Who I am and my story
Hey Ross here,
I was working in call centers for 7 years, my first call center job was a telemarketer for a major American home security company. I was cold calling people smack dab in the middle of the recession. Needless to say, I had to hard sell people who were laid off, about to foreclose on their home and people who had taken a pay cut due to the economic climate at the time. While I did make a decent amount of money for a young person straight out of high school at the time, it was just too much stress to do every single day, day in and day out.
I was working in call centers for 7 years, my first call center job was a telemarketer for a major American home security company. I was cold calling people smack dab in the middle of the recession. Needless to say, I had to hard sell people who were laid off, about to foreclose on their home and people who had taken a pay cut due to the economic climate at the time. While I did make a decent amount of money for a young person straight out of high school at the time, it was just too much stress to do every single day, day in and day out.
switching to inbound customer service
After leaving the telemarketer position, I actually had a nice little break from call center work. I ended up contacting a local staffing agency and landed a decent little data entry job. No phones. Man, that was awesome. To be able to just clock in, do your job while listening to music then clock out, was just heaven on Earth. I didn't even care that I took a pay cut! Hell, even getting asked for overtime was a no-brainer because I can just focus on my metrics which were extremely doable. No AHT, no NPS(Net Promoter Score), no QA tapping in to your calls, none of that! Well unfortunately, all good things come to an end, I ended up getting laid off and thus was back at square one.
Being a candidate with no degree and only telemarketing for job experience, it was slim pickings for yours truly. I had no other choice at the time to get back into contact center work. I ended up working in the mortgage division for a major bank. One of the biggest banks in the country. I got paid a heck a lot more than my past jobs, but it didn't take long for me to find out why the pay was so high. It was hands-down the most stressful job I ever had. But with the pay, it enabled to lie to myself that I had finally found the right job and had forced myself to stick it out as much as possible.
Unfortunately, this was the first time I encountered something that is a plague among almost all call center jobs: incompetent, arrogant and vindictive managers. It became a struggle to arrive at work every day. There were days I would sit in my car in the parking lot and just contemplate whether I should just not show up and go back to looking for another gig. This manager would harass me as soon I would walk through the door! She would IM me about accounts as soon as I logged in to my computer. I would go to the bathroom, which would take about 5 minutes and would be accused of being gone for half an hour!
Well, I eventually had to quit, this manager had written me up for bogus reasons which would block me from moving up in the company for some time. But, karma has a way of rearing her beautiful head. Two days before I resigned, that manager got fired. Ha!
My next and final customer service job was in credit cards. Because I worked previously in mortgage and was even licensed in the field, I was a easy hire for this bank. I ended up working with the "Gold" members. The big shots, the six-figure credit limit folks. Now, I must say, I enjoyed that job a bit, I had wonderful coworkers, there was a sense of family there and a big support system in place for the representatives. But by God, the customers were some of the most whiny, demanding and insulting people I ever dealt with in my life. For 10 hours a day, 4 days a week, I had to get screamed at for things as little as a $1 charge, and this was from customers who have spent a little over a million dollars in a 5 year span!
After I left that company, I got hired to be a work at home retention sales representative and I didn't last too long there. On my last day there, I had finally made up my mind: I need to do better and escape call center hell. I need to find a way out and get on a path to better opportunities.
So what did I do?
I resigned, lived on my savings a bit and started going to the library and learned a valuable and in demand skill. For those wondering, it was computer programming. After a few months of self-teaching and building my applications, I decided to go back to school. Since then, I have not looked back since. My life is infinitely better now and I actually enjoy what I do. Not only do I enjoy what I do, but I actually get respect from those around me: my coworkers, my peers and my family.
Listen up: No one can foresee the future and tell you that going down a certain path will guarantee anything. But do you just sit on your ass, scared to take a leap? No, sometimes you need to research, weigh the pros and cons and just take a leap. period. That's what I did and my quality is better than it was a few years ago. I am very glad I decided to learn a new skill and make myself valuable, because now I no longer need to take jobs that I have to take, I take jobs that I want to take.
That's my story, I escaped the call center, I quit and went back to school. Now, I am not saying you have to do exactly what I did to escape and find a better opportunity. I am saying that education and a desire to do better can work wonders for you.
Being a candidate with no degree and only telemarketing for job experience, it was slim pickings for yours truly. I had no other choice at the time to get back into contact center work. I ended up working in the mortgage division for a major bank. One of the biggest banks in the country. I got paid a heck a lot more than my past jobs, but it didn't take long for me to find out why the pay was so high. It was hands-down the most stressful job I ever had. But with the pay, it enabled to lie to myself that I had finally found the right job and had forced myself to stick it out as much as possible.
Unfortunately, this was the first time I encountered something that is a plague among almost all call center jobs: incompetent, arrogant and vindictive managers. It became a struggle to arrive at work every day. There were days I would sit in my car in the parking lot and just contemplate whether I should just not show up and go back to looking for another gig. This manager would harass me as soon I would walk through the door! She would IM me about accounts as soon as I logged in to my computer. I would go to the bathroom, which would take about 5 minutes and would be accused of being gone for half an hour!
Well, I eventually had to quit, this manager had written me up for bogus reasons which would block me from moving up in the company for some time. But, karma has a way of rearing her beautiful head. Two days before I resigned, that manager got fired. Ha!
My next and final customer service job was in credit cards. Because I worked previously in mortgage and was even licensed in the field, I was a easy hire for this bank. I ended up working with the "Gold" members. The big shots, the six-figure credit limit folks. Now, I must say, I enjoyed that job a bit, I had wonderful coworkers, there was a sense of family there and a big support system in place for the representatives. But by God, the customers were some of the most whiny, demanding and insulting people I ever dealt with in my life. For 10 hours a day, 4 days a week, I had to get screamed at for things as little as a $1 charge, and this was from customers who have spent a little over a million dollars in a 5 year span!
After I left that company, I got hired to be a work at home retention sales representative and I didn't last too long there. On my last day there, I had finally made up my mind: I need to do better and escape call center hell. I need to find a way out and get on a path to better opportunities.
So what did I do?
I resigned, lived on my savings a bit and started going to the library and learned a valuable and in demand skill. For those wondering, it was computer programming. After a few months of self-teaching and building my applications, I decided to go back to school. Since then, I have not looked back since. My life is infinitely better now and I actually enjoy what I do. Not only do I enjoy what I do, but I actually get respect from those around me: my coworkers, my peers and my family.
Listen up: No one can foresee the future and tell you that going down a certain path will guarantee anything. But do you just sit on your ass, scared to take a leap? No, sometimes you need to research, weigh the pros and cons and just take a leap. period. That's what I did and my quality is better than it was a few years ago. I am very glad I decided to learn a new skill and make myself valuable, because now I no longer need to take jobs that I have to take, I take jobs that I want to take.
That's my story, I escaped the call center, I quit and went back to school. Now, I am not saying you have to do exactly what I did to escape and find a better opportunity. I am saying that education and a desire to do better can work wonders for you.