[Porsche-O-Phile]

First off congratulations. Nice to hear in this day and age. I'm curious to know what line of work you're in, as the one I was recently let go from (architecture) is at a complete and total standstill. There are ZERO opportunities out there right now unless you have 15-20 years in healthcare or 15-20 years in education, specifically. Those are the only two growth areas that I'm seeing any hiring at all in. One big reason I'm chucking it and going back to flying airplanes.

Secondly, I actually have no problem whatsoever with commission. In fact, I think it's the most honest form of compensation there is. If it were up to me, there would be no salaries at all and people would be paid on some kind of sliding scale (call it a "commission" if you like) based on the value of what they produce. However this is difficult to quantify for some kinds of jobs and therefore the concept of a salary enters into the picture. It is also impractical to have this kind of system across-the-board, as much of our economy and way of life is based on people having steady, regular incomes. Some things are cyclical and some people can ride with that, others simply can't. I think if everyone was straight commission (or "you get paid a percentage of how we do" for example), our economy would collapse. People wouldn't take risks and certainly wouldn't buy on credit. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it's also NOT how our society is currently set up. Another discussion perhaps. Anyway as a point of note, when I flight instruct, I only get paid for the hours I'm actually instructing (regardless of how many hours I spend sitting around the airport) and when I was doing architecture I was only getting paid "per project". So those are in fact forms of commission. So no, I don't have a problem with this form of compensation.

What I do have a problem with is people who are all talk and no substance, and who bring nothing to the table, expecting to be paid a premium for it. This is something I see disproportionately with commissioned individuals - salespeople, real estate agents, brokers, etc. Certainly with recruiters. As with any profession I'm sure there are some that are good and who earn their keep. However in my own experiences they generally do not. They talk a good game but mostly it's rationalization about how "necessary" their services are. The reality is these services are not necessary and frankly, anyone who feels the need to throw me a "sales pitch" to convince me otherwise is typically not worth extending the time to listen to. If their service is really of value, they don't need to sell it to me. I'll seek it out and get it. It will be self-evident.

I don't mean to sound like I'm unfairly bashing people that contribute. I'm all for that. I just have a real problem with the folks who constantly feel that "selling themselves" is a substitute for actually having any sort of real skill, talent, training or ability, or for doing any real honest work or producing anything tangible. I see through that crap instantly and I pay for results - not for a good sales pitch.