It suddenly occurred to me that I’ve never written about my days as a telemarketer. Being new to Canada in ’04 and adjusting to everything, I had spent my first three months going places like Ottawa and Niagara Falls and exploring downtown Toronto. After three months of frolicking, I decided it was about time I started looking for work. I was a fresh grad – I graduated in March ’04 and arrived in Canada in August.
To be honest, I felt lost not knowing what the industry is like in Canada. Back home, I had a pretty good idea of what I needed and where to begin. I decided to get a career counsellor’s opinion. He had advised that I apply for a job that would give me the necessary skills that would help me get to where I want to go (confusing ba?). And so he said that maybe it would be best if I applied for a job that would give me strong customer service skills since having good customer service skills would open a lot of doors for me. So I decided to apply for a position in a call center. I applied to one where I saw potential to move to either the tech or QA department (me being in I.T.).
I sent my resume, got a call shortly for an interview, went in and was offered the job the same day. It all happened pretty fast if you ask me – one minute I was home and jobless and the next minute I was making my way to work. The rules of that call center were quite simple: you begin on the floor (no, it doesn’t mean janitor… silly! It means man the phones) and then work your way up until you get to a position/department you want to be in. Simple in thought, difficult in reality. It was a telemarketing call center after all.
I hated it. I was ready to resign within the first three months. The only thing that stopped me was the thought of moving up somewhere. Although I dreaded work every single day, I wanted to get something out of the awful experience so I stuck to it for almost a year until I was able to get into QA. Once there, I had decided that I’ve ha enough experience to move on and began looking for another job. Soon after, I was able to land my current job.
Although it was a job I hated very much, I have to admit I learned a lot doing it.
I learned…
>> To always try to be polite with telemarketers on the phone although they are extremely annoying.
To be honest, I felt lost not knowing what the industry is like in Canada. Back home, I had a pretty good idea of what I needed and where to begin. I decided to get a career counsellor’s opinion. He had advised that I apply for a job that would give me the necessary skills that would help me get to where I want to go (confusing ba?). And so he said that maybe it would be best if I applied for a job that would give me strong customer service skills since having good customer service skills would open a lot of doors for me. So I decided to apply for a position in a call center. I applied to one where I saw potential to move to either the tech or QA department (me being in I.T.).
I sent my resume, got a call shortly for an interview, went in and was offered the job the same day. It all happened pretty fast if you ask me – one minute I was home and jobless and the next minute I was making my way to work. The rules of that call center were quite simple: you begin on the floor (no, it doesn’t mean janitor… silly! It means man the phones) and then work your way up until you get to a position/department you want to be in. Simple in thought, difficult in reality. It was a telemarketing call center after all.
I hated it. I was ready to resign within the first three months. The only thing that stopped me was the thought of moving up somewhere. Although I dreaded work every single day, I wanted to get something out of the awful experience so I stuck to it for almost a year until I was able to get into QA. Once there, I had decided that I’ve ha enough experience to move on and began looking for another job. Soon after, I was able to land my current job.
Although it was a job I hated very much, I have to admit I learned a lot doing it.
I learned…
>> To always try to be polite with telemarketers on the phone although they are extremely annoying.
>> Remember that the person on the other end of the line is only doing his/her job and probably hates it too.
>> I was once on the other end of the line (although I was much nicer…haha)
>> There is no need to swear or yell or be rude on the phone.
>> I can always have my name taken of the call list if I don’t want them to keep calling (by law, they are required to take your name of a call list if you ask them).
>> Hardwork and patience do pay off.
1 comment:
Interesting variant
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