Friday, January 09, 2004
How to get a call center job
Business Standard sent three of its younger correspondents posing as job seekers to call centers (or rather, placement agents for call centers).
Here are some extract from "their findings":
After the test I was given a detailed form that asked about my education and family background. I was puzzled by one part that inquired about relatives in the United States and their phone numbers. This, I discovered later is to prevent people calling relatives in America.
I struck up a conversation with an industry veteran (she must have been all of 22) who had quit her last job after being refused two-weeks leave. “I had a genuine reason, yaar,” she insisted.
Industry of the year it may be but the HR manager didn’t try to paint a rosy portrait. “It can be very frustrating if for eight hours everyday, all you have to do is to answer the queries of irate customers. Continuing to be polite while the person on the other end may become abusive is pretty difficult,” she warned....
Mr HR’s speech omits nothing, painting a dark picture of late nights spent doing nothing but answering calls, with one 30-minute and two 15-minute breaks. There will be two days off a week but it won’t necessarily be a Saturday and Sunday. Your social life will probably disappear, he says pleasantly.
Click Here to read the full article.
