Working in the call center industry could give you a fruitful career however in this industry we are also vulnerable to losing our job. During my 9 years stay in this industry I have encountered two (2) company acquisitions and one (1) employee lay off.

Listed below are some of the signs that I have observed before losing my job.

1. Too much avail time – We know that avail time is awesome because it’s one of the moments where we can relax and make ourselves free from stress however, too much avail time is a sign that you are about to  lose your job because less call means less revenue for the company.

Avail time is acceptable if it's a Holiday on the country where support is offered however, if you are working in a call center without calls then think again  because you are not working in the government sector where doing nothing is normal in most offices.

2. The calm before the storm – Before you get axed you would feel this silent treatment. The management seems to be silent because you are no longer invited to meetings and you will not be receiving important updates or emails about your work since they already know that you will be gone anyway. The management may seem to let go of your mistakes because they do not care about you anymore.

photo credit: Theophilos via photopin cc 3. Upper management managers are resigning or moving to a different post – The Company might announce that one of the directors have stepped down or have been replaced this is done because of failed targets. I could still remember a site director who moved to a different site without telling us the reason why he would move a week after the site was sold. I guess just like any other industry the information that we will get if something is being cooked from the backend would only be based on the amount of our pay check.


4. You are asked to train someone else – One of our authors was happy because he was tasked to train a class for a different call center company. Since we were working for an in-house site he felt that this might be the promotion that he’s waiting for unfortunately, all of our jobs were outsourced to the call center company that he trained a few months ago.

5. Less Promotion – If your company has been holding of promotion and the weekly monthly targets have not been met, chances are there might be planning to replace you or the account is about to be pulled out.

Usually Big multinational companies like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Thomson Reuters would announce job cuts ahead of the actual date so that the employees may have time to look for new career opportunities, aside from that you could also get compensated once the layoff has been implemented.

On the BPO side I have seen instances where the agents like us can no longer login to our tools only to find out that the account has been pulled out. You might not see signs that the account will be pulled out, but the good thing is you could be assigned to another account however you might have to prove yourself again and worst the metrics will be totally different. You might just end up quitting your job because of the challenges that you will come across in hitting the new metric.

Don’t ignore the signs, though it’s easy to land a job in the call center industry especially if you are a tenured employee the big question is would the salary and benefits be the same or even higher than the previous employer? Well, most of the time it’s not especially if you were not pirated to join the new company. If we have missed some signs that you have encountered please leave it on the comments section so that we can have a fruitful discussion.

Last week we have posted the current job positions for Google Philippines, it shows that as of this time the tech giant is looking filling up  management positions. Hopefully, once the largest search engine filled up the said positions they would start hiring entry level and senior level employees.  We decided googling companies that supports Google’s different line of services in case you might be interested to know how it feels supporting Google's products and services.

1. Cloud Sherpas – a service firm for cloud computing and a two-time Google Enterprise Partner of the Year for Google Apps. Cloud Sherpas has helped over 5,000 customers adopt, manage and enhance cloud solutions for Google.
Type of Company: IT Support Services
Position: Google Production Support Analyst and Google Apps Developer

Responsibilities:

• Solve both internal and customer related technical support cases
• Proactively stay up to date with all the latest technologies concerning Google products and the underlying technologies and disseminate this knowledge to the support team
• Develop applications primarily for the Google App Engine platform using Python and the Ferris 
• Requirements: 
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related coursed required
• Extensive experience in examining, investigating and solving dynamic problems with ability to think "out-of-the-box” and develop creative solutions.
• Outstanding follow-through and problem solving skills, resourcefulness, attention to detail, and communication skills, both verbal and written. 
• Well-organized with the ability to multi-task and work with minimal supervision.

Source: http://cloudsherpascareers.force.com/careers/ts2__JobSearch

2. Accenture  – One of the world’s leading management consulting, technology services and outsourcing companies.
Type of Company: Call Center
Position: Technical Support Representative
Responsibilities: Responsible for providing functional and/or technical support for resolution of customer problems, incidents, issues, requests and queries.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in engineering or related field (preferably computer science) from a reputable and/or top tier university or 5+ years experience in technical support (if without Bachelor’s degree for approval)
• Local Berlitz Verbal English Assessment
• At least 2 years customer care experience, of which at least 6 months should be technical support in an internet-related or network administration field , English voice account.

3. Concentrix – a wholly owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corp a Fortune 500 company
Type of Company: Customer Contact Center
Position: Call Center Agent

Responsibilities: Provide information for the company’s products and services.

• Requirements: 
• College graduates or Completed one year in college education
• Fluent in English communication
• At least 1 year of working experience in billing or financial account
• willing to work in shifting schedule or night shift schedule
• Applicants must be willing to be assigned in BGC, Taguig
• Preferably with the following skills:
• Excellent English communication skills
• Good problem-solving skills
• Knowledge to basic computer operations
• Good listening skills
• Excellent probing and customer engagement skills

Perks:
Above Industry Salary
P20,000 Signing bonus
Free Meal for agents
http://siva-ph.jobstreet.com/_ads/ph/jobs/2014/10/default/80/5170113.htm?fr=21&src=12


4. SYKES – The pioneer in call center industry in the Philippines and supports Fortune 500 companies.
Type of Company: Call Center
Position: Technical Support Professional (Android Account)

Responsibilities: Provide customer and technical support through phone, chat and email requests.

Requirements:

• At least two (2) years of college education
• Six (6 months) call center experience
• Basic knowledge in computers including operating systems, hardware and internet navigation.  

Perks:
Earn up to Php 24,000 every month
P10,000 Signing bonus
night differential and group life insurance coverage.

5. Pierre and Paul Solutions –
Positions:
Google Wallet/ Contractual / *30K BASE PAY
Google Wallet CSR; / Full Time / 20K + 2K allowance
Google Drive TSR / Full Time / 20K +2K allowance

Requirements: 

• Bachelor’s degree preferred
• 2 year(s) BPO experience, 
• Experienced working with direct consumers, either B2C or B2B environment 
• Handled a financial account is a plus (billing, sales)

In case you missed it you might want to check out the latest opening for Google Philippines by clicking on the link below:
http://www.callcenterfocus.com/2014/10/google-philippines-eyes-hiring-more.html

Source for items 2-5: Jobstreet

Google the world's number one search engine was awarded by Fortune Magazine as the 2014 “Best Company To Work For.”  It has been on the top of the list for five times.

ABS-CBN reports that Google will continue to hire employees for its Philippine office due to confidence on the country’s economic growth.

Julian Persaud, the managing director for Google South East Asia said that “We are very positive about the Philippines. From a marketing perspective and from an investor’s perspective, Google is very bullish on the Philippines that’s why we continue hiring people,”

Persaud also said that ““We’re very pleased with the progress, and we’re excited about the opportunities in the Philippines because we know it’s an important market for the region. It’s [Philippines] still very solid in terms of its growth rates in much several areas, and in terms of consumer adoptions.”

We decided to search the current Job Postings for the Manila site and we were surprised with what we found below;

Regional Vendor Operations Manager
Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines
Manage local vendor relationships and be responsible for day-to-day operations at the site. Support vendor in ongoing activities, including monthly planning of resource staffing, training and cer
To see full details click here
Don't want the details? Apply Online now you need to signed in to Google to see this.

Industry Manager, CPG
Work collaboratively with a team to drive business growth with new and existing customers. Build and foster long term C-Level relationships with regional and in-country client decision makers, as
Sales & Account Management
To see full details click here
Don't want the details? Apply Online now you need to signed in to Google to see this.


Consumer Operations, Call Center Vendor Manager
Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines
Manage the overall performance of the user support vendor workforce in terms of cost, quality and delivery of service. Ensure all aspects of vendor Service Level Agreements (SLA) are consistently m
Product & Customer Support
Responsibilities
• Manage the overall performance of the user support vendor workforce in terms of cost, quality and delivery of service. Ensure all aspects of vendor Service Level Agreements (SLA) are consistently met (CSAT, AHT, agent utilization, etc).
• Lead regular business reviews and any vendor relationship management activities.
• Participate in workforce planning activities in coordination with internal teams.
• Support vendor selection and overall vendor operations strategy.
• Work closely with various internal groups to understand business requirements, implement new processes, and contribute to ongoing process improvements.
Minimum qualifications
• BA/BS degree or equivalent practical experience.
Preferred qualifications
• Six Sigma qualified.
• 5 years of experience in call center operations.
• Experience running call center operations or directly managing vendor teams.
• Business process and project management expertise.
• Strong analytical and structured problem solving capabilities.
• Exceptional leadership, management, communication and collaboration skills.

To see full details click here
Don't want the details? Apply Online now you need to signed in to Google to see this.

To see other job vacancies click the link below:

https://www.google.com/about/careers/search#t=sq&q=j&d=manila&li=10&j=manila

We hope to see more job openings from the tech giant because almost everybody is eyeing for this company.

Source: ABS-CBN

English Only Please is a movie about a foreigner who's seeking for a tutor to teach him how to speak in Filipino language. The movie will be shown on December 25, 2014 starring Derek Ramsay and Jennylyn Mercado.

As part of the call center industry I had a great time watching the movie teaser.
To get the job you need to translate the words below;

"Hi liar, you are a sl*t, you are the worst most ridiculous thing that ever happened to me. You are a lying cheating gold digging b***."

See the Funny Youtube clip below and check how Jennylyn Mercado nailed it.


We all now that call center employees are having a hard time to follow the English Only Policy rule in the workplace. EOP is second on our list of things that I have learned while working in the call center and most of us can relate to it.

If you missed our article about What I Have Learned click on the link below;
http://www.callcenterfocus.com/2014/09/what-i-have-learned.html

My wife wants us to watch this film because it is a breather from the constant MMFF movie franchises that we see every year.

Would you watch the film?

It’s that time of the year again where we dress up our kids for the “trick or treat” activity; as a parent who were born in the 80’s I want my kids to experience the yearly event because during my childhood days we don’t practice the said activity.  When I was a kid I always have that desire to go on “trick or treat” the idea was introduced to me by the movie E.T., who doesn’t want free candies right?  Though “trick or treat” did not make it during the 80’s and 90’s, I didn’t feel bad because my yearly October and November childhood days were spent flying a kite.

Yesterday’s “Get Your Glow On” event at Glorietta Mall turned out to be a frustration for some parents because it appears that it’s much disorganized. It all happened after they fail to give out the loot bag “A Bucket  Full of Glow” which was scheduled from 10AM-12NN.

According to some parents they have already anticipated the number of participants so, they showed up to the event early to ensure that they will be able to avail of the loot bag and other activities. My family arrived around 11:30PM and we immediately asked for the “official loot bag” we were told that it will be given around 2:00PM. What’s with the “official loot bag” anyway? Some parents informed us that the participating stores won’t give out candies to kids if you don’t have the card shown above and the “official loot bag”. We decided to check the other activities but decided not to proceed because the line has started to pile up.

The long line at the entrance of "The House of Glow"

The much awaited 2:00PM deadline came, the helpful lady at the concierge advised us that “The loot bags won’t be available because they were not able to estimate the number of kids aside from that the suppliers won’t be able to meet up with the demands”. This resulted to more disgruntled parents because if that would be the case Glorietta should have informed us earlier;  instead, we were given the run around that it will be given later which wasted our precious time.

A long line of unhappy parents and guardians.

The event host then released a communication which goes like “Due to unforeseen turn of events the loot bags won’t be available”.  Due to disappointment some parents decided not to proceed with the trick or treat event and went home instead.

If you still want to claim your "loot bags" you still have the chance to do it by going to Glorietta from November 1 - 3 during mall hours provided that you still have the card with you.

If parents were able to estimate the number of participants the mall should have anticipated the same as well; the mall should have provided a heads up early on so that we don't have to expect that  it would be released on a later time only to find out that they can't provide it.

Were you in Glorietta yesterday? How was your experience on this year's "trick or treat" event? For me it was all tricks no treats.