Call Centre Jobs

[Fitty]

I'm looking at getting a job in a call centre type joint, starting late November this year. Preferably night shift, maybe Sundays (for all the loadings) and I want to net about $20,000 a year, and I estimate to do that I'll need to work 20-25 hours a week (so, part time).

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had worked in such a job, which companies they would recommend, which they wouldn't, things to and not to do, all that jazz. Oh, and I'm not 18 'til next Feb, so if that's going to be a problem a heads up would be nice before I invest too much effort in a job search. Any help would be much appreciated.

[BlueBoy]

What sort of call centre work? Tech Support? Customer Service? Sales?

[Fitty]

Any type would suit me fine. I have enough of a basic knowledge to deal with most tech support stuff, but I'm not going to be doing any IT related stuff at uni, so that'd probably put me out of the race. I really don't care what I have to do so long as it doesn't involve too much work (I don't think there's much danger of that with call centres).

So, banks, customer service, sales - whatever. What I'm most interested in is how much they pay, and how much flexibility there is with hours (I would ideally like to work full time for about three months, then cut back to half that during uni.)

[Benwah]

As long as it doesn't involve too much work eh? good luck mate, it's 2005 lots of work is par of the course in the current economic climate I reckon.

What about retail chains like pizza hut, or any business that has to have phones 'manned' at all hours, demtel, the Johnson and Johnson care line? stuff like that? have you spoken to specialised call centre recruiters like Addecco?

If I see anything I'll let ya know mate.

[Norm]

I know you are talking about a different sort of call centre.

:grr: Don't you hate it when those pricks ring trying to sell you something?; always at tea time.

[Fitty]

The attraction of call centres is being able to sit and talk rather than actually do stuff... that's what I meant by not involving too much work.

I already work at a retail chain (Safeway), and once I'm out, I'll never go back. Care lines and such would be just as good as any other I guess - at least, I can't see why they wouldn't be. And no, I haven't spoken to any pros about it yet, because I'm not 100% sure on a few details. I just want to scope things out.

[Benwah]

want to save your energy for Uni work and stuff yeah, makes sense.

Working at Safeways/Woolies would be brutal, everytime I do there I have a chat to the staff on the checkouts (rather than treating them with contempt like most people do) and it seems they are always buggered.

Working in a big call centre is fun socially too, just don't get stuck anywhere where you have to call OUT, that shit is for the dogs.

[Fitty]

Right on. I do a mixture of stacking shelves and scan jockeying, and it's soul destroying. Really.

[Scumbag]

Are you female ?


If so, consider doing Adult Chat line work... A friend of mine gets paid on average $80 per hour, and works for as long as she wants, whenever she wants, just reading off a script & talking to businessmen while they fap.

[Sabra]

Call Center Sales = fuck off workload
Call Center IT Support = dealing with dickheads on a minute-by-minute basis
Call Center Customer Sales = bring a book (or in my case when i used to do it, my game boy)

[Glompbot]

Actually, i find that working for the right company in a tech support callcentre can be pretty good. I currently work for apple, and I really like it. the customers are all a breeze, and i've only had ONE abusive customer so far (and i'm a bit of a bitch on the phones so that surprising)

I'm not sure how much luck you'd have with part time, but i recommend sticking to an inbound callcentre...

Where are you located? Is full time out of the question?

[Arcainus]

I work full time tech support for msn/hotmail, getting people online, troubleshooting outlook and setting up home networks. I work 35 hours a week, but am still getting full benefits. If you work inbound, call centers are a breeze. Hell, all i ever do is browse zGeek and occasionnaly take a call (I do around 30 a night, but my calls are usually 5min long)

[EvilMuppet]

I too am looking for this type of work in Melbourne.

[dogwomble]

I work for TeleTech providing tech support for Telstra BigPoo ADSL. While I am in Canberra, we also do it in Sydney and Melbourne. The amount of work you can do in a day can vary - sometimes we get absolutely hammered, sometimes we can sit for 20 minutes or more between calls. Being an ISP full of users that don't think to find a better deal, we get a lot of people who barely know what a computer is let alone work out how to ever get connected to ADSL in the first place. And it doesn't pay quite as highly as some other joints. But considering TeleTech is considered the 'McDonald's of Call Centres', if you're serious about getting into this line of work, it would be a good place to start because the training is considered excellent, even if the rest of it is crap....

[spurr]

Like others have said, avoid outbound centres like the plague. You will very quickly end up a hollow shell of a human.

Most places are not gonna be too flexible with the hours. They need you there to meet their customer demand (esp. part-time, which normally covers peak hours), so that's what will decide your working hours. The fact that you want to work nights does go in your favour, as evening work tends to be less desirable to most people.

Your best bet might be to try and find an industry where the demand is at nights and weekends. As mentioned, the big pizza places might be worth a shot. One of the sports betting places (eg TAB) could be good too.

A good plan would be to work three months full time in any call centre you can get a job in, then look around for something with the hours you need a bit later on. Once you get some call centre experience, it makes you heaps more desirable to other employers as the skills are very transferable.

[rbranson]

Are you female ?


If so, consider doing Adult Chat line work... A friend of mine gets paid on average $80 per hour, and works for as long as she wants, whenever she wants, just reading off a script & talking to businessmen while they fap.

Imagine the stories. That could be worth a golden thread in the General Section.

Please consider starting one. :elefant:

[dogwomble]

Hmmm, now this is the sorta stuff I wanna do @ $80 per hour ... I could do that for 10 hours a week and still make more than I'm on now. :)

Anybody want a gay adult chat worker that you can call Priscilla?