Anybody know how strenuous the "tests" are that Sewell administers during the interview process? Just curious to see if i can prepare for them a bit.

if you're an Aggie and can't get hired by Sewell, you should be a janitor at a high school. they will pretty much hire anyone with a ring.

You want to sell cars? Why?

Been there, done that. It's about 3 hours, just personality questions, stuff like that. You'll either do well on it or not, there's not like car business questions or anything.

As far as why anyone would want to sell cars, Sewell offers a year long guarantee thats pretty competitive, and they also give you a car to drive (I sold Hummers, therefore I got H2s and H3s while I was selling) and pay for your gas and insurance.

The sucky part of the job is the hours, but there is a ton of money to be made in the car business.

BTHO Gigem-

Any chance Sewell will come to Houston?

Mr. Sewell has been trying forever to get into Houston. Every time, his chance has been blocked by other dealers.

I worked at Sewell Lexus back in '99 for about 6 months as a sales assistant. It was a decent job with good pay ($40K plus overtime), especially for a kid coming out of college with a liberal arts degree.

Back then the deal was you would work as a sales assistant for 12-18 months and then be promoted to a sales person. As a salesperson you would have a free Lexus to drive, free gas, and free insurance. Pretty sweet deal. I was told that the average compensation for a salesperson at that dealership was around $80K, but then again it was straight commission so you had one guy who'd make $200K and another guy who'd make $24K.

As a sales assistant, I was basically a glorified gopher/secretary. I worked long hours and was always on my feet, running around and doing all kinds of stuff. A usual work week was 60 hours. And I had to work Saturdays from 8am to 7pm, which sucked.

However, there were some cool aspects of the job. Many times I got to run errands all over the Metroplex in an LS400 or GS400.

As for the pre-employment testing...I wouldn't sweat it. It's just a bunch of personality-type questions. I'll tell you right now that they are only interested in hiring people who are eager, money-motivated, aggressive, and outgoing...so when you're going through the questions, it should be pretty obvious how you should answer them.

Oh, and back when I worked there in '99, there were about 4-5 female salespeople (all from A&M) and ALL of them were smoking hot. The salespeople in general were very cool -- about half were Aggies. I quit because I didn't want a career in the car business and because working Saturdays gets really old, really fast. But if you're even a mediocre salesperson you'll make decent cash at the place, because almost everyone who walked on the lot was ready to buy. I mean, it's not hard to sell a Lexus to someone. They sell themselves.

thanks folks, i appreciate your input. I'm interviewing almost every other day now (not just with Sewell) and im just curious what to expect next.

What do you guys think? Construction Superintendent, business/finance manager for car sales, or Sewell salesman?

Everyone i know that works at Sewell loves it.

And there are a TON of Ags that work there.

Good Luck.

PM me, I'll shoot you my email address.

agfox06

What is your degree in?

[This message has been edited by Clyde Frog (edited 10/16/2006 12:36p).]

yeah pretty good company until you decide to take a car for a little "test drive" before you sell it and total it...a viper I might add...FIRED!

Sewell = AWESOME company. I interned with them my senior year and was offered a job when I graduated. It was for their corp. offices in the DBA area but I really wanted IT security.

Degree in Political Science with business minor. Interviewed today and went really well. Now they want me to take this TPS test. No biggie, I just don't know how keen i may be on the idea of retail hours, it'll be a huge adjustment from school.

Did you interview at Sewell Lexus in Dallas? If so, who interviewed you? I was interviewed by Dan Frogge back in '99...he's a cool guy.

Just curious if the same guys are there.

Frogge is still there. Still has all the frogs in his office too.

A car dealership though... I guess I don't understand the hype.

Take every negative thing you know about car dealerships, and toss it out the window. Then you'll know what Sewell is all about.

They legitmately care about the customer. Hell, Carl Sewell even wrote an entire book about it.

Sounds like Sewell is a great place to work. But what about making residual income in the insurance & financial services industry. In auto and home sales so often folks spend the money before it is made, with the insurance/financial services industry you get paid year after year for a sale you made 1 x. I am a recruiter for the industry, if you are interested call me.
Heather 972-661-3486

should've been an aggie...

I'll second what 99ag01 said. Come visit a Sewell store and take a tour. Most people you will see are college graduates (many of whom Mr. Sewell has put through college himself), the shop is air conditioned and heated for the technicians, so is the service drive. It's all designed for the customer's comfort. It really is like no other car dealership I've ever been in.

How about Thomas Taylor? I see an engagement picture of this guy (A&M grad) and it says he works at Sewell Lexus. He bride to be is an "independent artist."

Isn't Sewell involved with SMU too? I thought he was a pretty SMU donor.