Chapter 2: Connecting with Finance

The National Day is here, and it seems that everyone except me is enjoying the holiday. For the unemployed, there is no other place to go except the job market.

The Shanghai talent market is as busy as ever, with job advertisements and recruits from major companies mixed with job seekers, turning this job-seeking mecca into a market. The noisy sounds and the faint smell of sweat from the crowds make it hard to imagine that this is what a talent market in an international metropolis should look like.

After the experience of the last company, I became more cautious about job hunting. In one morning, I had already learned about three or four companies, but I didn't submit a single resume.

I know in my heart that it is very difficult to find a satisfactory job in such a prosperous metropolis. Although I keep telling myself not to be impatient, my empty wallet keeps crying out to me.

In the afternoon, there seemed to be more people in the talent market. There was a company's recruitment booth crowded with people, which attracted my attention.

"Don't give me an explanation!" A middle-aged man was getting angry. "The company's strategic transformation will begin soon, and key positions are still vacant. What can you explain if you haven't completed your work?"

Although the middle-aged man was well-dressed, there was some resentment in his tone. He controlled his emotions very well, and if you didn't look closely, you would hardly notice that his eyes almost swallowed up his subordinates.

"Your job is to screen talents for the company. In such a huge talent market, you tell me there is no one to choose from?" The middle-aged man did not let go of his subordinates around him, "You have gathered so many talents, and you tell me you can't recruit anyone?"

This middle-aged man looked very domineering, but he had a unique leadership temperament. His temperament was completely different from the gentle and elegant leaders often seen on TV, but rather like a battle-hardened general.

"Young job seekers, come over here." The middle-aged man cursed, but he was also defending the company: "We are Baobin Company. Today we are here to recruit some more talents for the company's strategic development. It just so happens that our company has a few vacancies in sales positions. Everyone, tell me what kind of position you want."

"The treatment is good." Someone spoke up.

"Our company's treatment is well-known in Lujiazui," the middle-aged man explained calmly, "but it still depends on personal efforts to get it."

"How much is the salary?" a young man in the crowd asked without hesitation.

"The basic salary is 5,000 yuan a month, plus commissions and bonuses. The company also provides dormitories and cafeterias."

"That's not much..." another young man interrupted.

"Oh, you are quite ambitious, not bad." The middle-aged man continued, "At least all of you here are college students. In addition to the basic salary, sales positions also have a sales commission, which everyone knows. Don't complain about the low salary, it depends on whether it is a mule or a horse. Our company does not support idlers. If you don't have the ability to earn commissions, you can only get the basic salary. For those who are capable, there is a 10% commission and an additional bonus. How much do you think you can get? It depends on your ability."

What the middle-aged man said makes sense. In those days, there were not many sales positions with guaranteed basic salary. Although I have not been in the society for a long time, I also know that the real income of sales job comes from commission. A good salesperson never cares about the basic salary, but only cares whether the company can provide a platform for him to display his talents.

"Who's interested?" The middle-aged man looked at the crowd sharply, as if he saw through us young people who had just entered society.

"I, I want to try!" I raised my hand and handed over my resume.

With such a straightforward leader, who seems to be a senior executive in the company, of course I am willing to give it a try.

"Young man," the middle-aged man took my resume, looked at it, and patted my shoulder, "work hard. When I was young like you, I endured all kinds of hardships and fatigue. As long as you are willing to work hard, our company and this platform will not let you down."

Just like that, I got my second job in Shanghai. I followed a few people who were also preparing to start work and their HR to their company.

 

The middle-aged man's words lack substance. It's not that he is bragging, but that he didn't finish his words.

Baobin Company owns an entire floor in a building in Lujiazui. The 1,800-square-meter Grade A office building is the company's territory. The company used to be engaged in TV shopping. In the past two years, the TV shopping market has declined. The company began to shift its strategic direction and started marketing stock software. Of course, I only found out about this later.

Since I came to Shanghai, I seem to have an indissoluble bond with finance. Although I only wanted to be a salesperson when I applied for a job, I ended up selling stock software twice in a row. I was amazed at the coverage of the financial industry in an international financial city. It turns out that finance is everywhere in life. And an invisible force is pushing me onto the road of finance.

There were 38 new employees in our group. After a week of training, the company divided them into four groups. My team leader was named Niu, and he was in a relationship with another female team leader named Feng. Team leader Niu was always patient in explaining the precautions to us, which made people feel friendly.

The company required us to wear formal clothes to work. I touched my thin wallet and bought a cheap suit for 130 yuan from a corner that I still can't name. Although it was very uncomfortable to wear, I obviously had a more elite temperament in the mirror.

On the first day of work, we were gathered in the meeting room. The person who spoke in the meeting room was the middle-aged man who appeared in the talent market that day. Only then did I know that the person who spoke to us at the recruitment booth in the talent market that day was the chairman of our company.

At the meeting, the chairman summarized his many years of sales experience for us, including his own experience and that of many colleagues. He wrote densely on the blackboard all the notes that sales people need to master. We newcomers wrote furiously but couldn't catch up with his speed of writing on the blackboard with chalk.

He repeatedly emphasized at the meeting that as a salesperson, our responsibility is to sell products to customers, and what we need to do is to magnify the customer's weaknesses. Only when the customer's weaknesses are magnified enough will he feel fear at all times, and when he is shrouded by his own fear, he will realize what he needs. At this time, our products must be something that can bring hope to customers, and they will need our products. This is the best time to sell products to customers.

After the long meeting, I left with a notebook full of notes. The chairman, who was saying goodbye to the newcomers at the door, suddenly patted me on the shoulder and said, "Young man, I still remember you."

"Thank you, Chairman."

"Work hard in the company and give full play to your abilities," he said seriously. "Don't just strive to be the first when submitting your resume."

I nodded, his words seemed to have a deeper meaning.

 

Sales work is not very difficult for me. After all, I started working as a salesperson during my summer vacation when I was in college.

The company set a 300-minute call time limit for each of us, and a minimum of 100 calls. These standards sounded very strict, but they seemed very easy to me. I have been able to chat with different people about their daily lives since I was a child, and now that I understand sales tactics, it is no problem for me to have a good time with customers.

On the third day after I started working, I completed my first sales order in the company - a stock software worth 4,799 yuan. I calculated that I could earn a commission of 500 yuan from this order. Since then, in addition to completing my daily tasks, I have received more and more successful orders. Not only that, I also took some time out of my busy schedule to start learning about stock knowledge.

At that time, the stock market was not good. The stock market had been falling since it peaked in 2006-2007. It has not reached a new high until today, but has continued to fall. Looking at the index drop from 6,000 points to 2,000 points, I fell into thinking about the nature of stocks. It was not until this time that I realized that the explanation of stocks in middle school textbooks was too superficial. Stocks are not only part of the ownership of a joint-stock company, but also a certificate of ownership, and can also be a securities that obtain dividends and bonuses. But I found that stocks are still tradable products after each company goes public. As long as the operation is proper, there is no problem in making profits from the secondary market.

I have watched so many stocks rise and fall, but in the past two years, various stocks have been terrible, and many have fallen by more than 90%.

For a long time, retail investors in China's stock market could only buy when prices were rising but not when prices were falling, so most of them are now stuck.

The knowledge involved here is not simple.

At the end of the day, our clients are a type of stock trader - retail investors.

It is actually quite difficult for them. If you want to make money, you have to understand a company from three aspects: fundamentals, technology, and news, so that you can have better investment and trading options. I didn’t know much at that time, but I knew that 95% of retail investors lose money because they are not professional and lack the accumulation of knowledge and skills.

After realizing this, I secretly made up my mind to focus on trading knowledge and technology, learn more myself, and then communicate with customers to sell software and pass on more knowledge to them.

That day, I thought for a long time and fell asleep very late. Many years later, I realized that I was just a novice at that time and my ideas were so powerless.

 

From then on, my daily life was immersed in work and study. Being tired was inevitable, but every time I woke up from bed, I was full of expectations for my future.

During this time, I gradually understood K-line and began to try to analyze some stocks. I also did not fall behind in work. Not only did I learn a lot of new sales pitches, but I also wrote my own sales pitches and skill summaries that my colleagues did not expect. In general, everything about the new company satisfied me, except for the canteen run by a Shanghai chef, which was too sweet. All the dishes were sweet, even the stir-fried cabbage was put with sugar.

As the day approached noon, the office gradually became quiet. As lunch time approached, everyone would stop their phone sales work intermittently to sort out the morning's work summary and summarize the customer classification.

The office is quiet at this time.

"Big, big brother..." Xiao Zhang from the next group blushed, "You, you didn't brush your teeth this morning... Why does your mouth stink so bad?"

Xiao Zhang and I shared a dormitory, sleeping on the upper and lower bunks. He was a very easy-going person, but he would stutter when he got excited.

Seeing Xiao Zhang hung up the phone, I asked him: "What happened?"

"As soon as he answered the phone, he started saying CNM, CNM, one sentence after another, the quintessence of Chinese culture. What can I do?" Hearing Xiao Zhang's abrupt and weak rebuttal, everyone laughed, and I laughed too. Sometimes a day at work can be very happy.

 

Pretty girls always have good luck.

Xiaoxiao found a new job the day after she resigned. She worked in Changning District. We lived far apart. It took 40 minutes to get there by subway Line 2. That was the first time I went to see her after I found the job. I was still an apprentice in Shanghai, and I hadn’t yet mastered the skill of entering and exiting the subway without getting unkempt.

That day, Xiaoxiao was wearing a green dress and long hair. Her simple and elegant dress and the fragrance of flowers that inevitably accompanied her made her a beautiful sight on the street. She looked at my wrinkled suit and severely deformed tie and smiled brightly.

She told me that she had found a job related to human resources. After the last lesson, her job was much more formal, better than mine anyway, with food, accommodation, five insurances and one housing fund. What shocked me most was that her salary was much higher than mine. Excluding the deductions for five insurances and one housing fund and food and accommodation, her salary was a full 5,000 yuan...

We found a cheap little restaurant again, and we went there just after the peak meal time. The tables and chairs were cleaned, the owner looked tired, and the waiter who took our orders was careless. But this time, Xiaoxiao didn't have the sad look on her face.

"How are you doing?" Xiaoxiao spoke first.

"Not bad," I said truthfully. "Sales is a bit tiring, but I feel so happy every day when I count the commission I will get at the end of the month."

"Oh?" Xiaoxiao smiled, "How much can you earn this month?"

"It seems that after deducting expenses, I can get 4,500 yuan!"

"Congratulations, then."

"Salaries are only paid on the 15th of every month, so I have to wait until the 15th of the next month to get my salary."

Xiaoxiao didn't answer. She was still as sharp as before. She lowered her head, ate a few bites of food, and took out her cell phone.

"Is this your Alipay number?" Xiaoxiao asked me.

"Yeah," I nodded, "Yes!"

Before I finished speaking, a message came from my phone. I took out my phone and saw that it was Xiaoxiao's message to transfer 1,000 yuan to me.

"What is this?" I asked puzzledly.

"Stop pretending," Xiaoxiao scolded with a smile, "Everyone knows how poor you were when you resigned. As long as you can take out a red bill from your wallet right now, I'll give you this money for free."

I was speechless for a moment, she was right.

"This money..." Xiaoxiao continued, "must be calculated with interest."

"How do you calculate it? It's all up to you." After she said that, I felt much better.

"It's calculated on a daily basis," Xiaoxiao said proudly, "If you owe me one day, you owe me a meal. You can treat me to as many meals as you owe me. I'll choose where to eat, how about that?"

I nodded, and after a long while I managed to utter: "Thank you..."