What is it like to be a car salesperson?

I can't think of a worse job, really. Maybe washing dishes?

I did it for about a year and a half. Solid, respectable dealership on a mid-to-high range model line. The sales force collectively determined they would not be cut-throat, which worked well (although it worked better for the long-term staff). I made a reasonable income, around 100 cars a year. Top sellers were closer to 140, and you'd probably be fired for going under 80 (well, at least given the "don't think this is right for you" speech). Some dealerships will have a guaranteed minimum salary for the first few months while you learn, but not all do and it's not a lot anyway. The stories you'll hear are amazing. There truly are salespeople out there as bad as the stereotype. But once you meet the range of customers you see, you start to understand some of it a bit. Car shoppers can be as sleazy as the worst salesperson you'll meet, and some people can fall into an us-vs-them mentality. I got strung along for weeks by a guy who looked at just about every model on the lot, finally signed him only to learn he wasn't a full-time teacher like he said, but a part-time puppeteer with a string of defaulted credit cards. But you also get the complete opposite, and those customers are amazing. Some customers even gave US gifts, like flowers and booze. Keep in touch with them, follow up just to see how they're doing. Literally, that would be half my day, just calling and chatting with my customers every couple weeks. They'd call me with questions on their cars or how to set up the Bluetooth again. You become their car friend, essentially, and without you even asking they'll start sending their friends to you when they're looking for a car. You can make a good living doing it while maintaining your self-respect. It involves a lot of hard work and networking - talking to people outside the dealership, finding people who need cars or encouraging them to trade in their older cars while they still hold good value, or getting referrals from people who know and trust you. If you're the type to wait for people to come in the door, don't bother. You won't sell enough to be successful unless you're a shark. Every dealership is different, of course, so if you don't have a good experience at one doesn't mean it's wrong for you. But you really, truly, have to give up the rest of your life for probably 5-6 years to make it work. If the dealership is open, you're probably there. Our dealership was closed on Sundays, for example, but some guys would stop in for an hour or so and just hang around the lot, handing out their cards to the tire kickers. There's enormous pressure even at good dealerships to produce results, every month. We had a five-person sales staff, and in the year and a half I was there I saw thirteen people come and go. Very high turnover. Based on your description, car sales hits a few points. You're not chained to a desk (but you might have one), and if you like driving cars you'll get lots of experience there. The pay is exactly what you make of it because it's all commission, but the days of big easy money is gone (I think my biggest single sale was $945). It's good money, but if you figure it out per hour you're probably taking a pay cut. There's no real room to advance (except to a desk job like finance manager where you're selling extended warranties and crap). You won't get a big range of skills to transfer, but the sales experience is solid and respected. I had fun, but there's no way in hell I'd go back if I could avoid it. But I met plenty of good people there who wouldn't want to do anything else.

You cannot reliably make 40k selling cars. It's a straight commission job and it is cut-throat. You'll find yourself hanging out at the dealership all hours waiting for someone to come in. I know someone who worked at it for 3 months and sold 2 cars. If he worked with someone for 3 hours, but they didn't have credit, no sale, no money. If he showed them every car on the lot, but they didnt' buy, no money. The guys who actually make money selling cars, have vast customer networks, and are aggressively shaking people down all the time. My advice, see if you can get a part time job selling cars nights and weekends, see how it goes for you and then decide.

http://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/confessions-of-a-car-salesman.html story from Edmunds about an "undercover" car salesman might be of interest to you (if a bit old).

I don't know if the working environment is really any different, but I've shopped at dozens of different dealerships for cars, and I've found the higher-end dealerships (Porsche, BMW, Audi, etc.) had sales people who did much less of the "sleazy" stuff, and didn't reek of desperation like the people at, say, a Honda or Ford dealership. Is that just because they hire people who hide their desperation better? Maybe. But if I were ever going to sell cars, those are the kinds of places I'd go looking. (Of course, they are also probably much harder to get a job at).

My father in law was a car salesman working his way up to running the Sales department in a Jeep dealership in a small town. Now I suppose his situation was different in the sense that if you wanted a Jeep you had to go to him since the nearest dealership was 2+ hours away. That may have cut down on the cut throat nature of things between dealerships. With that said, my FIL is an excessively kind and generous man and the kind of person that is civic and religiously minded. He seemingly knows everyone and is easy to talk to and is quite approachable. He is super reliable and was always ready to work hard and go the extra mile for anyone (and this isn't just for business). If it matters to you because of his position he was always impeccably dressed (which I guess is a good or bad thing depending on your perspective).

I have no experience selling cars, but know people who have done it successfully, repeatedly and over a number of years. They are definitely not the shyster scam artist personalities - rather, they are hard working, consistent, and not intimidated. I think they make it work by getting those customers that can't stand the stereotypical car salesman. What I see that sucks = hardly any days off, long hours, no social life. This.

I haven't done it, but a family member has and based on his experience I wouldn't recommend it. He sold for a high end brand and even there the entire workplace mentality was consumed with a sense of scarcity. Your co-workers are your enemy because they might talk with your client while you are on lunch and make a claim for part of the commission and all sorts of other nonesense. Unless you achieve a very distinguishable sales number most people will regard car sales as unprofessional and not endearing to your next career.

My roommate was one of the nicest, most sincere people I have ever known. He worked for his family Chrysler dealership, nice operation and made a lot of money. Some of the stories he told me, and with pride were absolutely horrifying. This generally honorable, loyal friend would laugh as he told us horrible stories about "giving it to" a customer who they pressured to buy. Totally out of character for him. He was a sales manager and would regale us with stories of denigrating poor performing salespeople or customers. Cold shit man. And I just now I realized I used to be the same selling stereos and home theaters. It hurts my heart to think about it. Don't do it. This type of sales, it will make a good man bad. Also, the last car I bought, I was so offended by every single used car salesman I met that I bought something I didn't expect to buy from a more expensive, higher end Cadillac dealership just because they treated me with a minimum of respect.