Monday, August 21, 2006

Phela Din...

Today was my first day as a customer care executive, and not a bad one at that. I wasnt any great shakes, but I wasnt bad either. I took the calls, and managed to get a few payments from the erring parties, so not bad. But really, the rationed breaks are a pain, really. Half the time, one is just looking at the watch, to see how much time remains, and the other half in just running to get back on time. But still, it feels nice to be one of the crowd, to go with the flow. Previously, when we were in training, it just felt like we were just drifting, that we did not belong there. But now, I enter the office with a sense of purpose-a misguided one, but a purpose nonetheless.
Our process is a UK based one, and our client is BT. The good part about this is that we don't have to put on an accent, or take on an alias, which is what happens in a US based process. So I jsut introduce myself an Rajesh, and not Jack or James. But the tough part is making a sale. See, its been a long time since I tried selling anything to anyone, and to be frank, i was not a success earlier as well. But still, I guess life is a learning curve. So far, my impressions of this industry have been a little ambivalent. Lets see what our future holds...

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Long Time...

It's been a long time since I posted anything here. I would have thought that the viewership to my blog would have petered down, but no, there are people still coming here, albeit by accident, but coming here all the same Welcome to one and all.
A lot has happened since I last posted. For one thing, i got a job at a call centre making me one of the coolies. But frankly, so far, it hasnt been too bad. Also, I have been in training till now and havent really worked, so there might be a correlation there.
There has been general greying of the BPO industry, in my opinion. It is not an industry filled with college going students anymore. The average age here is 29 years, way more than the age of your average college kid. People here now have around four years of call center experience. A far cry from th time when one year exp was more than enough!! There are also mid career people and also people from other fields, yours truly included. So far,I have met three people from the pharma industry, one teacher, one person from the press...and thats just a few of the people I know!!
Other than that, nothing new has happened. Been away from teh news for a long time now, cant be bothered, actually. Not watching too many movies either..........Whats happening here????!!!!????!!!