Talk TIme: Tales of Sales: MBA to Minimum Wage
Deepak Singh worked as a radio reporter for the BBC in India. But when he came to the United States, he became another underemployed immigrant who couldn’t find a job in his field. In his insightful book, How May I Help You?: An Immigrant’s Journey from MBA to Minimum Wage, Singh writes about his struggles and stint in retail.
In your book, you say that you would paint a more
realistic picture about life in the United States to the
Deepak who was coming to America for the first time.
Have you seen that Indians these days have a more
nuanced concept of what life is like here?
Good question. When I moved to the
States in 2003, it wasn’t so easy to communicate
with your near and dear ones back
in India. My parents didn’t own a computer
and phone calls were expensive. A lot has
changed in India over the last five to six
years. On my last trip in December 2015, I
noticed almost everyone had a smartphone
of some sort. I think Indians now have a better
picture of what’s going on in the United
States, and around the world, than I did a
decade ago.
When you went into this retail sales job, you
said you were going to work here until you found
something better. How did that color your attitude
toward the job, that it was just a stepping stone to
something else?
I worked for BBC World Service before I moved to
the U.S. After coming to America, I was hoping to get a
job in the same field. When nothing worked, I started
looking for anything and everything. My savings were
dwindling fast, and I was getting desperate. I applied
for sales jobs in all kinds of stores—clothing, bookstore,
and grocery stores. At the time I didn’t see myself
staying in retail for a long period of time; the idea
was to work there until I found something that
matched my experience and education. Because this
was supposed to be a temporary job, my attitude
toward it wasn’t very healthy. I thought of it as something
beneath me. But I quickly learned that in order
to keep my job, I’d have to change my approach. I
swallowed my pride, put on a pair of khakis, and prepared
myself to get my hands dirty.
“I was embarrassed to be talking to another Indian
as a salesman,” you write. There are so many complex
shades of class and status in there. Are you able
to unwrap that for us? Why were you embarrassed?
I grew up in India, in a society where people
judge you harshly according to your profession,
education, your dress and address, caste, and religion.
The people I grew up with thought of upward mobility
as something when your job title says ‘officer,’ ‘manager,’
‘doctor,’ ‘professor,’ or ‘engineer’—never
a salesman. I would’ve been mortified if
my mother had walked in the store while I
was working at ElectronicsHut.
What does the layperson not really know about
what happens behind the scenes at a retail store?
A lot. I can write a small guidebook about what
happens behind the scenes at a retail store but for now
I will leave it at this: For every piece of merchandise on
the sales floor, there’s a morning meeting. Every single
product is strategically placed. Figuring out employees’
work hours is like working a jigsaw puzzle. Who can
work weekends, who can open the store and who can’t
work nights. To come up with a schedule that makes
everyone happy and keeps the business running is no
small task.
What was one of the many revelations to you
about your fellow employees at your retail job? How
did that inform your later work?
How professional they were. They were proud of
what they were doing, presented themselves to customers
with a bright smile, and tried to help them to the
best of their knowledge. They inspired me and taught
me how you can and should be an expert at what you
do—even when that is not the job of your preference.
What is the secret to good sales?
I am no expert on this subject, but if you ask me,
the secret to good sales is how patient you can be with
your customers. Most people in retail are focused on
selling a product to a customer the moment he enters
a store. In my time at ElectronicsHut, I learned that the
lack of patience was the biggest handicap of a salesman.
A human should treat another human like a human—whether you meet him or her in a coffee shop or
a sales floor.
What is the single most important lesson you
learned from your retail job?
Empathy. I learned to see and understand people
by putting myself in their shoes.
How did you move to the work you do now?
I started my journalism career with BBC in India
and fifteen years later I am still at it. ElectronicsHut was
a two-year hiatus from that work.
Poornima Apte is a Boston-area freelance writer and editor. Learn more at WordCumulus.WordPress.com.
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