Tweet
I very quickly discovered after completing that full-charge bookkeeper certificate that took two years of juggling work and school that there aren't many entry-level openings in that field that don't either want a Bachelor's (not attainable right now, but I have hopes for the future) or several years of experience in my area. Given that I was about to run out of paid job search time, I wound up taking a call center gig.
Last day of the two-week training is tomorrow. Got to hook in with active agents to listen to their calls today, and I think more of that is in store for tomorrow, after the final exam and a potluck. The callers seem pretty manageable so far, at least to someone who's done tech support, medical/dental insurance, and retail.
Some of my classmates are train wrecks in the making in this job. There's the girl who slept through a lot of class and the guy with no volume control and an apparent need to use three times as many words as necessary to express a concept, for example.
Then we have the chatterboxes who think they're being paid to socialize with each other, and the overlapping category of questionably literate who speak "ghetto" as their primary dialect, calling their ability to sound professional on the phone into serious question.
And I'm honestly worried about turning people loose on customers who think strip club visits, defeating drug tests, and shoplifting techniques are anywhere near appropriate workplace conversational topics.
DH points out they'll make me look REALLY good (I am old enough to have given birth to our trainer and all but two of my classmates, and do have a work ethic and the ability to behave professionally on the job), to which I remind him I'm going to have to handle callers who've dealt with the 'hood kids. My best hope is that the worst of the bunch will flunk the final (sure, it's open-note, but with this bunch it's possible), and that some are more salvageable than I currently have reason to believe.
Last day of the two-week training is tomorrow. Got to hook in with active agents to listen to their calls today, and I think more of that is in store for tomorrow, after the final exam and a potluck. The callers seem pretty manageable so far, at least to someone who's done tech support, medical/dental insurance, and retail.
Some of my classmates are train wrecks in the making in this job. There's the girl who slept through a lot of class and the guy with no volume control and an apparent need to use three times as many words as necessary to express a concept, for example.
Then we have the chatterboxes who think they're being paid to socialize with each other, and the overlapping category of questionably literate who speak "ghetto" as their primary dialect, calling their ability to sound professional on the phone into serious question.
And I'm honestly worried about turning people loose on customers who think strip club visits, defeating drug tests, and shoplifting techniques are anywhere near appropriate workplace conversational topics.
DH points out they'll make me look REALLY good (I am old enough to have given birth to our trainer and all but two of my classmates, and do have a work ethic and the ability to behave professionally on the job), to which I remind him I'm going to have to handle callers who've dealt with the 'hood kids. My best hope is that the worst of the bunch will flunk the final (sure, it's open-note, but with this bunch it's possible), and that some are more salvageable than I currently have reason to believe.