I`m just wondering if anybody here works or has worked in a call centre before? And can tell me honestly what it is like, did you enjoy it. Can it be rewarding?

I just left my job as a gardener due to me not getting on with management and health issues and have been successful in securing a new job in a call centre as a customer adviser for a credit/store card company. Big career change I know.

I make/take phone calls for the government. It's not bad work, usually pretty laid back, the biggest challenges I face that you might as well are people who are next to impossible to understand over the phone and people who want to be pissed off at somebody so they go with you. The biggest skill you need is to not take any of it personally, and just shrug off the idiots and keep going.

I worked at the campus call center during college and it was a pretty miserable gig tbh. It can be very monotonous at best. I hope your experience is much better than mine!

I have for about a year. I didnt care for it to be honest... LOL!!!!! People arent the nicest sometimes... but sometimes I had fun xD

Its okay. Just like most other jobs ;)

I worked at a call center for 3 years. I hated my job. The staff treated me like a number and like a piece of shit on the street. The boss was a horrible person, constantly belittling and name calling her staff (the supervisors mostly). Hell, she even saw me in her office one time and told me I had problems.

It was hell working there. I went home crying sometimes. My job was making calls. I can't tell you how many irate people I've had. I've even had some crazy people ranting on the phone. One person told me he was going to find me and rape me.

I quit after 3 years. I made good money. I'm seriously thinking of going back (just for the money).

Omg people threaten to attack?!

I got my start date. Training is 5 weeks. The pay is so much better than my previous job. I will be glad to be indoors when it's freezing cold and rainy and not outside shivering under an oak tree!

I hope you enjoy your job. Don't listen to the crazies you get on the phone. They can be quite upsetting sometimes.

Your training is 5 weeks? I only had a one night training haha.

I hope I do too. I will I can be a bit short tempered myself.

Yeah 5 weeks training it's something like 3 weeks learning codes for the computers and other technical things. And 2 weeks in the 'academy' taking phone calls with assistance from somebody who has been there a long time.

I don't work anymore, but for about 10 years I did call center work, both on site and from home. The experiences varied, mostly based on the client or type of calls you're dealing with. Over the years I worked for AT&T Wireless, DirecTv, an airline, and a mail order pharmacy. Of course it was all very different but you get the same types of people. You need to have a very thick skin - I was yelled at, cursed, and blamed for things I had no control over on a daily basis...but sometimes you get lucky and get people who understand you're just a human trying to do your job. I hope you get a decent client! Good luck!

, I echo what a lot of the guys have already said here! It can be a rewarding job but mostly requires a lot of perseverance because you really do get all sorts on the phone.

I worked in a contact centre environment for 18 months where I took inbound calls and made outbound calls. During busy periods i'd get anywhere from 50-100 phone calls a day - it was pretty rough. It was really rewarding at times though - for example, when I'm able to coach someone on the line through a complex issue and they are genuinely thankful for my service. But it can be really repetitive, monotonous, and it made me feel like a broken record sometimes. The worst is when you get a rude or angry customer on the phone and they are not only not willing to listen but aggressive. I'm sure the company will cover how to mitigate these issues in your training though.

I moved on to manage a team of staff within the same contact centre for a year, and what I found is that call centre floor staff are mostly entry level positions useful for developing your administrative and communication skills, amongst other things. Most people moved on after 12-18 months to other roles which were more challenging / fulfilling. So - I guess as a first job, a call centre job can be really helpful to develop essential skills to help you be more desirable in any future job (especially office jobs!) but not so great if you've already been out working a couple of years.

All the best! Happy to give you more insight if you'd like!

Thank you for your good luck c:

Hi, thank you so much for your detailed information it is really helpful! Yes it is my first call centre job. My gardening job before this was the only other job I had, so call centre work is completely new to me.

I think it is definitely more suited to me as I love helping people and I have always been a quick learner when it comes to technology (so the phones, computer systems should be OK for me)

I'm not thinking too far ahead to the future, I just want to see how far I can excel within this company.

I did first and second line support for a company and it wasn't too bad, since I got to go to customers as well from time to time. However, now that the services part is gone I'm currently just first line support and I'm bored out of my mind. It's not something I see myself doing for 2 more years.

Line Rhiannon said, you need very thick skin to be in this kind of job position. You'll get yelled/bitched at, blamed for stuff that's not even your fault... You're the first "defence" the company has when a customer is pissed off and sometimes it's really ugly. The people who understand that you're not to blame are okay I suppose and those are the people I ultimately do it for, but there are down days where the bad calls outweigh the positive ones and it can take a heavy toll mentally.

Most people I know who worked in a call centre never did it longer than 3-4 years before they really got sick and tired of doing it.

Good luck if you decide on doing it!

I used to work in a call center and I absolutely hated it. But my hours were 6pm-midnight which would make most jobs terrible to begin with lol, and it was for a company that endorsed something I personally wasn't a supporter of, so it was rough in that aspect.

I liked the customer service aspect sometimes, I love talking to people so for me it was enjoyable to talk constantly (we only served customers who called in to us though, we didn't call out or telemarket or anything like that). I'm pretty thick skinned too so it was easy for me to just hang up on crazy/angry people or ignore people who called in to harass the workers. But I felt bad taking customer's money since it wasn't a company that I am fond of... it was a short gig I did for about 6 months but I wouldn't go back, even though the money was great. I get so frustrated and bored sitting at a desk that long.

I briefly worked taking donations via phone for a nonprofit last year and the worst part wasn't the cold-calling at hours that had me constantly apologizing to everyone I called to since it was late in their time zone, it was dealing with my managers and the quotas. I think working in a customer service one would be less stressful on one hand because there wouldn't be that "You must make this much money or you're DONE!" pressure all the time but the people on the phone would be a lot angrier and ruder so I don't think it would be much better. It's stressful either way. It's not something I would go out of my way to do.

I would totally do customer service chat online though, I know people say it's a lot easier to be rude on the Internet but rude people on an actual phone are a lot scarier to me.