Legitimate work which pays poorly

Summary: a review of several legitimate but perhaps not worth your time and effort jobs I have tried or heard of.

1. Collecting for charity in exchange for a % of what you collect
2. Distributing catalogues in mail boxes
3. Door to Door surveys- eg Morgan Gallup poll
4. Selling roses in restaurants
5. Cold call sales from a call centre.

Many, many years ago pre-children, I answered an ad in the papers for collecting door to door for the house with No Steps, a legitimate Aussie charity for thsoe who are dependent on wheel chairs. As I was a student at the time with not much work experience this was the kind of job I could easily actually get. Basically it was all day Saturday, walking the streets I had been allocated, knocking on doors and asking for donations, in exchange for 30% of what I collected. From 3 Saturdays the most I earned was $10 and the least was very little. I gave it a miss then.

Many people thought we were scammign despite ID as there had been a spate of such scams of late. When I am fairly aggressively asked in the street to donate by Credit Card to legitimate charities I wonder if those collectors are paid a commission.

I would rather do this for free for the Salvos, for example on their door knock day, than for payment. The exercise was good though.

Now distributing catalogues I must say I have considered but not done. My lovely friends at Simple savings on the forum have done it and it sounds like a great deal of work for the return. I believe the walking is good, and can be done with kids quite often as long as there aren't too many hills. It is the preparation of slotting the catalogues inside one another which is very time consuming. Delivering the local paper I suspect would be a little easier on the neck and back.

Still in my uni days, I did apply to do Morgan Gallup polling. I liked the idea as you are collecting data not selling things. Until I saw the HUGE manual and the complex instructions...I must say I was broke at the time but decided against it. As a young woman too I was a bit wary of going door to door mainly in the evenings.

I attended an interview for selling roses in restaurants once. Thought it could be a lark. Well I kid you not, a rose sold for $10 paid the seller $1...not a job for the thin skinned or faint hearted, especially as customers are often annyed at having a meal interrupted by unsolicited offers. I was much kinder to rose sellers after that!

Once again interviewed for a pleasant enough company but when I read the application and saw the room full of laminate temporary tables and phones, with young people passionately selling Australiana soft toys I decided that it was not for me. Especially as the badly photocopied application asked about my Hobbies and Sporting interests. Yes, I know they need to know you are outgoing,resilient and well spoken but come on! My personal interests are my own...was I really going to admit to being Vampire story reading fantatic with a penchant for Agatha Christie novels, and a passion for arguing? Not very sporty of me. I think most of the wage if not all was on a commission basis. I like to be paid for my time not used.

All these experiences motivated me to keep on studying and to reflect on what skills I did have and use them, so really I am grateful to all those I met. Job interview experience of any type is also very valuable as it familiarises you with typical questions and develops your confidence.