Advice On Starting Your Career As A Call Center Agent
posted on 11/25/2009
Unemployment is the major challenge that young professionals are now facing here in the Philippines. Most of the companies require applicants to possess high educational attainment with unbelievable number of working experience. And when you DO get hired by these companies, they will pay you the least amount-- good only for everyday necessesities. No more savings in case of emergency like illness and tuition fee for their children.
Fortunately, Outsourcing came into the lime light and helped numerous unemployed workers get a chance to earn a decent amount of money to bring home to their families. The question is-- How do you start your career in the Call Center Industry?
Follow these steps to get you started:
1. Polish your English grammar. Try to read as much as you can about this subject. You can do so by observing the Subject-Verb Agreement when you construct sentences. This will help you a lot.
2. Get a hang of the American Accent. Most of the Outsourcers would be coming from North America and it would do you good if you can understand what they are saying. Make sure that they understand what you tell them. A good help in being a good conversant in a natural way is to actually talk to Americans! You can do this by having Instant Messaging services like MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, etc., Who knows, maybe you can win a friend along the road.
3. Think like an American when you speak. We Filipinos have our own English and sometimes it might mislead your customer. A good way of doing this is to practice by saying something about a topic, any topic at all, and describe or express it as detailed as you can.
Try this out now: In 2 minutes, tell me something about computers. No cheating...
4. Boost your confidence. You need this to pass those nerve-racking interviews! In order for you to achieve this, make sure you do these: Think of something that you can do that others can't; Know what you are saying by learning more about the work that you will be doing.
By knowing your edge over other people will help create an inner sense of security. This will help you relax and take home the bacon easily.
You can never impress someone with that "blank" stare when an interviewer asks you, "What is a Call Center?" Make sure you do your homework so you can answer every question that the interviewer might ask.
5. Learn as much as you can about the Call Center Industry. Enrolling yourself in a Call Center School would help you a lot in preparing and honing your skills before entering this fast-paced industry. From personality development, learning American culture and geography, knowing what an inbound and outbound agents are, to call simulations, the money that you put in would take you a step higher than those people who do not have any idea what Call Center agents do.
Almost all of the Call Center school have affiliates with other Call Center companies and would give priority to your application. After you graduate from the course, the school would schedule an interview with a Call Center company. This would give you a higher chance of employment.
The steps above would help you prepare in embarking on a new industry. The least that you could do now is to apply and never tire when you fail an interview. Just keep moving forward and you'll soon be an Operations Manager in no time!
Good luck on your new career!
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