First there's just so much bad-rap about the industry and most of it is true, one of the reasons why companies outsource is that this is considered a crappy job in their country and they can't get the quality AND quantity of people to do the job. I worked for Convergys and Teleperformance, and for me Covergys was way better. Anyway why work in a call center? I'll try to write down all the good stuff, then write down all the crap I experienced working the call center industry.
1. Money is good- Yup money is good in this industry, call centers try to shower agents with incentives, bonuses and other stuff just to have them stay at their stations and take in calls. For example your basic salary is 15k plus allowance 2k transportation allowance and 1k meal allowance and of course 10-20% night differential. So the agent will recieve around 8500php/INR. Now that's the very basic of pay,.. there are other centers who offer more. Some give as much as 27k inclusive package, and their will be other bonuses. Like if you hit this metric you get this amount, or if your not late for a month you get an additional of 2k etc...
Point is money is good and companies will shower you with money the best they can... =)
2. Save- Well it's really up to you but if your not the drinking type you'll be able to save a lot of money in this industry, cause you'll be so tired after working all night all you want to do is sleep.
3. Practice your English- Since you'll be talking to an English Speaker eight hours a day, you'll be very good at it. I mean so good that ones you get out of the industry you'll have a very clear and audible voice that can be an edge in other fields.
4.Promotions- I can say yeah promotions are fast in the call center, you just have to do good.
5.All walks of life- You'll deal with different kinds of people. Old grandma types, weirdos, moms, dads, teenagers, hopeless I got nowhere to go type, religious.... all walks of life I tell you. You'll be immersed.
Here's the bad. When I worked in the call center this is what I experienced.
1. Dead end- It is if you don't do good. You'll be an agent for life answering calls getting shouted at by a guy half-way across the world, some are even racist tssk.. that's you, that's your life... you'll answer calls.
2.People-I said all walks of life, but I didn't tell you that HR doesn't care about culture fit. As long as you can speak English you get a job.And most of the people your gonna meet are the HOPPERS, hoppers are agents that hop from company to company, they are call center whores. They don't have a plan in life, they smoke, drink and spread HIV. That's what they do, they don't make plans and THEY are the majority of people your gonna work with. Imagine that....err no way.
3. Your a walking metric- It's all about the numbers in the call center. You must have good numbers one example is AHT, that's Average Handling Time, the time your talking to a customer. The general rule is keep it as short as possible. If your AHT is one hour well your screwed. =)
4. Your image- If you're the type who gives a crap with what others think this is not for you. Their initial reaction is, YOU CAN'T FIND A JOB that's why you're there. If you don't care well that's good.
5.Shifting Schedule- Night-shift can take a toll on your body believe me.
Goodluck =)