I don't even remember how I got into this job, I think is was sometime around age 21 or so. This was way before the time of caller ID and Do not call registry.I got a job interview where I pretended to be making a phone call and somehow the interviewer thought I was worth a shot! I went through a few days of training before I was even allowed to make a real call. I remember being nervious as heck, sweaty palms and didn't know how I was going to get through the script, but I did it.
We called people in current events like politics, lifestyle and other topcs, mainly polls and opinion surveys. One of the advantages was that when needed, I could do my call in Spanish but the first few times I didn't know if I was supposed to--but neither did managers because they couldn't monitor the call either--ha, ha. However, in time they told me it was fine to do whatever made sense and I did just that. I don't remember exactly how long I lasted in this job, but it couldn't have been very long to be honest. I also can't say that I loved this job. It was tolerable and doable, but loved it? um....no.
I do remember talking to people and they moaning and groaning because I had called them during their dinner time. I guess I did the job for as long as I could, but honestly it is one of those things that I hoped never having to do again. Also, I was extremely glad that I did not have to sell anything, I would have had a major problem doing that. One of the things I learned about this job though that could be a good/bad thing depending on how you see it is that most of the operators were young kids, high schoolers to early college and it gave me a new appreciation for who is on the other side of the line when I got a call myself, at least I had to control myself from being rude to them.
My first job was as a babysitter, for $.50 an hour. Then at age thirteen I graduated to telemarketer for the music store where my sister worked. I was Mrs. Desmond from The Franklin Institute, doing a survey.
ReplyDeleteIt was a scam to get ages at addresses to solicit families for music lessons. Hey, I was thirteen: ten cents for each answer was making me rich.
Curiously, one of their employees was later caught as having embezzled large amounts from the store. What goes around and all that...
Ah, the memories, huh?
My next job was at the Flea Market, selling and doing macrame for sale. Am I dating myself?
Laughingly, Deb
LOL...not at all Deb, I was thinking one day that I had surely done lots and lots of jobs, and thought it might be interesting to tell about them...Thanks for sharing!
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