Jobs Of My Past: Selling Insurance And Selling Tacos...

Telemarketing:

I can tell you from experience, almost nobody who works at a call center wants to work at a call centre. They do not want to be there nor do they want to call you about whatever it is they are calling you about. So when somone calls you at a time when you are a busy and you make it clear to them, that you, have no desire to be on the phone with them, I assure you, that they, probably have no desire to be on the phone with you. They are not even the ones who dial the phone number to call you, it is literally a machine that dials your number and then your name pops up on the screen in front of them. They might be allowed some leeway to what they say to you but basically it is a hi and before they talk about whatever it is they are supposed to sell you. A lot of these employees do not even work for the company of the product they are trying to pitch. Call centres are owned by third parties who make calls on behalf of other companies. The person on the phone probably does not have stocks or interest in the company. They probably do not even get paid well to call you and bug you about whatever it is the company wants to bug you about. So when the poor bastard calls you, even if it is at the worse possible time, try to be nice to them.           

The place I worked was above a mall. You would not even know it was there unless you had to visit it. The space was fairly large, an open area that was littered with rows and rows of desks. On each desk was a computer and a headset. You would sit at the desk, put the headset on, click that you are ready to go and the calls would start. A screen would pop up with the name of the person you are suppose to talk with and then you would go into your spiel of what you were trying to sell. When the person said no (as was the large majority of your calls) you would need to click a reason of why they said no before letting the call go before moving on to the next one. The time you waited in between was called downtime. This didn't last, it was ususally a few seconds before the next call came on. You don't even decide to take the call, as long as you are on the clock the calls keep coming. There is an option to pause it, but when you do a clock comes up that counts the time you are on break. Oh and when you are finished with a call and need to pick a reason you didn't get the sale, you are timed for that too. So that way you cannot hide in the menus between calls.           

Every once in awhile someone would say yes. In order for the sale to go through it needs to be a clear YES on the phone (the calls are recorded). If it is not a clear yes, then you need to verify the positive affirmation again to make sure. Then comes the verbatim terms of the product. It was literally two pages long of terms and conditions that you had to read to the client word for word. If you messed up on any of it, then the quality team who listens to the sale could deny it. A lot of the times it is difficult to keep the person on the phone as you bore them with the terms, so you need to talk fast. To motivate you there is a team leader. Every dozen or so computers are sectioned off into a team. In front of each team is a whiteboard. This board has everybody's name on it and a space beside it where the team leader would write down how many sales you were getting. It could be pretty daunting to see how badly you are doing on the board in front of you. You are told that you are required to get so many sales an hour (it was usally 1-point-something, a number that was not easy to get) and they would check up on you if you are having trouble getting sales.           

The saddest part of working there is how much no one wants to be there. You will probably never find a man or a woman who is there because that is the job they wanted. No one growing up says I want to be a telemarketer. There are people who have dreams of doing something else and are waiting for their chance, to young adults finding there way in the workforce, to parents looking for income for their family. It was kinda depressing. And the turnaround rate in ridiclous. I remember how many times you would see a new class of trainees learning the ropes of the system. The job is not one I would recommend to anyone unless you need the work and if you do, know that there are people out there that feel your pain.

Taco Bell:

Never be rude to anyone who works at a fast food place.  People do no understand how rough a job it can be.  You are dealing with a constant flood of costumers, all of whom are there for "fast" food and there are times when the line doesn't seem to end.  When you work the window there is a timer on the screen that shows how long the person has been waiting since they ordered.  It stares you down as it clicks second by second.  To make matters worse, I worked at a taco bell that was in front of a mall.  That's right a mall.   And it was attached to a Pizza Hut.  Between the pay and the poor work it really encourages you to stay in school.  To anyone who is working there because they have to or are working hard at an extra job in their spare time, my hat is off to you.  You do not get payed enough, regardless of what fast food chain you are working for.  And to anyone who goes for a quick burger please please please be nice to the men and women who are behind the counter.