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[Statue of Limitation]

I am very much enjoying my job for the time being, and have been there about six month now.

Am I gaining any skills that can help get anything other than call centre work - or even worse, more sales work? If this is right, then should I be spending time outside my work hours trying to learn skills?

 

[FuuRe]

You have a degree in business... And you are really considering a call center job?

Where's your self esteem?

 

[krpiper]

I don't have much life experience but yes I am pretty sure that its a dead end job.

What kind of sales did you fo?

 

[Junior Mint]

Of course it's a dead end job. Why would you think otherwise

 

[Phat Michael]

If you have a business degree you will usually have to do 2 years sales experience before you can branch out and find your areas of specialisation.

 

[Flintty]

We all have to start somewhere and engaging with the public on a regular basis is great for confidence building. Use that experience later to find another job where you will learn more and become even more confident, rinse and repeat. It worked for me anyway and I went from being a Blacksmith to a security professional and accidently found my career.

Every job I have done has shaped the person I am now. No regrets. You are a sponge! Learn, absorb and reshape to be what you want to be! But most of all, be confident.

/cheesy pep talk.

 

[Derpyduck]

Is it a call center for a large company? If so, there's lots of room for advancement if you're a hard worker. Is it just a call center? If so, dead end. Keep working, but also never stop looking for something you really want to do.

 

[snacknuts]

If you can get some management experience under your belt, it wouldn't be a waste of time to stay for awhile. Apart from that, I wouldn't dream of considering your current gig a career.

 

[slit]

It depends on the company and since you said there doesn't seem to be room fo growth at yours I would say yes.

I work in healthcare in IT and we did hire up some people that worked in help desk before, now I know that not what you do but I know HR hires people from the call center a well.

 

[Rich!]

I worked for one of the largest call centre firms in the UK for a year. Moved from call agent to supervisor to QA supervisor.

Its all a load of shit. Toxic work environment.

 

[atr0cious]

Unless it is directly in the same building as a successful business using it, then yes it is. Use it for a steady pay check while ACTIVELY searching for a career job.

 

[jon bones]

Worst job of my life, it's a go-nowhere gig and ideally you shouldn't be working there past graduation. If you need to, use it as a hold over while you find better employment.

 

[Clegg]

It's not a terrible job if you're just out of Uni and need to make some money. But I wouldn't be looking to make a career out of it. Keep the call centre job whilst also looking for greater career opportunities in your free time.

 

[demon]

It's a hell from which a piece of your soul will never return.

 

[Mister Wilhelm]

Typically they pay a step above retail, so instead of making $8 an hour, you'll be making anywhere from $12-17. This is a great way to save money right when you get out of school.

It is a dead end job, absolutely. You are kept on the phones constantly and are never really given any opportunity to "prove" yourself outside of meeting made-up metrics and scoring criteria that can be failed with one little wrong step that may or may not be your fault.

With some very few exceptions, you can always ask for "additional work" at your desk and they'll dump some horrible paper filing or organizing shit in your lap. You can chug through that while waiting for calls and hope your managers appreciate it. Six months to a year later, you MIGHT get a bump in responsibility or pay, but it will never go anywhere. The only positions to graduate to in a call center are still on the phone to a degree, so it just means less time talking to customers and more time listening to co-workers talk to customers and then coaching them.

Still, like I said, it's a great starter job out of college. It teaches you A LOT about how to talk to people, especially irate people. I would definitely recommended it to anyone waiting for something better. On your resume, it will show you're willing to take a shit job and at least you'll be working. A lot of companies these days won't even look at your resume if you're not currently hired.

 

[DietRob]

I've been in the industry for around 15 years. I make good money now but it was a difficult road to get where I'm at. My next career progression will be a Director level gig. Working in this industry hasn't given me many tools to use outside of it.

I guess I could probably get a job doing scheduling, maybe HR, or recruiting but I would likely take a huge pay cut. I'm most comfortable continuing on in this industry or maybe moving on to consulting for the industry.

It sounds like you are happy with the job right now. My bit of advice is to do everything you can to advance quickly in that environment. Maybe that's a tier 2 position or QA basically anything to get off the phone. If you continue doing front line support you will burn out sooner rather than later.

 

[Ecto311]

It was for me. I have worked doing construction, foundations, roofing, mining, retail, fast food and Call center felt the most soul sucking. Also dead end for sure because where do you go? The asskissing management side of it? There are a few examples of people that make it somewhere but for me if my last name was not the same as one of the trainers or managers there was no chance to do shit.

 

[StriKeVillain]

It's a hell from which a piece of your soul will never return.

Sounds about right.

I worked at one during my sophomore year in college. Wound up walking out one day and never returning.

 

[maquiladora]

Most people only last a few months. It becomes hell after about 6 months. When I got to 2 years I was reduced to crying in the shower before walking to work. Thankfully I managed to change departments and get a new role right as I reached breaking point.

 

[KingHenrik30]

Go get your masters. Will open more doors.

 

[Pastry]

The CS managers that work for my company make pretty good money but career wise they're essentially stuck at CS manager forever.

 

[Goreomedy]

Typically they pay a step above retail, so instead of making $8 an hour, you'll be making anywhere from $12-17. This is a great way to save money right when you get out of school.

This is not typical.

 

[Ecto311]

Most people only last a few months. It becomes hell after about 6 months. When I got to 2 years I was reduced to crying in the shower before walking to work. Thankfully I managed to change departments and get a new role right as I reached breaking point.

I was at the att center for iPhone for 3 years almost to the day. Took everything in me to not jump off the parking garage every morning.

 

[Escape Goat]

Youre making money and eliminating a gap in employment. Keep looking for the job you really want.

 

[DietRob]

The CS managers that work for my company make pretty good money but career wise they're essentially stuck at CS manager forever.

This isn't necessarily true. Especially if they are willing to go outside their company. But there are only a few steps above CS managers one can make. Director of Operations then maybe VP if you are real lucky. If VP isn't in the cards it's on to consulting.

 

[pubba]

Its all a load of shit. Toxic work environment.

It's a hell from which a piece of your soul will never return.

I wholeheartedly agree with these sentiments. I worked at a 'good' call centre job for the australian government but even that job was an awful, depressing, dead-end pit of despair.

Even now after almost 3 years away from it, I still have nightmares where I'm back in that cubicle with a headset strapped to my head saying "Hello this is James. What can I help you with today?"

It didn't help that my first supervisor was a total cunt. She was a poisonous old dinosaur who hated men and took an instant disliking to me because I was too 'unpredictable'. I actually ended up putting in a formal complaint about the bullying, but that just labeled me as a trouble maker and nothing changed.

The call I worked atm,, was huge and full of hundreds of middle-aged, boring people who used to get excited about 'decorate your team area' competitions and other awful team-building events. I made a few friends, but all of us were miserable and hated working there.

There were a handful of people who advanced and escaped the inanity, but it seemed to be a popularity contest. For the 99% of other people trapped in the job by financial commitments etc.. It was a grim existence.

 

[UberTag]

If you're still on the phones after another 6 months, you might want to consider it a dead end job for you. Most of the people who advance in that environment typically don't take calls for long. And you certainly won't be getting much in the way of transferable skills until you leave the phones.

 

[-Silver-]

Have you considered applying for a graduate scheme?

 

[Pastry]

This isn't necessarily true. Especially if they are willing to go outside their company. But there are only a few steps above CS managers one can make. Director of Operations then maybe VP if you are real lucky. If VP isn't in the cards it's on to consulting.

At my company there really isn't anywhere for them to go beyond that. The next level would be regional or market directors for sales and without a ton of sales experience they wouldn't be getting that.

 

[Grinchy]

I knew someone who started at Verizon's call center. He put up with the awfulness of life for a couple years while moving up within the company. He's now making really decent money there. It wasn't a dead-end job for him.

 

[moojito]

I've worked in a call center for over 10 years. I made my way up from an agent on the phones to the in house IT department. There are 3 main sites we have. 2 of them are relatively out of the way so you get a lot of long timers there and the environment is generally a lot better, the people are by and large great. The other is in a major city centre, there's a load of churn with part time students, noone really knows anyone else and it's not such a nice environment.

Generally from agent your only chances for advancement are team manager then from there to operations manager/account manager type stuff, or recruitment/HR, or quality asessment. A lot of companies are employing web chat and social media management, so it's not always on the phones like it used to be. Some people I see get paid to sit and read facebook and twitter and respond to customer comments etc. Nice work if you can get it!

As many have said, it's something that pays the bills and will prevent a gap in your resume so will be perfectly find to do while you search for something more suited to your area.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

What about call center jobs working for the government, an agency like the social security administration? You think that's equally bad? They start around $31-$35,000 a year, and only move up to around $50,000+ after a few years.

 

[enigmatic_alex44]

I have a good office job now but I didn't always and have worked @ a call center. If phones are the only thing available @ that job with no better positions to apply for once you have a little seniority, don't bother. I'd rather do retail or fast food than ever sit on the phone again talking to morons all day and hating life as a result.

 

[Fj0823]

It's a hell from which a piece of your soul will never return.

I work at call centers during vacation to pay Uni.

OP. This man right here speaks the truth.

Working on an international call center now (it rimes with DH l) I've learned that lack of common sense is a worldwide issue.

 

[JVIDICAN]

Depends on the company. If they hire from within it could be a good opportunity. My current boss started in the companys call center years back.

 

[obin_gam]

It's worse than scientology.

 

[Statue of Limitation]

.

 

[Mechanized]

You can definitely move up the ranks in a call center, and you can even get your foot in the door with clients. But with the degree you have you should be able to get something a lot better.

 

[Fantasy Final]

Depends on the company you work for. I worked in a Call Center for 2 and a half year but because I work in an IT company, I've managed to get a job as a Wintel sysadmin guy in the same company.

 

[Quikies83]

It's a stepping stone to your next job.
You should have a ton of valuable experience in dealing with people upon leaving though.

 

[MarkMclovin]

Worked at British Gas which was supposed to be a stop gap after university. 9 years later I eventually left. The pay was good and I made lots of friends but there was no chance of moving up the ladder to team leader or management unless you had your tongue up someone's ass. The constant badgering for sales fucked me off too.

I'd avoid it.

 

[Statue of Limitation]

Have you considered applying for a graduate scheme?

Honestly I'm not very well informed about them.

Plus I've only just begun to learn to drive so currently I am limited to where I can work. From certain grad schemes I have looked at, isn't it true most want fresh graduates who have only been out of University for a year or so?

 

[AzureRonin]

It's a stepping stone to your next job.
You should have a ton of valuable experience in dealing with people upon leaving though.

This exactly. Call centre experience is looked upon very favourably in many industries. You learn great customer service and conflict resolution skills. Future employers will also value the fact that you are trusted with extremely private information from clients. The job itself is definitely a dead end depending on how much ass you are willing to kiss and how willing you are to throw people under the bus.

It's a great way to start off a career and it looks good on a resume.

 

[entremet]

Soul crushing job.

You can hustle out of it in smaller companies, though.

 

[Spookie]

Depends on the call centre.

If you're working for a large business that doesn't have a high turn over of staff and works on staff retention and training. You can advance out of those departments in more specialised teams which have a lot of offline work and better paying roles.

If you're in an outsourcing company: you're fucked.

 

[Symphonia]

I worked as a customer retentions advisor for Virgin Media through an outsourced agency called Sitel. It was our job to persuade the public to stay with Virgin Media by offering exclusive discounts. It was a commission-based job, and the commission was uncapped. After six months as a team member - after working countless hours and fuck knows how much overtime, and after dealing with so much shit from both the public and the management - I was promoted to team leader. Great, I thought, the pay as a member was good, the pay as a leader should be better. Right?

Wrong. The commission wasn't just capped when I was promoted, it was stopped altogether. I was now on a fixed monthly wage, whereas before I was earning my basic wage plus commission. If was easily over £1500. As a team leader, I was lucky to take home £1000. Naturally, I was pissed off. I complained and said I wish to resign as team leader. They refused, and said if I wish to resign, I resign entirely. Obviously this was NOT an option. So cue more endless hours of slaving away for 'The Man' as well as dealing with the public, upper management, and now my own dimwitted team of phone monkeys.

After a further six months, after finding and securing a new job, I left Sitel/Virgin Media, and went to work for this new company - a call centre for a debt collection agency - as a team leader with an uncapped commission. The job was so much better than Virgin, but, yeah, it was still fairly soul-crushing having to deal with the public in such a manner. I saved up for a year, applied for help to go self-employed, and now I run my own business from home as a graphic designer. So much better than call-centre work.

TL;DR Don't do call-centre work.

 

[MMaRsu]

Yeah it sucks.

 

[Corronchilejano]

Look for a managment position, get some experience and bolt man.

 

[Slayven]

If you work directly for the company, no.

But if you are in call center farm, yeah

 

[Soph]

In just one year, I grew from a call center agent, into an agent trainer, into team manager, to assistant account manager and they wanted me to become account manager in three months.

I quit, still wanted to do university. quite a great payout at the time I just casually declined.