Is Working In A Call Center Is Career Suicide? 

This is spot on. Got my bachelor's degree in finance, then ended up not working for a few years due to some private issues. When I started looking, all I could get was call center jobs. Now I've been pigeon-holed. No matter where I tried to interview, it just went no where. I think I'm stuck at call centers for the rest of my working life. If I could go back and give myself advice, I would have skipped college, and just found a job working in ANYTHING but a call center

A call center is a place where your soul goes to die.

I was cursed with that too until I changed "customer service rep" on my resume to "account manager" or "customer supporting analyst" then I started getting calls back.

I love how people decorate their cubicles - Family photos, Garfield calendar, Plastic flowers.. a stress toy.. a noose.

I worked in a call center for five years and then got hired on at a university. That changed my life. I’ve been working in higher education ever since.

Same happened to me. I work in call centers for so long that those are the only people that would hire me. But thankfully I just moved to a new state and finally I got a call from a job that is not a call center. I started Monday and I like it. It's such a breath of fresh air so far

Now the call center jobs are requiring and expecting college degrees.

Call center is a dream killer place. Study, get certified and never go back.

Management in a call center are like high school bullies. Any sniff of dissent and they push you out. It’s the “cool kids”, except they’re not cool. Being a manager at a call center is kind of pathetic, but when you’re under them you do what you have to.

Dang man, thanks for holding nothing back. Saved me from taking a bad job.

Man, I think I would rather work at Walmart or as a waitress than a call center. At least at These jobs you can stay physically active. Get fresh air and/sun on your break.

In call centers people are being used as robots to perform the same tasks every week, every day and every hour, not realizing their life is going to nothing but worse... sadly, many many people there do know these facts but its just how horribly bad their life went and they just wanna secure their life at any cost... really saddening 💔

Call Centers are the definition of a dead end job. Places will promise these poor folks the opportunity of career advancement but the sad thing is that most will never see it due to the outrageous demands of the job. I’ve seen some of these places in action and the goals they place on these guys is highly unrealistic...a high call quota, time they’re allowed to spend on each call, up selling demands and all this other shit means most quit before any career advancement. The only people who stay in a call center from what I seen are older women who are close to retiring anyways. Young people are in and out of these departments on a weekly basis.

When you tell someone how bad it is as a call center rep they look mystified. Everything you said is 100% true.

Been a call center veteran for a while now and was able to get out a couple years ago! It’s a black hole industry that draws in people by preying on their good intention to want to succeed. Once you become part of that world, it’s all call time, conversion ratios, horrible scripts, and timed lunches watching the clock type work. I promised myself to never ever return...everrrrrrr. Stay strong those of you still in the fire. I know your pain. ( insert hunger games whistle sound )

I worked for almost 4 years in this area and almost lost my sanity ...

You are absolutely right! I did an international graduate scheme and then came back to the UK to stay with my brother for a while. I took the first job available - A CALL CENTER in a bank. I have a bachelors degree with the highest GPA. I am now applying for new jobs to move out of call centers!

My sanity was hanging on by a fine thread working at one. I wasn't even in sales but took inbound calls; it's the nature of the job and doing work a high school dropout can do. I've worked in retail and a cc is worse! Many didn't have a degree or were working on one and being a bartender/waitress on the side was common. If you have a degree, don't torture yourself at call centers.

You hit it right on the head. I'm planning on quitting my shitty call center job after Christmas after all the bonuses drop

I wish I had seen this video a long time ago. I've made the mistake of speaking up about all the bs that goes on. My company tried to justify taking away lunch breaks for example. If you got a call before lunch and it took you 10 min, it was 10 off your lunch. It's low pay, low respect, high expectations. Any time they bring a financial incentive to the floor, they try to find any reason to disqualify you and throw a corrective action notice you have to sign for the stupid thing they found. When it comes time for your performance review, they always remember that time you challenged their policy and claim you "don't take responsibility for your results". It's all done to keep you low ranking to avoid paying you what you deserve. It's like the movie _Office Space._ I feel bad that I've spent the last few years doing it.

Call centers are full of neck and face tattoos.

You were right about working in a call center. I worked as a security guard in the call center. I did not work for the call center directly I was a contract security guard. So I had a chance to see how the inside operates without working there. The turnover was high & the people that were there for a long time we're very unhappy. I knew one guy that stayed only for one year. Once he got his vacation pay he left and move on to do something different. I knew one lady that was there for eight years & didn't get promoted to supervisor like she wanted to so she went to work for another call center. By the way One of the managers had asked me to apply that they were looking for people who speak Spanish. I immediately said no thank you. I met other Security Guards that worked in call centers as Security and we were comparing notes. Different company same BS. Thanks for posting this video.

When you work at the call center they always say it's a great career move while you sit in a room with 35 other new hires

Agreed. This type of work is a 'black hole' of sorts. Get out before you're into deep.

I've worked at a call centre for 2 years now and have a university degree. I finally handed in my 2 weeks and have a week left. I guess I better get my ass in gear and get a move on doing something better.

That act you did of the manager looking over your resume and then talking about it was so spot-on it was incredible. I don't know how many times I've been in that situation, and I do have some call center stuff on my resume.

I just quit my call center job yesterday

Today was my first and high probably my last day at a call centre, it was hellish.

I saw the Heading and I gave it the thumbs up right away! Contact centres are bad news! They are considered the 'boiler rooms' of any corporation!

I accidentally discouraged myself from applying to other work because I thought people were only going to see customer service rep on my resume. I worked two separate call center jobs, three total customer service jobs...10 years in customer service. I am over it. I do not want to do this anymore. I have moved up from one department to the next (essentially a promotion at the call center) and was told by a job recruitment agency that I was better suited for customer service. But the lack of response from this agency really made me feel trapped. I want to go back into administrative work.

Pete I also work for one call center and one time I was looking into quitting my job because of some of the horrible customers I get on my end. My supervisor says that it's wrong for me to be irate. Well I do get mad because I try my best to help but many times I am not able to have the customer's phone fixed. Coming across your channel has enlightened me and I do hope that I become stronger from working for a phone company that Verizon bought. I do hope so, so that when I do get to work for another type of job, I won't break easily.

This is true. I work at Frys call center and although it starts off pretty well, the supervisors that have been in their for so long are pretty much dead inside. While there are some supervisors that are,”okay” there is always that one that hates their live and whenever they can will pry on that one customer service associate who messes up to take out their frustrations.

I just applied and interviewed for a basic receptionist job and bc i been working for call centers since 2020 *AND HAD TO LEAVE MY LAST ONE BC OF MALPRACTICE WITH MY PAY AND FOR MY OWN MENTAL HEALTH* they for some reason felt like I wasnt good enough. Im glad you mentioned it here that yes, alot of us bout to open our businesses bc of this smh

This guy explains how I feel, I work in a Call Center and I feel I have commit career suicide.

Call center jobs are awful, even call centers that have somewhat of a good rating, u spend the whole day stuck in a box or in your room getting yelled at and u don't even have time to breathe with all the back to back calls, u get very lil training and most of what they teach u doesn't apply when u hit the floor and take calls, unfortunately where I live there aren't many good jobs....the highest paid is the medical field, law enforcement and call centers/ cyber security/ IT specialists, most degrees here are useless, and call centers are good for those who are desperate for money and really need a job. Even those w bachelor's degrees in a certain field of study down here are working call center jobs cause there's no other option....aside from going back to school for a medical degree.

Your voice make me feel relaxing 😌

I made the mistake of not keeping my mouth shut, and you are right they kept me pigeon holed without any hope of advancing. I've been looking for work for almost a year now, and it's tempting to go back to a call center. Having no job is worse than working at a call center.

Worst mistake of my life in some aspects. I had a job offer on the table with a “guarantee” of 2 years with IBM and it turned out to be call center work; and an electrical engineering internship offer that only guaranteed the summer with Lucent. I found out a few years later that I would have been working some of the original DSL technology. I got out of the call center in another company precisely by posting out. I got an opportunity to learn how to do database reporting from one of my call center managers but I had to basically do it on my own time. Looking to do whatever I had to in order to get off the phones, I put in the extra work and time. I’m glad I did. It was the ticket that gave me the needed knowledge to post out to a systems analyst position and build up from there. Ironically the business knowledge I gained from having worked in the call center was helpful to the new position. Had I not taken that chance, I could have easily been stuck.

I'm glad I found your video, I wasn't even searching for call center videos. It's time to redo my CV.....

I'm working in a call center because I don't have any choice I want to quit but my family is forcing me not to do it because they fear im not gonna get any job.

There are many call centers in Houston, TX. And let me tell you, it is exactly as this man says. If you disagree and try to argue against him, you are lying. Plain and simple. Every call center in Houston, TX is a scam operation of some sort. The sales jobs are just hire people to get some sales and fire them before paying them commissions. Debt collection firms have unreasonable metrics and would fire anyone just to save money and, again, avoid paying bonuses. Customer service positions have very stringent requirements, like quality score or average handle time, and NONE of the metrics are reasonable provided the contact centers performance. For instance, if the center is known for not being able to fill an order, customers are going to be upset and give a lower score, which will impact the agent. The agent, however, has no recourse in this and will be punished if the score is too low or if that person is unfortunate enough to have several pissed off callers rate them low out of spite for something the _company_ is ultimately responsible for. Aside from the absurdity of the goals and lack of professionalism, these places are downright heartless. During Hurricane Harvey, for instance, a call center had workers pay PTO time towards the week missed due to the storm. The company refused to pay people for their missed time and it was left up to the generosity of the employees to donate their PTO benefits to compensate for the loss time Unbelievable. Another company I worked at lied about wages and yet another lied about hiring temp workers on permanently. Bottomline, do NOT work for ANY call center. It will ruin you financially and mentally.

Question though, why is it that in places like Manila Philippines working in a call center is actually regarded as a prestigious job. You hear stories of people quitting their teaching or nursing jobs to work in these call centers in Manila. Manila supposedly has over a million people who work in call centers. Why is it that call center employees in the Philippines make more money and seem to have decent jobs over there, as where in America it's the exact opposite?

In my country call centers Pay more money compared with another companies so people are taking the decision to be from a call center to another.

This is ultimate truth. I appreciate you!

BINGO! Security interview on December 1st and it can't come fast enough!

Yup. Work at a call center in a brokerage firm right now. Required a college degree, had to get my licenses, and only got the job because I had experience working as a personal banker. I hate my job. Im not gonna lie, there are a few days where I feel so unfulfilled because I get bitched at by people for things that arent my fault and I dont really do anything important. Im miserable. I usually go and smoke hookah right after because the nicotine helps calm me down and I have a lot of good friends at the place. Sometimes I think about just jumping out the window. Trying to find a new job is absolutely shitty and I can’t really think of actual skills to bring to new jobs. I hope I can find something new soon....

Oh man oh man.. Well guess what, Thank God,, my theory about working in call centers is being attested by people across the globe. Whatever you've said in this video, is what I've learned after wasting my precious youth in Call centers , and been preaching to all my call centers fellas who have spent thousands of dollars on their degrees but ending up in bloody call centers.. Guess what, unfortunately, the experience you get , is not even recognized in outer world/ corporate organizations. The biggest irony is it's not even recognized by the same call center itself.. HAHA

Amazing channel 🎉 thank you

I will quit my call center job today, after 1 year of work in this job.😊

I bet most have us have become or are becoming entrepreneurs bc no one will hire us

If only I had this advice sooner,,,,,,,,,,, it all makes sense now x love you man x

First off, I want to say I like a lot of your videos but I feel this needs to be said. I have two college degrees, one is a bachelor's of business administration with a concentration in marketing and I also have a secondary degree in sociology. The state I live in has a horrible economy and for months before and after I graduated I tried to look for a job with no such luck. I took a job at a call center and so far I've been there for a year. It's not too bad but not very glamorous either. I recently moved up and got promoted to being a quality assurance specialist where I'll be monitoring calls and working with supervisors to improve the customer service representative's scores. I do realize you said that if you are going to stay in a call center to show some advancement on your resume which what I'm doing because I figured if I am stuck there I might as well make the most of it and try to move up but I think another point to bring up is some people really don't have much of a choice. Unless you have a lot of experience, the only places in my area that hire you full time with benefits are call centers. My ultimate goal is to keep moving up into this company and either A) stick with it or B) keep moving into higher and higher management positions until it shows someone I'm capable of doing something else in another company.

I'd hire a good call center employee to work in a local insurance agency. A lot of customer service and sales skills, and we do a lot of the same operational concept, but much more laid back.

I have more patience for anyone in a call center that I have to phone to deal with my problem than those who work from call centers that give you nuisance calls - those should be banned.

What other jobs can you get that are better without yet having a degree?

My god you are totally right… I am the out spoken person in my call centre and I will never do anymore than I have done 😂

Call Centers will suck the life out of you. I worked at one processing Tricare claims for about 2 1/2 years total. Near the end my anxiety levels shot up through the roof. I always got passed up for promotions or different positions because of my national guard service which is ironic because they held a Tricare contract which most employees fell under. After getting reprimanded over some minute thing I got fed up and put my 2 weeks notice in. It was pretty scary faxing the fact I was unemployed but I did recently receive an insurance settlement and had money saved. I also had recently started ubering on the weekend making 4 to 5 hundred dollars and started picking up extra duty days with my national guard unit. Looking back on it over 2 years later it was the best decisions I ever made. I got to enjoy my life again. Relieve a lot of my anxiety and stesss. Caught up on some video games Last year I got to work as a civilian with the marines for 3 1/2 weeks with awesome pay. Worked for a FEMA contractor doing home inspections for 2 months in Tampa Fl. Volunteered for 2 separate deployments to Europe, one for two months in 2017 and a 9 month deployment I'm currently on until early next year. Now with the experiences I've had since 2016 and the IT training I have received and the work I have done on both of my deployments, I'm looking to dive back into a more permanent position again, this time in IT. I know everyone is not in the position as me (I'm single with no kids and low bills) but for your own sake you MUST find a way out. All my colleagues who have left are doing much better. Like he said when it comes down to it, you're just a number there. No respect for the most part. Not to say that everyone treats you like trash, but you are at or close to the bottom of the totem pole. You could have all the intelligence and education in the world (I had worked for Edward Jones and had a College Degree before starting at the call center) and you won't get to use it in a call center ever. Don't waste your life in a job that on top of being low pay, is stressful and life draining. Trust me that follows you when you leave work each day. You're worth more than that.

Damn this guy is for real

This makes me annoyed that my college kept bringing recruiters from call centers for us when we became seniors.

Dammit guess Ill stick for only a Year. Working on a call center guess its just being a number, an asset they dont give a fuck about you. Call center looks like a corporate gulag I had this friend that got sick and fired right away after that

I’m 17 and have been in a call centre for 5 months and I can tell u it’s been draining my soul from my body. I’ve prepared a resignation email but have been staring at it since yesterday for some reason im too scared to send it but im just gonna do it. Cant handle that shit no more

I'm not 100% sold on everything you've said about working in a call center and how it's career suicide. I think it honestly depends on which call center. I've worked at a call center for 3 years and I've shopped around for other jobs and have been offered jobs (I've declined them due to lack of pay or benefits...). Now my call center job is paying for my masters degree.

It makes 10 years I'm in and I wanted to change but even if I taught I may have a hard time finding something else now I'm afraid. I'm thinking about doing a formation in an other domain for having more chance. We'll see...

Great Info!

All is so fudging true

I just got a call center job. I feel like, why would anyone believe that working in a call center is a bad look on a resume?

“Is that a tommy bahama shirt for Hawaiian shirt day?! :)))))) “

Right now I'm trying to survive doing calls for two different contracts with only one week of training. Help me! I'm dying 😭

You're 💯 percent freaking right.

What if someone was in a call center agent for 6 months and looked for a job and sent out CV's to marketing jobs would I have a chance of getting accepted or not?

I don't think it's that bad, I'm at QL and the commission is nice. Has a lot of ups and downs since it's sales but a lot of the stuff you say is true. There has been times where I dial 900 and I only get 30 transfers which is horrible but that goes back to it being a sales job

Hi PTPOP - Great video presentation ! Perhaps you might want to consider starting a consulting company that manages to turnaround what many who work in a call center call, a "dead end job". Oddly enough, the call center industry is booming, globally ! The call center is only as good as the company or services that it represents. It is not necessarily a career ending move to work in a call center. It depends on the customer service representative, if he/she can proactively translate the experience at the call center into other functions in another company and in other industries. The corporate call center functions similarly to outsourced call centers except that full-time staff are offered better incentives on top of a better starting salary. Ultimately, it's about the product or service that customers are complaining about. I believe it's another industry to put in place a workable solution to any call center, especially an outsourced call center, on how to address the remedial process for that particular goods or services business the customer has called to complain about. I was once a corporate call center officer that influenced change that not only helped customers but it helped me, my colleagues and the company that I did work for. Ofcourse, the management staff that kept the root cause of why customer complaints continued unabated and hidden, were slowly expelled or redesignated as they could not and did not conform to documenting the new procedures that were introduced by the customer service representatives. I've decided to re-enter the call center business as a "senior" customer service representative, hoping to solve the problems that in itself needs to be unraveled to reveal a clear solution. I also need the remuneration, offered. PTPOP, I believe your mature experience in "delighting the customer" will be put to good use when you start up this consulting business. After all, the call center is always about problems coming in but rarely are delightful solutions going back out to the customer. Call center reform should start with your consulting business, sir. Every success to you. Enjoy a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2018.

How fuckin accurate are you and how fuckin accurate was I 'shouting exact same thing and I was called wrong..... It's just I didn't listend to my voice.

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Very very true.

It's not a "death sentence" .. but yes, I agree otherwise

DEATH Cry Center.

GreenBay! Wohoooo!

you are describing Amazon associate job hahah

Hello PT, I'm in a tight situation and was hoping for some advice from you. I was let go from my last job in the health insurance industry over a year ago. On paper my previous job looks like a call center job (since I took phone calls and emails from customers) but it was not a call center environment. I've been looking for work for over a year with no success. Now the only companies that are interested in me are call center positions or sales jobs. I don't want to commit career suicide but I'm running out of options. Do you have any suggestions? G

You should do some freelance web design through upwork.com

i work at asurion is that a bad call center?

So you decided to become a youtuber , great! A better choice

Call centers now require College degrees

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Having spent 10 years in a major (Fortune 100) corporation and now working for a call center, I'm not sure I believe anything you are saying. A.) the people in corporations are not all brain-dead as you make them out to be. And B.) the people in call centers are not ALL as heartless as you might think. They might be a bit too gung-ho and a bit too workaholic for my tastes. But I have actively seen them make allowances for the various strength and weaknesses of my team-mates. And honestly I am quite favorably surprised because I presumed they would only want cookie cutter employees. From what I have seen, its the people who get hired up into the salaried positions who work like workaholics being available all throughout their days off and of hours... That is exactly what I want to avoid, getting a "promotion" where I am expected to surrender my personal life for a few extra bucks an hour. I'm pretty settled that I DON"T want to move up within the call center company. Not unless it was an IDEAL career move for me - like video editing or AV support - where I am already an expert.

👍

You are being to negative. No, it's not true that it will hurt your CV.