Here's What I Did When I Worked for Porsche

TL;DR

Doug DeMuro worked as a vehicle allocation specialist at Porsche North America from 2009–2013, earning under $51K and gaining the industry knowledge that launched his career.

Key Points

• 1.DeMuro joined Porsche Cars North America as a minimum-wage intern in late 2009. He attended Emory University in Atlanta and got the role through a standard local-college hiring program, not special connections, working Tuesdays and Thursdays while in class.
• 2.His full-time role was Vehicle Allocation Specialist, not PR or marketing. He literally distributed every car to every dealership using formula-based quotas, while also ordering company cars for executives and marketing fleets — making his department a hub everyone passed through.
• 3.His salary peaked at $51,000 — far less than people assume. He started at $45K in 2010 and never exceeded $51K; his main perk was rotating company cars, of which he had five (three manual 911s, a Carrera Cabriolet, and a Panamera GTS), crashing two in not-at-fault accidents.
• 4.He sat in volume and option-planning meetings that shaped real supply decisions. Forecasting take-rates for manual transmissions or new features was especially hard at Porsche due to extreme customization options, unlike high-volume brands where historical data is more predictable.
• 5.Working for Porsche actually diminished his enthusiasm for the brand. He sold his personal Porsche in 2012 and didn't buy another for 10 years; he dislikes Porsche's 'car as jewelry' culture and says the experience taught him the car industry broadly, not a love of Porsche specifically.
• 6.After 3.5 years he quit at age 24 to pursue content creation — his biggest career risk. He concluded the cubicle life wasn't for him, and credits the industry knowledge gained at PCNA as foundational to both his reviewing career and launching Cars & Bids.