessive inter-office sex are part of the "you only live once" and "work hard/play hard" attitude that the office prides itself in. After you get older (and hopefully wiser), you realize the managers and senior staff encouraging this lifestyle are, for the most part, massive tools who need to grow up.
