Call centre's...the good, bad & ugly...

DecML

Often see plenty of jobs looking for call centre agents, execs or advisors and am now starting to think of career change...

Would anyone re commend, advise against?

What is the typical interview process, a telephone interview etc

Look forward to hearing some replies.

[Deleted User]

Go for 'contact centre' over a call centre, pays slightly better, plus you get a do a range of other stuff from admin to social media/live chat so chance to learn and develop other skills

I have two assessment days coming up for contact centre's now I've made it through the telephone interviews, just been given times to attend though not been told what is really going to happen in depth at either but I can imagine.. (another grilling, literacy and perhaps numeracy test, keyboard typing speed tested, perhaps even a role play)

I didn't enjoy working in a breakdown service hardened call centre which gave 4 weeks training to be fair but didn't mind ones more selling products which didn't come with much by way of training but was far friendlier/relaxed - done both inbound/outbound and telesales (lead generation was possibly the worst and most soul destroying)

I had a couple of professional opinions before now that call centre working allows for weakning of social skills which I kind of do and don't get! on reflection x

Loopy28

I worked in two different call centres between 2001-2008 (not sure if things have changed much since)

First call centre job was with a large energy supplier. Hated it, you are tied to the phone and there is no break from calls. You deal with a large amount of abuse and rude people. You used to have to put a code in to your phone to go to the toilet and I remember someone coming in to the toilets to find me once because I had been in there for 6 minutes and they wanted me back on the phone. Unfortunately I could not speed up the time it took me to go to the toilet!

Second one was for a directory enquiry company starting in 118. I thought that might not be much abuse, boy was I wrong. You were paid a minimal amount and got a bonus if you took a certain number of calls per hour. I was told that the gap between my calls was too long at 4 seconds, supervisor observed me and said it was due to me having a sip of my water between calls. She suggested I waited until my allocated break for some of my water.

Hopefully things have moved on since then but no way would I go back.