The ramen’s all gone and the bank account’s dry… time for the Job Hunter to hit Indeed and find some employment.
Today, I’ve come across something a lot of people have probably been considering lately: a delivery driver gig for a massive online retailer. As always, the companies will go nameless, but you might be able to figure this one out all by yourself.
I click on the ad and get right down to the most important question: Money Money Money.
Pay
Initially, the outlook is quite positive. Right up top, I’m told I can expect $18-25 dollars an hour. For my area (Joplin, MO), that’s plenty.
But what’s with that span? What gets some workers $25 an hour while others only get $18? Something fishy’s going on here.
The pay range appears again further down the ad, but this time accompanied by an asterisk. Uh-oh. Time to read some fine print: “Actual earnings will depend on your location, any tips you receive, how long it takes you to complete your deliveries, and other factors.”
So even the lower-end $18 an hour merely estimates a best-case scenario. Maybe I make $10 an hour. Maybe I make $4. That $18 is not guaranteed.
I think about Joplin’s size. It’s not tiny, but it’s not huge either. Will there be enough delivery opportunities to fill a work day? Maybe if I’m the only driver.
And tips? This isn’t food. Most people don’t tip for product deliveries. In fact, most people aren’t even aware of when these products arrive.
And then there are the completely ambiguous “other factors.” What could they be?
But hey, maybe business will be good enough to try it out. It is “urgently hiring” after all. Let’s see what else the job offers to possibly counterbalance the pay uncertainty.
Benefits
More red flags. The job is part-time. Even worse, it’s a contract position. So not only will I not receive benefits, but I won’t even have taxes taken out of my paychecks.
Instead of traditional benefits, the ad focuses on emotional ones. But I don’t read them because I don’t care and no one else does either.
Application Process
The Indeed ad starts with a big button instructing me to Apply on the Company Website. Clicking it takes me to a landing page listing cities that offer this job. My city is on there. It should be since this whole thing started as a Joplin-specific listing.
This redundancy tells me the landing page was made to receive visitors from a wide variety of sources. No one designed an applicant experience tailored for Indeed, my area, or any other specific pipelines. That’s the sign of a company confident in their ability to get the workforce they require without much effort, which heightens my sense of being replaceable.
I scroll through the whole page, looking for something, anything, that’ll take me to an application. It turns out there isn’t one. Instead, I find a button inviting me to download an app.
So now I begrudgingly take out my phone. There’s no QR code or anything, so it’s up to me to search for the app myself. At which point, I put my phone right back into my pocket.
Even as a side hustle, I don’t want this job. The money is too uncertain, there are no benefits, and even the process of applying is too much of a hassle.
Let’s rank it on a scale of one to ten based on averages in the following categories:
Clarity of Payment: 3
There is a dollar amount, but upon further inspection, there is no guaranteed minimum, which means the numbers could be anything.
Description of Position: 6
Specifics could be better, but there isn’t a whole lot to say other than you’ll be delivering packages. And it does basically say that, though I wonder what all it leaves out.
Ease of Application: 1
One click takes you to a page that tells you no further information and instructs you to download an app. That’s about as bad as you can get.
Attractiveness of Job: 4
As a side hustle, maybe it’s all worth it. I personally feel I could find something along these lines but better. So long as you know you’re totally on your own, you probably won’t be disappointed.