The unemployment rate in the Philippines is high, jobs aren't easy to find especially in bigger cities like Manila or Cebu.
You might get lucky to find one, but the pay is of a minimum wage that you wouldn't even think of considering.
In the late 90's Call Centers started to leave a mark in the industry as a solution to the high unemployment rate and low-paying jobs.
Working in a Call Center doesn't require much as long as you have reached at least 2nd year of college and you can converse in English quite well, then you're good to go.
Since most of the Call Centers here in the Philippines don't do outbound telemarketing, the call center agent receives Sales Calls, Travel, Customer Service, Technical Support or Credit Verification Calls, it just depends on what account you are in.
Speaking from experience, working in a call center is quite stressing yet it's a new learning experience for me.
It's stressing in a way that you are just confined in your own little corner of a large office, sitting in your swivel chair waiting for calls to come in.
And when calls do come in, you have to make sure that you give a satisfactory customer experience and follow your call flow or else you will fail your company's Quality Assurance (QA).
And then when you fail QA, you don't get your bonus pay on payday (which normally falls every two weeks).
Working there is also a new learning experience for me because you get to talk to different people of different nationalities who are all living in the US.
You get to learn about people's experiences and their sorrows in life. So, aside from being a call center agent you get to also become your customer's friend for that short span of time that you talked with them on the phone.
In general, it's great to work in a Call Center.
You earn a decent salary, you get a little stress to spice up your life and most of all, learn new things every day.
Contributed by: Renalyn, A Filipina call center agent in Cebu.