Hmmm ...

[Pixelated]

Local call centre (inbound only, or so it says) is looking for new workers.

100+ workers.

This in a city with a fairly high level of unemployment.

Wondering if I should check it out, given what I've read on here about working in call centres ...

When a business indicates it is hiring massive numbers of workers, that, quite frankly, strikes me as a red flag. Jobs aren't easy to come by around here. If you have large numbers of employees quitting ... what exactly is wrong with you?

[csquared]

It may simply be that they landed a new contract. Doesn't hurt to look.

[Nunavut Pants]

Definitely check it out. If nothing else, it's interview practice. And it would be a paycheck if they hired you....

[Pixelated]

Yeah, good points.

There's one call centre in this city (not the one that posted this ad) that I was warned away from ... by a friend who, at the time, worked for the local welfare office. She said the place had such an awful reputation that if you walked in to apply for unemployment or welfare and said you'd just been fired by X Company, your application was just rubber-stamped and your benefits were on their way.

[ladyjaneinmd]

Local call centre (inbound only, or so it says) is looking for new workers.

100+ workers.

This in a city with a fairly high level of unemployment.

Wondering if I should check it out, given what I've read on here about working in call centres ...

When a business indicates it is hiring massive numbers of workers, that, quite frankly, strikes me as a red flag. Jobs aren't easy to come by around here. If you have large numbers of employees quitting ... what exactly is wrong with you?

Exactly!! I once took a job and found out that they'd had a 100% turnover rate in the past year. I should have been suspicious, but I found out why shortly. I did manage to hang in there for 3 years, but I was blackballed in the city and had to put in my resignation and move to another state, and I still had nightmares for 2 weeks after leaving that job.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[Pixelated]

ladyjaneinmd: That's what I was thinking. I've seen enough posts here about the horrors of working in call centres that I was wary of it to begin with ... and with this ... but I'll put my name in anyway, and see where it goes.

A staff member at the local unemployment office kept waylaying me to tell me a business owner was looking for a "mature" woman to be a part-time secretary in his office. This staff member is someone I'm not particularly interested in hearing from (long story -- a few years ago she flatly told me that no office would hire me because I'm too old) but I said sure, put my resume in. She'd discussed this with me twice because apparently after her first approach to me the guy was out of the country for some time.

Guy finally calls today. One of his questions is when I graduated from ... high school.

Um ... in 1972, my friend.

I have the feeling he's looking for slightly less maturity than that.

[MoonCat]

100+ new openings?

Collections. I'd almost bet money on it

At my old job at the newspaper, the people who would not specify what the exact job was in their classified employment ads were: (A) Collection agencies, (B) Insurance companies, (C) a certain big-name vacuum cleaner company, and (D) door-to-door magazine sellers (you can ignore this one as they don't usually have call centers).

But I'd bet it's one of the other 3.

[Pixelated]

Oh GAWD. If it's collections, I will get out of there so fast I might not bother to open any doors on my way out.

[ladyjaneinmd]

ladyjaneinmd: That's what I was thinking. I've seen enough posts here about the horrors of working in call centres that I was wary of it to begin with ... and with this ... but I'll put my name in anyway, and see where it goes.

A staff member at the local unemployment office kept waylaying me to tell me a business owner was looking for a "mature" woman to be a part-time secretary in his office. This staff member is someone I'm not particularly interested in hearing from (long story -- a few years ago she flatly told me that no office would hire me because I'm too old) but I said sure, put my resume in. She'd discussed this with me twice because apparently after her first approach to me the guy was out of the country for some time.

Guy finally calls today. One of his questions is when I graduated from ... high school.

Um ... in 1972, my friend.

I have the feeling he's looking for slightly less maturity than that.

Speaking of maturity.....back in the days when I was looking for a job, I used to get calls from recruiters (I'm a computer geek, for mainframes and Unix, AND a woman). The ones I learned to be wary of were the ones who said, 'We need to see you ourselves before we send you out on interviews'.
Yeah right.
Inevitably, these 'recruiters' were itsy bitsy little barely-legal girls, fresh out of college, and they'd see me coming. Me: over 40, and rather on the large size, and I could see the panic in their eyes ("OMG, she's HUGE! We'll never get her a job!").
However.....in the computer world, my size and age didn't matter much, but my years of experience in mainframes and Unix computers did, so in spite of those little chickadees (who never sent me out on a single interview), I always managed to get a job without much of a wait.
Don't judge a person by her waistline, folks.

[Racket_Man]

However.....in the computer world, my size and age didn't matter much, but my years of experience in mainframes and Unix computers did, so in spite of those little chickadees (who never sent me out on a single interview), I always managed to get a job without much of a wait.
Don't judge a person by her waistline, folks.

I love hearing stories like this

[CyberLurch]

If it really is inbound-only, it probably wouldn't be collections.

[Pixelated]

If it really is inbound-only, it probably wouldn't be collections.

Ah, good point. Otherwise I'm sure we would be as lonely as the Maytag repair guy (anybody remember those commercials? )

Meanwhile, I've been invited back for a second interview at the home hardware store opening up at the other end of the city ...

Heard nothing from the Big Box pet store opening nearby, alas.

And the Big Box office supply store is STILL advertising for full-time sales associates. I applied to that a month ago! (Not saying I should have been selected, but I am more than a little surprised that the ad is still there. I'm sure they were flooded with applications.)