Breaking away from call centre work... Light at the end of the tunnel?

CompletelyLost

I've been working for a large company as inbound customer support for a while. Well over a year. I took it as it was my first job and tbf I was grateful of the experience.

Has anyone managed to break away from this sort of role? What are you doing now? There are other better paid call centre jobs out there, but I hate it. It's soul destroying. I suffer it for the money but I can't quite imagine being here in 5+ years time. Limited opportunity for advancing unless your face fits.

Dizzy_Ditzy

I did 3 years... I got out by being made redundant! Probably not what you want to hear though :rotfl:

Come up with a good looking cv that lists the skills you have learned during this job and take yourself to a recruitment agency that specialise in office based roles

If you're looking to not deal with people on the phone, you might find it difficult as most roles require that these days. Difficult maybe, impossible not

On the whole, I did like working for that company. Yes, the inbound work was dreadful at times, the abuse we took was on a whole other level, but we had the opportunity to expand our experiences if we so wished. I moved from inbound to high level complaints. In a twisted, roundabout way, I enjoyed that bit more!

KentishLady

OK there can be light at the tunnel but it may be longer than you hope.

I worked for a bank for 10 years - initially inbound mortgage application calls, then servicing calls, then telephone complaints, then written complaints. Finally complaints analysis, a bit of project work, a bit of MI dashboard creating, compliance monitoring and complaint handler coaching.

Then I was made redundant due to office relocation 300 miles away.

I now work for my local council as a HR Systems Administrator - keeping the organisation structure the database updated, systems improvement projects, producing MI, etc. I use the skills I gained from the Bank daily even though I work for a very different type of employer in a very different type of department.

Your current job may feel soul destroying but you will be gaining valuable communication and customer service skills at least and these ARE transferable to lots of different types of jobs. Hopefully some IT skills too - word, excel etc?

You've been there a year - it sounds like it is time to take stock and think about planning your next career move. Do you know what you WANT to do? Do you know what your current skillset is? Are there any areas you need to develop? What to you need to work on to get from where you are now to where you want to be?

Sorry more questions than answers really. Call centre work doesn't have to be forever (I feel for you - I hated it but kept at it for 8 years and am now grateful I did as I love my current job which I got due to my transferable skills).

KL

Marshmallow82

There may be opportunities going sideways rather than advancement.

E.g when I worked in a call center a boy moved to IT despite having no experience and someone else got an admin job, no pay rise but it was less stressful

Fireflyaway

When I read this I had to reply. I have spent years working in call centres. I left college and didn't know what to do so I went to work in a call centre. One call centre job led to another and I thought I would be stuck in call centres forever !

I managed to 'break out' by developing skills within the call centre. I applied for a supervisor job so I could then list supervisory experience on my cv which is a transferable skill.

Many people see call centre work as work for 'monkeys' and it has a bad reputation, but actually you need good communication skills and customer service, you need to build a rapport, you need to multi-task and use IT. Make sure you highlight all of this on your CV.

If you can develop yourself outside work then do so. Check out the adult education courses on offer. I studied with the OU and also did a teaching cert and a management qualification with local adult learning on weekends / evenings.

Just the fact you held down a job for a year is a lot more than many people can do so never be ashamed of where you work. You are earning money and providing a service.

I now work for a charity as a volunteer co-ordinator. Other call centre people I know moved on within the same company ( it was a council) and are now team leaders / managers and work in IT. Some are paid very well indeed.

So yes there is light at the end of the tunnel ! Good luck.:)

shopaholicz

Firstly, I'd like to agree with Fireflyaway in congratulating you on staying over a year in a job you hate.

My son used to work at a call center. He was there for over 2 years. He hated it too. He could never meet his targets as that depended on the calls that came in. He also got lots of verbal abuse. He got out by going back to college. He's now moved onto a Uni course and has a part time job as well.

What do you really want to do? Is there a course you can access to train for that dream job? Our local college does lots of night as well as daytime courses. There is no point in being miserable for 8 hours a day, take some time to think about what you really want to do and sign up now for a college course. They start in September.

InsideInsurance

Basically did 10 years in call centres from the age of 15, part time through school and uni and full time after. It was several different companies over that time and most was inbound enquiries/ complaints which I didnt mind doing.

After ~8 years I was wanting a career but having seen call centre team leaders and what their jobs were like I decided didnt want that so when I was next job hunting I was very explicit that I wanted to get into insurance/ pensions or such where there was a technical route up and not just line management.

Started doing Motor Claims settling third party claims where our PH was at fault and no injury claims, moved on to disputed liability and then onto defending personal injury.

Whilst I enjoyed claims a lot and there was still the option of going into higher level PI claims, getting the company to fund me to do law qualifications (ILEX) but I was convinced to apply for the graduate scheme as an internal applicant as I didnt meet their requirements.

The last stage of the graduate scheme was a 2 day event and one of the interviewers was the Head of Strategy. The day after (Thursday) I had a call saying the guy wanted to have a chat with me if that was ok, never understood the point of that question but still. Speaking to the interviewer again he said he'd offer me a 6 month secondment if I could get myself to London for Monday and if it worked out it'd become perm and if it didnt then I could go onto the graduate scheme or go back to claims.

That was over a decade ago now and have been doing the same strategy/ change management etc since then.

The downside of my route was that coming from the call centre my salary was terrible as it was always a X% pay increase and even if X is something good like 20%, 20% of not a lot is still not a lot. When I got my first promotion I was still earning under half of what a few of my peers were paid.

The plus side was a great opportunity that I wouldnt have gotten going outside of the company that gave me a few years of experience and when leaving the company my salary doubled over night and grew from there.

MABLE

I worked in customer complaints on inbound calls for 8 years with Royal Mail. Abuse from some customers was awful but never took it personally. I only left because of retirement I still look back on the days with great fondness.

missg2210

I worked in a courier call centre for 4 months or so and actually I really liked the work just management was awful & so was the pay - this has now gone under - im sure you can guess which one.

I then went onto retail where I am for the next few weeks and then im off to the railway to start as a trainee train driver - there is always a way and and look at it as

'as one door shuts another will always open' work hard