How to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - Job Agencies, Applications with Proposals and Reading the Sunday Gleaner

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 17^th 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 7^th 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 17^th 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 25^th 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 11^th 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 17^th 2013. I did a second interview, a Dexterity Test on Tuesday April 30^th 2013 and passed it successfully. I then got called on Monday May 17^th 2013 and emailed as well (mostly email communications with this company!) confirming I’d start on Monday May 20^th 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 20^th 2013.