I worked for 7.5 weeks here this summer and I was the longest lasting person at this company this summer (besides Mariah). There were two employees who worked full time for 4+ months here but they left this summer. 30+ people came and left during my time here with most lasting about a week. I was technically an intern but I spent 60 hours a week every week at this job(not an exaggeration whatsoever). The hours you work are (at minimum) from 11-7:30 Monday through Friday and Saturday 8:30-4:30. Going to work on Saturdays is mandatory. On paper that seems pretty reasonable but the office is located in White Plains, NY and I was sent out to Middletown, NY to work everyday for over a month. If you're not familiar that's a 60-80 minute drive 65 miles each way! I was not compensated for gas or mileage whatsoever. In theory you could get "bonuses" if you make sales but I definitely was not compensated for this. You will at a minimum drive across the Tappan Zee bridge everyday and pay at least $5 in tolls to some random neighborhood in Orange or Rockland counties. You also have to pay $1/hour for parking at the office in the morning and White Plains meter maids are the worst and gave me a $25 ticket for having a tire on the white line). Some people did not have cars and I drove at least one other person to a different place than I was going (and was compensated by coworkers about $20 total when it's supposed to be $5 each way). As a 20 year old intern I was sent out to train 15+ people all of which left really fast. During the workday you spend about 90 minutes teaching the latest hires the "pitch" for selling "power purchase agreements" door to door. Everyone here does door to door sales which is insane in my humble opinion for this day and age. The company Soledad represents in NRG Community Solar which gets horrible reviews online. It could be argued that these reviews are for NRG Home Solar but they're so similar and getting on average a one and change star review with hundreds of reviews is insane! Now the process of signing a homeowner up for this program is the biggest hassle. You go to about 50 individual houses (going to each house 2-3 times) in a day between 1:30ish to 7:30 walking door to door (I walked on average ~8 miles a day according to my phone but up to 13.1) trying to find people who handle the utility bill (called a decision maker), you give them the pitch and in the rare chance they're interested you give a quote. A quote involves the homeowner having a copy of their utility bill from one of the last three months (pretty unlikely) or waiting for them to sign up for an Orange and Rockland account online (20+ minutes). If their electricity usage is high enough (216 kWh/month on average and they've lived in O&R for 4+ months) you input information from the bill into your iPad (~5 minutes with small talk). Now you get to the hardest part: an Experian Credit Check which makes sure the homeowner has a 700+ score. Maybe one in three homeowners are eligible after this step. Keep in mind most people you visit are poor and the average income for some of these areas is ~$20,000. Well off areas in O&R are prohibitive because the credit check asks for the entire social security number and lots of smart people will not give this out to some 20 year old who just came to their door. Now if a homeowner is eligible for the program they need to sign a 20 year contract if they want to proceed. Finally there is a "Welcome Call" where your homeowner talks to a call center representative who essentially repeats the terms of the agreement (it's so awkward the call center representatives don't know what they're doing). Now if you successfully sign up a homeowner you get $200 (Mariah gets $300 for every sale made). Soledad rents you an iPad and a polo shirt and sends you out without any identification or permits. I am positive I was soliciting in areas where I did not have the proper permits. I didn't even get a name-tag in my 7.5 weeks here. Now theoretically you get the following payments for the following amount of sales 1: $200, 2:$850, 3:$1350 4:$1650, 5:~$1850 , 6:$2250. The entire office as a whole (probably ~4 salespeople at any given time) make about 10 or just over ten sales. There is no base pay. Some people come to work everyday, put in lots of work and make $0. In my time here there was only one employee (first names starts with B) that has a shot at doing this long-term. After Mariah and Brandon I was the third best salesperson during my time here. Most people that come don't study the information or learn the pitch and fail. During my time here I averaged 2/3 sales a week and my best week was five. Most people miserably fail and are unable to get two sales in the first three weeks of working here. There are in theory training bonuses for the first seven weeks (only paid if you make certain sales essentially). Most people don't get the training bonuses and the first week everyone takes a basic quiz and passes but you won't see the $500 if you don't stay till at least your third week. I was paid pretty poorly to be completely honest in terms of actual payout from the company (Mariah doesn't even handle this and was really behind on payment for me) and timeliness. I worked full-time with crazy hours and did not receive any payment until my fourth week here. You are supposed to receive payment two weeks after the work week ends and I am finally receiving payments mid August and my last work week was the first week of July. I also feel that I am paid ~$1000 less than I actually earned based on my sales (I also did not get a $500 training bonus on top of this because I wasn't staying with the company longer). I forgot to mention that it is common for homeowners to cancel their power purchase agreements (~3/18ish) for me) and have 60 days to do so which voids your earnings. The solar farms you are signing people up for do not exist yet and should be operational a long time from now. People signed up over a year ago still aren't getting solar credits. In summary this job is nearly impossible to make money at. If you need money getting a job at Trader Joes would be more profitable for 95% of people.
