Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Bucky, I am yo fathah!

"Come ovah to the daak side."

So I'm perusing Craigslist for another or a better job. 20 hours per week as an estate caretaker won't keep the babies in work boots. There are caretaking jobs where the boss realizes he or she has so much money that they won't be able to spend it in their lifetime, and so treats the caretaker like a long lost son, with high pay, a company car, vacations to Europe, and so on. My job is not one of those, although I am thankful for what I have. Anyway, in between ads for delivering Titan Industries junk machinery for The Irish Travelers, and the "Work from home and make $250,000 per day!!! " ads is some text that catches my eye, something about selling Harley-Davidsons. I break open "Word" and buff up the resume into version #613, you know, the one about how I was born and raised to sell Harley Davidsons, in fact a recent CAT scan showed my pancreas to be a dead nuts likeness of Mr. Davidson Sr. I get out the purty cotton paper and envelopes, and print one off for the hiring folks, and one for the proprietor.

I get halfway down the ever lovely route 254, and decide it's time to shed my liner and have a smoke. The trip odometer catches my eye: 66.6 - the mark of the beast! No turning back now.

I gotta tell you, I don't know what voodoo HD has, but in the 15 minutes I was there, they must have sold 5 bikes. At least 12 potential buyers were readily engaged with sales people. I would want to believe they sold 15 or 20 bikes today. Any other brand of bike store proprietor would lop off a pinky to have traffic like that. I drop off my resumes, and head out.

I don't know if they'll ever call, or I'll ever call them. They'd probably ask me to park down the street, or with the for sale used bikes.

Maybe they'll offer me a V Rod with that Porsche engine for a sign on bonus, or better yet, just the engine new in a crate so's I could shoe horn it into a go cart frame?

Naaaah

Well Martin, after readin' that I gotta tell ya that if I was in charge of hirin' people at that H-D dealership, I would've hired ya on the spot just so's I could hear ya crack wise like that durin' business hours alone!!!

Yep! That was an enjoyable read there alright, dude!

(oh, and good luck with the ongoin' job search there!)

Holy poop man, are you sure you don't want to become a professional writer? That was some good stuff there making me the reader thirsty for more.

Hey man... if I was in a position to... I'd hire you on the spot! You got the right stuff!!

Hey Martin, was that Danbury HD? I've seen ads in the Danbury paper for sales jobs there. Almost thought about selling HD's as a part time job! You gotta wear an orange and black vest you know.

It was Yankee Harley-Davidson of Bristol. The existing sales force looked like an average age of mid twenty somethings, (= much cheaper health insurance costs vs. a 51 year old) so I don't know how good if any my chances are at working there. Maybe they need a token G.I.T. -- geezer in training. We'll see.
FWIW, I walked in there wearing a coat with no less than than three Triumph logos. It was so busy there I doubt it was an issue. If you totaled all the bike & gee gaw shoppers, there had to be 120 customers on the property. Amazing.

Were they having an open house party or actual honest to goodness customers??? The only time that I see that many people at the Harley stealerships around here is when they have their open house parties with free food and beer.

Any time I go by Danbury HD, theres a lot of cars and bikes in their parking lot. And Danbury HD is about the worst, Ive heard. Most HD buyers go to Bridgeport or Newburgh to buy. I bet the commissions are good Martin.

Harley has done a phenomenal job of marketing. Everyone has to have all the Harley gear not just the bike. I was riding with a friend of mine once who has a Sportster and we went buy Granite State Harley Davidson. Well he has to have a t-shirt from there cause its one he don't have. So back we go. Inside they have more gear than motorcycles everything you can think of. Well he finally chooses a t-shirt and we are walking up to pay for it when we walk by a Harley door mat. I look down at the mat and then over at him and with a on my face and say "now that I would use".

Nah Brian. Trust me, you really didn't want one of those Harley-Davidson door mats. You see, IF you would've bought one of those Harley-Davidson door mats, THEN you would have ALSO had to have purchased one of their officially licensed Harley-Davidson vacuum cleaners in order to keep it spotless!

Now of course, the good part of that here is that just like most of their other product line which tends to be over-priced, their vaccum cleaners...(okay everybody, I KNOW you can see the punchline comin' here, and soooooo, all together now)....REALLY suck TOO!!!



(...except of course for their cool new XR1200...now THAT'S one Harley that doesn't appear to suck at all!...I LIKES that Harley!!!)

The difference between a Harley Vaccum and a Sportster?

The location of the dirtbag.

Let us know if you get a job there. I'll stop by and purchase some stuff. Maybe not a new bike. but I'd at least take a few test rides!!! I wouldn't mind a nice new Dyna if they would say chop $5K off the price (wouldn't trade my America though).

Well whuddayaknow - they want me to interview

Better get some cover up for the "Harleys Suck" tat on my forehead.

Good luck! Maybe I should stop in at Danbury HD and apply. I wonder if they will give you a company bike?

Traitor update:

It's a mostly beautiful one hour ride from home to the dealership, (well, except for the T-town lights) Plenty of corners to master, MPH by MPH. Today was interview #1 day, where they want to see if you will show up, give you the once over, and make sure your nickname isn't Hydrocephalus Head. (Dam-, that was cruel) I think it went OK, but time will tell.

Anyway, it's a warm and muggy 80 plus degrees there today, so like the old dawg-in-a-mansuit I am, I sought the shade to park. The shade is at the far end of the Harley dealership, where employees step out to lunch & smoke. One after the other, two employees come over and ask, What year is that bike? So I offer my usual wiseassedness response: "It was built at the turn of the century." (yuck yuck) They both said, "Wow, that's a good looking bike."

Coupla issues to wrangle if goes my way - 64 hours per week, and weekends are a MUST. Gotta eat, so we'll see what's what.

One of the local harley dealers here has a triumph guy on staff. We usually talk bikes. As opposed to everyone else on staff who is well versed in shirts.
I do have to say that new sporty "street fighter" is a cool.

Hey man, I really hope you get it. I think it would be cool to push around HDs while showing up on a Triumph. Maybe you'll get an employee's discount on one of them bikes... then you can have both. Good luck!!

If they sponsor a HOG chapter, since you actually ride, you might get assigned to lead the official HOG rides. Most of those are 'family' activities instead of bar hops so you might even get to go on some decent rides. AND get paid for it.

I am in recovery Bucky so can't smoke weed or drink. Apparently you can and do. It worked for me for a long time.I think it works well for you. Funny stuff. I married a Baptist woman recently and she don't play that altered state game. I do think if I make it to 85 I will move to Mendocino County Ca, and grow my 5 plants and some wine grapes too. That would probably help dementia. I just bought a Marlin Clock for the middle of my handle bars. It is trey cool. We guys love our toys! Also the voices have stoppped. I was puzzled why they kept telling me to kill all the white people.

Ok capten buzz kill.


AnyMcway, I was at the dealer picking up oils (you need to buy 3 types so you get more colorful leaks) for the wife's bike. Evidently an EVO is old fashioned now, too bad your company made the same motor for 20 years. But I noticed an interesting promotion that I would jump all over if I was in sales. If you buy a sportster this year, HD will give you 100% of the purchase price in trade in next year, when you trade in on a 2010 big twin. So that mean double commission, plus they'll need all new t-shirts to fill up the bags on that new tourer.

The XR1200 was in stock at the dealer I'm fishing at. Very cool bike, as is the one with the girder or springer (or whatever it's called) front end. On the downside, the XR1200 has a seat on it that would barely rival a chunk of warped patio block for comfort. Guess the bike isn't supposed to be comfortable. Dunno.

I gotta say one thing about Harley - from the visits and the training materials (spied online - I don't have the job yet) they are all about making the customer feel welcomed when they walk through the door, which in some modern businesses is a lost art. I've been trying to price fertilizer for my boss, and one would think from the lack of interest and return calls shown by certain vendors, that the economy is still booming. When I was in business seeking help from contractors, I wish I had kept a list of who couldn't return calls, so that I could call them now and torment them. "I have an 8,000 sheet wall board job for you -- Oh wait - you're the F' who never called me back in November of '04. "Ha ha hah hah hah."

Looking forward to seeing you in late July, Mr. Select-man.

I'm not only a selectman I'm also the chair this year. Scary eh?
So is the HD gig on commission or straight pay? oddly enough I think I've turned more people away when I sell on commission cause I know how much I'm going to make and I have to decide if the hassle is going to be worth it.

Craigslist stated "hourly against the draw." I have no clue what that means. I may not even get a further shot or interview. My commute is one hour each way, which would total 86 hours per week if one includes travel time with on the job time. I reckon the HR folk have that fact in mind. I don't have a problem with those hours if the money rolls well enough. With one in ten people out of work nationwide, it may sound just right (for now.) While this may not be a dream job, I'm getting fairly desperate, and willing to accept some grind. I was one of those geniuses who at age 18 was already so smart I didn't need a degree, nor a job with a pension, so I have to take what comes along.