I was given the hard sales pitch right out of college, and I was swept off my feet with their lustrous tales of exotic sales reward trips, six figure salaries for everyone, and rapid promotion through the corporate ranks. One swine-faced sales manager who was influential in hiring me even told me that it was certainly within my sphere to work as a sales executive in London, England or Cairo, Egypt after a couple of years with the company. I only needed to “prove myself” first. Little did I know that proving myself would entail pledging my mind, heart, and soul to the ideals, leaders, and corporate culture of HSBC while making bad loans for misguided, yet otherwise salt of the earth, hard-working, blue collar Americans.
Editor’s note: In this case HSBC was recruiting for HSBC Finance, formerly Household International. Whether the person was recruited before or after the United States subprime disaster became unstoppable is not relevant. The closest most college graduates will get to Egypt is that other famous place known quite well to salt of the earth, hard-working, blue collar Americans. A childish analogy perhaps, but right 100 percent correct. (I’ve been to Cairo. All business in Egypt must go through Cairo, thus it is crowded and sometimes nasty. Stay away from the camel sandwiches.)
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