September 4th, 2017, 8:14am
Im writing this post at the moment on my apple notes at the Federal& Wolfe cafe in Central Auckland. It's Josh and I's first day of work here, and we missed the memo to get here at 9am instead of 8. Oh yeah, surprise! We got jobs working together at the same company. How cool and cheesy is that? We'll be training for these next two weeks in Auckland with a company called Just Fundraising. You can probably tell from the name what our jobs are. The company works with multiple local and international charities to get long-term donors - generous people willing to donate monthly for a few years. So yeah, we're about to become those people that stop you on the street and knock on your door trying to get donations out of you. Make fun of it all you want, I don't care. It's a job that is actually 100% guilt free. I don't feel like I'm part of a corporate money making machine that only cares about profits. Instead I'm working with well-deserving charities that genuinely want to make the world a less-shitty place for the next generation. We actually got this job on a total whim. Last Monday (August 28), we drove up to Waihi Beach in the Bay of Plenty to interview for a couple's position managing a holiday park. It would have been kind of similar to managing a hostel. Right after the interview, I got a call from an Irish guy named Andrew. I had probably applied to at least a hundred jobs off BackpackerBoard, so when he said he was calling for the fundraising position, my response was "Sorry...which one?" Andrew wanted us to come in to the Auckland office for an interview the next morning. Josh and I were already planning to sleep in our campervan that night before we drove back to Hawke's Bay. So I told him sure, we'll drive up tomorrow. After I got off the phone, Josh and I mapped out how close Auckland was. It turned out we were only 2 hours away. So we called Andrew back and told him we could be there later that day to interview. I guess that helped us come off as really eager and enthusiastic about the job. Which saved our asses, because the next day we found out we didn't get that holiday park position. Our fundraising job was definitely the universe's plan for us.
Speaking of the campervan, I'd like to introduce you guys to Luci (when she's acting like a bitch I call her Lucifer). She's a self-contained Toyota Lucida. Which means, not only is she set up to sleep in with a bed in the backseat, but she also has to have a sink and a certain amount of drinkable water in her at all times. Okay, I'm gonna stop talking about my car like it's a girl. Being self-contained also means the van has to have a portable toilet in it. Which we do...but we're hoping we'll never have to use it. The advantage of a self-contained car, is that we don't have to pay for certain camp sites. Americans might think it's ridiculous to pay for camp-sites, but it's one of the ways New Zealand funds their national parks. The app of the week that helped us find a free place to park-up for a night is called CamperMate. Again, I've screenshotted the desktop version, but the phone interface is 100 times better. This app is caravaners' and campervaners' best friend. It shows all of New Zealand's camp sites, specifying which ones are free for self-contained vehicles, which ones have hot showers and toilet facilities, dump-stations for portable toilets (again, we're hoping to never have to go to these), and so many more basics.
Okay, gotta go to the office now, wish us luck!
September 16th, 10:15pm
Guys, fundraising is hard. Do you wanna know what I've learned after two weeks on the job? Rich people suck. The more money a person has, they less charitable they're likely to be.
What I was able to notice right off the bat on our first day on the job is that a fundraiser is basically a sales person. Except you're asking someone to give you their money and get nothing physical in return. So I'd say we have it a bit harder. We have daily and weekly targets that we have to hit, just like in sales. The average performance we're expected to deliver is about 3 sign-ups a day, which is definitely easier said than done.
Josh and I got assigned to work for Barnardos. They're New Zealand's largest children's organization that helps kids who are in domestic abuse situations. New Zealand is apparently the worst country in the world in terms of domestic abuse. I've learned some pretty horrific statistics from my training; one of them being that every 5 weeks a child is murdered at the hand of their abuser. Just here in New Zealand. So yeah, even though after my first two days of getting zero sign-ups from high-income neighborhoods, the Barnardos mission is what stopped me from quitting. I'll happily put up with 100 rich assholes that slam the door in my face, just to find one that's willing to donate.
Yeah, I definitely wanted to quit after my first day though. This guy named Jared from Chile (who is already one of my favorite people) actually had to sit next to me during our lunch break and console me while I was crying. Thankfully, most of the people I work with are just as cool as Jared. When I say these guys are the dopest co-workers, I mean it. One girl named Val, who is half Colombian half American, is a Power Rangers stunt double. My team-leader, Sahil, used to be a real-estate agent in India and is one of the best motivators/one of the funniest people I know. Another girl named Ebby is the Pakistani version of my little sister Angie, and I fucking love her to death. Maybe you're detecting the pattern by now, their are a lot of travelers and international people that are fundraising for the company. Only one of the girls in the office is actually a Kiwi. They make the day-to-day minutia a lot more bearable and kind of fun. Apparently they all had similar experiences their first week and they all considered quitting. Some of these guys are now the top-performing fundraisers in the company. So if they're saying it'll get better eventually, I'm gonna trust them.
To be completely frank, Josh and I didn't take this job because we wanted to be in Auckland - Auckland kinda sucks. It's like the NYC of New Zealand here. When you've come to a country to reconnect with nature, but you end up getting stuck in traffic on your hour-long morning commute to work....you've ended up in the wrong city. Of course, we knew in advanced about Auckland's big-city-vibes, but took the job anyways. Why? Because we were promised that after two weeks of training, (if we met performance standards) we'd be put on a "roaming" team. Basically the company would pay for our transportation and accommodation while we travel New Zealand to fund-raise. The key words they used in the job listing were "getting paid to travel". Sounds too good to be true right? Well yeah, it is. After two weeks of training, we are being asked to stay in Auckland a bit longer until we meet the minimum standards. Which Josh and I don't think will be happening anytime soon. I asked Ebby about this because she had been sent roaming before. Apparently, she worked in the Auckland office for a few months before being asked to travel...fucking brutal reality check, right? You might think: why not stick to the job the next few months anyways and then hope to get sent traveling? Honestly, if i had a 2-year visa, I totally would. Even though Josh would probably quit anyways (he's way too nice to be doing this job), he could potentially continue his freelance while I work. But unfortunately, I've only got six and a half months left in New Zealand. And I've only seen parts of Hawke's Bay and Auckland. I can't afford being stationary for another few months, we'll never get to see the rest of the country at this rate.
Sooo yeah, we want to give it at least another two weeks. But we'll be hitting BackpackerBoard all the while to find the next travel dream job.
