A BPO Career in India

chillibreeze writer — Namrata Arora

Remember the time when you were in school? Your parents / guardian used to have ‘one of those’ chats with you. ‘Beta (child), what do you want to do after you graduate from school?’ What followed was probably a career path discussion. You may have had a crystal clear picture of what you wanted to do or a series of maybes, including things that ranged from a career in ‘computers’ or taking up a cliched profession in engineering or medicine. If your choice was not one of the careers I just mentioned, then you are probably one of those who passed out from a state university and soon realized that the bachelor’s degree you had was quite meaningless and not sufficient to get you what you wanted in life. You may have taken some ‘side-dish’ courses to enhance your chances of landing a good career, maybe in computers or related to some kind of a hobby / interest you may have had at that time. You may even have taken up some kind of a job to kill a lot of the free time that comes with studying in a university, like teaching students or working in a pizza place, to earn some extra bucks.

Most of us want the same things – we want a job that pays well, we want to earn loads of money and we want to settle down in a big city, with a lifestyle that makes a statement to our family and friends. Here is a glimpse into the BPO life, which is one of the most sought after career choices available to us in India today.

What does it take to get a job in a BPO? It is fairly straightforward, actually. If you are talking about a BPO, you are probably not talking about a 9-6 job. You are talking about shifts at work, be it shifts that start in the afternoon that go into the night or shifts that start in the night and take you till morning. Shifts do seem fantastic to begin with, if you are single, that is. You get the feeling of being ‘different’ from the crowd, being the privileged one who gets to be at home during the day and even pursue a day course, if you are the industrious sort, and are out at night. You sleep when people around you work and you work when people around you go to sleep. You can earn a ‘decent’ amount of money, meet other ‘wannabes’ and party hard as the crowd you work with often considers this as a way of life. At times, your day may look up as your supervisor / team leader would be happy with your performance or you may have received appreciation from the customer / client that you deal with. So far, so good!

There is another side of this life that is important for you to know about. The shifts could potentially cut you off from your social group. You may find it tough to keep in touch with your friends / relatives and you may even miss some family functions if you do not get leave when it is needed. If the place you work in is a call center by any chance, you may be required to take up to a 100 calls a day and you may soon start feeling that your ears are ringing. You may become averse to taking calls and you may become one of those people who drop calls, put customers on mute while you tell the person sitting next to you how silly the caller is and as a result, your call quality may drop. This is not good news and it could directly impact your career growth. What you can do, however, if you have had consistent performance and the monotony is getting on to you, is to involve yourself in working with the team leader or the training team and start monitoring calls for your team or even take some sessions off and on. This gives you a good break and creates opportunity for your growth as a Team Leader and if you persist, you could even become a Manager. One thing to keep in mind is, of course, that this, like any other career, comes with its trade-offs. You need to constantly ask yourself the question – Is this what I really want to do? Is this lifestyle making me happy? If it is, you are definitely in the right place. If not, well, what can I say, it’s time to switch!

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—About our writer:

Namrata says, "I have been brought up in in Delhi, India. Have been a rank holder throughout school. I did my Graduation in Math and have done my post graduation - MBA (HR). I have been working as a Learning and Development professional for the last 7 years now and I have exposure to all areas of learning. I love to write poetry / articles, listen to music, do some oil painting on canvas in my free time - if I am not shopping, that is!".

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