by Kristine Cuer

Created on: March 15, 2009

I'm an engineering graduate. My major is in the field of Electronics and Communications. You would most likely expect me to work in a semi-conductor company or maybe in a telecommunications company. But nope, I don't. I don't want to think that my resume is not good enough for me to make it even in the most non-popular semi-con or telecoms company. Let's just say that I am one of those who are greatly affected by the economic crunch we are facing right now. But I'm not entirely unemployed. In fact, I'm currently in a job that pays pretty well. I am presently working in a call center company.

Given my educational background, I never thought that I'd ever work in a call center industry. I'll be honest about it, I was probably one of those who despised working on it. What does call center agents do anyway? They of course answer calls, but not only that, they also take in the rants of their callers, drink some coffee, give directions on how to use an appliance or how to connect to the Internet for those customers who are lazy to read the the appliance manual or the Internet usage handbook while sipping coffee in a spilled-proof-mug, apologize for the inconvenience, listen to some foul languages from their foreign callers and drink some more coffee. That's all they do: listen, talk, apologize and drink coffee. Or so I think.

Since I'm a coffee lover myself, the coffee-drinking "side" of the job is pretty easy for me but all this "listening, talking, apologizing" side of the job are actually not easy than what I thought it should be. Yes this will be the part that I will try to change the public perception, that was also my perception, of this so called job of call a center agent.

We don't have scripts.

I don't know with other call centers but in my company, reading a script is a no no. Aside from the fact that you will sound robotic if you are just merely reading, there will be a 100% possibility that you will not listen to your caller because you are more particular with reading your script. We only have opening spiels but no scripts. And since we don't have scripts, that means that we really have to be very very familiar or be that knowledgeable about the product or service we are supporting. And personally, I hate reading aloud and more personally, I hate memorizing. I'm a tech-support engineer so I'm supporting those customers who are having problems with their Internet connections. It could be that because I'm an engineering graduate, I find the job easier. I believe

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