A US company is seeking Irish people to sell motors on military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. All you need is charm, patter and a sense of adventure
ARE YOU ENTHUSIASTIC and career-minded, with a fondness for travel, trucks and motorbikes? Then an ad that appeared in Irish newspapers this week may yield just the job for you: fancy becoming an “Iraq/Afghanistan Sales Representative”?
The job advertisement in question is seeking “enthusiastic, career-minded people” to join the operations in the Middle East “selling new cars, trucks and motorcycles on US Military Installations to American Service Members.” In other words, the company involved, Exchange New Car Sales, is looking for people to sell to members of the US military who are on tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Given that the number of people signing on the Live Register is now 12.2 per cent of the workforce, the promise of “a first-class remuneration package” becomes an instant eye-catcher. Interested parties are invited to answer the ad by applying online at encsme.com, with interviews to be conducted in Dublin early next month.
Exchange New Car Sales, a division of Overseas Military Sales Group, claims to be “the only new-car buying programme created for the military by the military” and has been selling Chryslers, Fords and Harley-Davidsons to military personnel stationed abroad for more than 45 years, according to its website.
If tempted, you might find yourself completing the online form which requests the usual information: name, address, personal details and employment history, but with an added section asking applicants to select groups of words that describe them best.
Are you more “gentle, kindly” than “persuasive, convincing” or do you identify with “humble, reserved, modest” over “original, inventive, individualistic”? And which of the same sets of words would be the least appropriate description? On it goes, for 24 questions.
It may seem like an unusual way of weeding out potential employees, but Damien Kehir, managing director of Dublin-based Eden Recruitment, sees a method in the madness. “It is based on a psychometric-type testing, because they seem to be asking you very similar questions in different ways. The thinking behind it that is you can’t lie 24 times,” he explains. The idea, says Kehir, is for the company to build up a profile of the applicant to find out whether they have what it takes to sell cars to soldiers. “You are in a warzone – are you tough enough to hack it?” Given the job location, there are obvious risks involved. “In Iraq and Afghanistan you’re going into difficult areas,” says Kehir. “But I guarantee it will attract people. There are a lot of people who will go to the trouble of investigating it, acknowledge the risk, knowing they’re not going to a very safe car lot in the UK or in the States. But you will get people with a sense of adventure, looking to see parts of the world that they may not otherwise see. And this is usually sold on the basis that you’ll make more doing this there than you will doing it here.”
At time of going to press, Exchange New Car Sales had not responded to a request for an interview to inquire about the risks inherent in the job, and the kind of financial pay-offs. But Dublin resident Colm Heaney sounds a cautionary note to those expecting to make big money from such a position. The 38-year-old spent several years working for the same group. “Anybody going over there trying to make a fortune, they’re not going to do it,” he says candidly. He says the cars being sold were mostly to military personnel coming to the end of their tours of duty. “They’ve sold everything they have, they’ve sold their cars,” says Heaney. His job was to sell them a new one for their return. “I’d say, ‘I tell you what, I can have a car waiting for you at JFK when you get back, and I’ll organise the payments and all for you.’ It can seem like quite an attractive offer.” So why is the company recruiting over here? Why not find Americans to sell to their own military? “They usually get their applicants from Ireland and England,” says Heaney. “The Americans very much love the accent.” Given the slim pickings out there for many job-seekers, the opportunity may be hard to pass up. “There are a lot less of all types of jobs at the moment, and that will make it stand out on the page a lot more,” admits Kehir.
Yet Heaney has his personal take on whether such an opportunity should be snapped up. “If my brother said to me, ‘I’m going to Afghanistan,’ I would say ‘I did it myself. You’re not going to make a lot of money. In some of these places you’re going to be very much confined to the military base, and if you go off the military base, there is a chance you could be kidnapped.’” According to Heaney, who spent his own time with the company in Japan and in Germany, working in Iraq or Afghanistan is a very different prospect. “You would be confined to the military base and confined to the law of the land,” he points out. “If you thought you could have a few drinks and meet some of the girls off base . . .” he trails off.
“You’d better just keep your eyes to the ground.”