I’m
not sure if anyone’s aware, but I’m no longer working at ACCENT Marketing Limited
anymore. I keep getting indications from people who I bump into at times that
suggest that they think I’m still working in a Call Center Environment and as
such would have the freedom of time to do as I please.
Well
I don’t. I lost my job on Wednesday April 17th 2013 and since then I
was basically in work limbo. ACCENT Marketing Limited has since begun a
recruitment drive for about one hundred and three (103) CSA (Customer Service
Agents) or TES (Technical Engagement Specialists) for their spanking new Call
Centers or BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) in the Mobay Freezone as detailed
in the article “ACCENT expands
Jamaican operations”, published Wednesday April 17, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner.
The
Call Center World is truly expanding, ever since Telecom Provider LIME had
relinquished its exclusive hold on Call Center Licenses in the Mobay Freezone
since Thursday June 7th 2012 as reported in my blog
article entitled “Montego
Bay Freezone Liberalized as LIME's Jamaica DigiPort International gives up its
Monopoly - Call Centers Age of Empire as Mandeville Beckons”.
Based
on information from a well placed source at FullGram
Solutions Limited, it appears they’ve now gotten back the
contract for both Prepaid and Postpaid thanks to very excellent Quality, Handle
Time and Adherence numbers when compared to their counterparts in Telecom
Provider Digicel in-House Call Center.
Thus
as stated in my blog
article entitled “Digicel
cuts 120 Call Center Jobs - Fullgram Solutions to benefit as Antonio Graham
speaks of an AEPP future by the Ocean”, heads are still set to roll at Telecom Provider Digicel’s in-House Call
Center as it’s now it’s clear to Telecom Provider Digicel that not only is it cheaper
to have FullGram Solutions
Limited as their Call Center Contractor, but it’s more
efficient as well.
There
is still UWI’s (University of the West Indies) partnership with Sutherland
Global Services that’s yet to start officially next Semester for the Academic
Year 2013-2014 as described in my blog
article entitled “UWI
opens Call Center to employ Students - Call Center Work before Six Degrees of
Hell in the Working World”.
Hopefully
it’ll take on a lot of UWI Students, as they’ll need all the help they can get
to afford the 5.5% increase in Tuition Fees coming in Academic Year 2013-2014,
including learning to become Pirates of the Caribbean as per my blog
article entitled “UWI'splanning to increase all Tuition by 5.5% come the new Academic Year 2013-2014 -How to Download ANY Video, including Facebook Videos, Convert and Free VideoHosting Online”.
Still
no word on the coming of the much anticipated Convergys and Aegis
Communications Call Centers and their three thousand (3000) CSA as stated in my
blog
article entitled “Convergys
and Aegis Communications Call Centers Coming – FDI powered Call Center
Renaissance in Jamaica thanks to our Good English”
and my Geezam blog
article entitled “Convergys
heralds Age of Empire for Call Centers and Jamaica’s Adoption of Flexi-Work and
Tele-Working”.
The
last thing I heard was that the Convergys project was put on hold due to a lack
of availability of land to build their Call Centers or at least spaces to at
least begin as suggested by the article “1,000
jobs on the line”, published Wednesday, November 21,
2012 BY JULIAN
RICHARDSON Assistant business co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer.
But
back to my situation, people!
I’ve
been surviving off odd computer repair jobs and my dwindling savings from
ACCENT Marketing Limited. There’s also the benevolence of my Uncle Ainsley
Deer, who owns Training
Dynamics & Consultants Ltd located at 10 Norbrook
Acres Dr (8), with whom I’ve reunited and for whom I’m now working part-time as
an Associate Consultant since Thursday May 17th 2013.
Thank
God for Family, O so long lost !
But
there’s a light at the end of the Tunnel and no, it’s not an oncoming Train.
Thanks to the fact I’ve been job hunting extensively for the past nine (9)
months since I started working at ACCENT Marketing Limited on Monday June 25th
2012 and blogging ever since, I got three interviews in 2013. One was with
Telecom Equiptment Installer Pario Solutions and Dekal Wireless in March 2013
but nothing came of them.
I
finally hit pay dirt on Thursday April 11th 2013 with an interview
with AREL Jamaica Limited for a position as a Biomedical Field Engineer,
exactly one week before I was fired from ACCENT Marketing on Wednesday April 17th
2013. I did a second interview, a Dexterity Test on Tuesday April 30th
2013 and passed it successfully. I then got called on Monday May 17th
2013 and emailed as well (mostly email communications with this company!)
confirming I’d start on Monday May 20th 2013.
Luck,
it seemed, was on my side as AREL Jamaica Limited actually knew me from before!
This
as AREL Jamaica Limited was one of the Generator Contractors used by CLARO
Jamaica when I was working there back in 2008 and was dismissed in December
2009. Ironically too, back in April of 2008, I had been interviewed by BOTH
AREL Jamaica Limited and Oceanic Digital Jamaica Limited, before America Movil
had rebranded the company replacing the old brand of MiPhone with CLARO as
stated in the article “Claro
Jamaica open for business”, published Saturday October 11,
2008, The Jamaica Gleaner.
Back
then, I’d gotten through with BOTH companies, but I’d accepted Oceanic Digital
Jamaica Limited job offer as a RF Technician and called AREL Jamaica Limited
advising them of my choice! This fateful decision changed my life and the
outcome of Telecoms War forever, as it meant I was not only working with a
Telecom Provider again, but I now had a chance to suggest my ideas to the
Mexican Management, as they’d come with no plans, save for my proposal I’d
emailed out to them to just set up and start.
While
at CLARO Jamaica, I was asked to recommend two (2) additional Generator contractors
aside from Shurpower and another Mexican Generator Contractor, as they had a
shortage of Generators. I chose AREL and Tradewinds, as I knew both of them
sold and serviced Generators.
The
rest as they say is history; Representatives from AREL Jamaica Limited came to
the CLARO Jamaica Main Building on 34-36 Knutsford Boulevard and signed a
contract to supply us with Generators, a signing which I had witnessed. In the
process I learned a lot about Generator Maintenance via hands-on experience
with the various Generator Contractors.
Thus
it’s really a case of one hand watches or helps the other. I was truly lucky. I
hope too that via the advice in this article, those who work in the Call Center
World can have the same level of luck as I have had.
My
advice to escape the Call Center World is as thus:
1. Work
at a Call Center but don’t bank on it as a permanent source of work
2. Use
Job Agencies to hunt for work
3. Send
out Applications with Proposals for ideas that can help the company
4. Make
sure you have a professional email
5. Reading
The Sunday Gleaner,
specifically the Career Section and Classifieds and apply immediately via email
with Cover letter, Resume and Proposal
6. Post
an Advertisement in The Sunday Gleaner
Classifieds under “Employment Wanted”, making sure you put contact phone number
and email
7. If
you can’t afford The Sunday
Gleaner, then apply for those same Career Section that’s
titled JobSmart in Go-Jamaica
8. You
can check out this List of Call
Centers, also called BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)
available from JAMPRO (Jamaica Promotions Limited)
To
that end, I’ve included a link to the List
of Job Agencies in Jamaica, both local and foreign at the end
of this article as a means for CSA at ACCENT to plot their escape. Here’s to
good luck to all who read this article in making the transition into the Real
8am-5pm World of Work, Fast
and the Furious 6 (2013) Tips and Tricks Style.
As
for me….I start work bright an early at 8 am on Monday 20th 2013.
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