I am 32 and still work in the service industry (letters, employee, debt)
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Apart from occasionally working on building sites with my father as a laborer, or working a paper round at 15, most - if not all of my jobs - have been in customer service. Over the last 5 years, I have worked for Frankie and Benny's, Costa Coffee, Domino's Pizza, Burger King, Chiqito's, hotels and bars and so on, usually for minimum wage. I am desperate to find a way out but have absolutely no idea where to go.
Needless to say my education is poor. My choice was to work in digital media in some context. I made substantial efforts to learn about this medium but failed every attempt to become qualified or competent in it and now know that my interest was not enough to penetrate much more than a rudimentary understanding of the topic. Now I don't know what to do. I have strong computer literacy, and can work long hours, and that is the bulk if not the entirety of my employability as a worker.
At present, I work for an insurance broker, at a call center. The salary is equivalent to $20,000. From overtime and bonuses alone my salary is more like $50,000. I am the highest paid employee for nearly the entire department, and that is including the supervisors and some of the administrators, and I have no degree or qualified training.
But the job really lacks reward. It is repetitive, emotionally demanding, and the responsibilities offered are very minimal and usually involve just making sure you are paying attention and don't completely screw up on every call. There is promotion, but I am not sure if I am interested. I may be in line to compete for a lead advisor role within the next 6 months (which is between my bottom-rug position and as a line manager), and this offers a small increase in salary and extra tasks, such as simple administration, liaising more frequently with underwriters, and standing in to be a "manager" to placate customers who have had their policies ruined for our fault or theirs. The complaints-dealing part alone is something I want to avoid.
The alternative is to go back to education, but education is so aimless, time-consuming and expensive. The so-called experts advised to pick some random topic out of the hat and think warm thoughts, or "do what you want". This led me to try an art and design course which cost nearly four years of my life for nothing. Until I am sitting on a strong pension plan and have significant savings, that is the last time I get suckered by an "educator" with what's left of my future.
Ideally, I would like to work in some area of Finance. We have a Collections department that deals specifically with debt. That department is even more complaints-ridden than customer services, for obvious reasons, but I'm interested in using this experience to learn more about the financial industry. I've wanted to do this for years but haven't really found a starting point. Anyway what do you think - where would someone like me go? Are there places like me where people fit?
Did you know that the IRS usually hires around 1000 folks to handle the phones each year? Your experience in a call center should be enough to qualify.
Did you know that the IRS usually hires around 1000 folks to handle the phones each year? Your experience in a call center should be enough to qualify.
After working a couple of seasons there you may find something more interesting and apply as an internal employee.
Thanks for replying. Your reply is helpful, but can I stress - going to a different company at this point is slightly redundant, as there is the occasional opportunity in my own company for clerical roles. I still prefer a pressured environment though, and don't want to sit in a quiet office all day - I genuinely like things to be fast paced and to be competitive. These clerical roles are not demanding enough for me to be interested.
Also, I live in the UK, and not the USA. But your suggestion is still very relevant and gives food for thought.
At present, I work for an insurance broker, at a call center. The salary is equivalent to $20,000. From overtime and bonuses alone my salary is more like $50,000. I am the highest paid employee for nearly the entire department, and that is including the supervisors and some of the administrators, and I have no degree or qualified training.
But the job really lacks reward. It is repetitive, emotionally demanding, and the responsibilities offered are very minimal and usually involve just making sure you are paying attention and don't completely screw up on every call. There is promotion, but I am not sure if I am interested.
To be making that money in a relatively easy position with no degree is not something you could replicate easily.
I would stay put and find a hobby that stimulates you.
Finance related + fast-paced +competitive = real estate agent
The property market has been an industry that I have sometimes considered. It's so competitive however, that survival, let alone entry in that role would be difficult enough. Plus, this is a role where you must be obsessed with relationships between your clients, business partners and the like, and that's not something I'm too crazy about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life
To be making that money in a relatively easy position with no degree is not something you could replicate easily.
I would stay put and find a hobby that stimulates you.
I am very aware of this. Not many people just walk into this kind of pay. This alone makes me want to stay, but it's boring, not satisfying, and the money itself is only good for now, not later.
It comes down to the success of my employer. My company is small but it has a red-blooded market strategy. It is not there to fool around. We recently took over a major brand name and crushed a smaller competitor. Even then, the upper management still find plenty of time to crush each other. Our new managing director mysteriously appeared on our computer-generated letters a month ago and few were the wiser. This is how quickly things are changing. Whoever is really running the show knows exactly what they are doing.
My hobby is music production, but it's too far from anything that could pay the bills. I still enjoy my digital media exploits but shift work keeps me busy. I really poured myself into this hobby and spent years, well about 10 of them, trying to make it in some kind of web-design world. I found it so difficult to deal with clients though that I decided it wasn't for me. Software development and programming itself is very well paid but anybody can do front end websites.
Re-train, re-educate yourself, make the plunge. It's not going to be easy, but whenever I here someone talk about a low paying dead end job, the obvious answer is put yourself on the path to better things. It is SO easy to find college or technical/vocational school programs and get in a better paying career in as little as 6-12 months. Financial aid is easy to get, and it's the cost you need to take to reach better things. Good thing, financial aid payments are deferred till you're done with school and can even be deferred till you find a job. Maybe you need to get a Bachelor's degree. It can take 4 or 5 years, still, that may be 4-5 years better off working towards a better future than letting 4-5 years pass fumbling around and being in the exact same spot in 4-5 years. Point is, take action, even if it is a long term plan/goal.
Last edited by the_grimace; 05-26-2015 at 02:54 PM..
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