Life @ call center

Dear readers, the following is a descriptive narration of my experience at HCL (BPO) and the associated events in my words along with the observations I made. I hope you enjoy reading it!


Part 1 – The Quest
How unique has my experience been at this place- HCL-BPO, one of the many big call centers in and around metropolitan cities with swanky infrastructure, providing mass employment and reasonable salary to thousands of youngsters. So much happened during my less than 2 months stay; met people, made friends, learnt things, indulged in work politics, had a crush, even got a love proposal …
Ever since I got over with my 4th semester exams, I knew what I would be doing in the 2 months vacations I had before the next semester would begin- work at a call center. Why? Simple- where else would my concoction of having appeared for final year exams and the fabricated documents to support it go unverified? There is a reason why call centers are a hit with boys in early twenties- "money comes good and girls come easy". Besides, they don’t require you to hold any experience and your poor academic performance is hardly a disadvantage (someone with strong academic credentials wouldn’t be at a call center anyway!).

So the hunt began, and it wasn’t for the first time, I did the same during my previous vacations- worked at a small time, unregistered call center being run in the garb of regular office to evade tax returns. I knew that going to the right people saves time and makes your quest easy. So I landed at this consultancy for BPOs which promises you an offer letter from the best in the business, and doesn’t even charge you for it. The company wasn’t well heard of, nor was their office very spruced up, a regular call center consultancy. The staff comprised of one owner, a manager and 3-4 girls working as consultants, who, in the due process, had acclimatized to the shameless leering by the boys and men who would come there for interviews. They would neither entertain nor slash any advance you make towards them for they know that in their business networking is the key and that every client at their doorstep today has the potential to get ten more by good word of mouth. But they certainly are a great aid for anyone on a lookout for a job in BPO sector. All you need to do is to pass on your contact number to any one of them and they handle the rest- they call you to apprise of the companies visiting their office on the following days, prepare your resume, groom you for the interview, adjure you on things you should not disclose to the HR managers, and even tolerate indecent innuendoes with a smile, for the amount on their paycheck is a direct function of the number of their candidates recruited by visiting companies.

You then flip from cubicle to cubicle meeting one HR manager and then another, hoping that by the end of the day you would have multiple offer letters to choose from. Though this does not happen very often. While waiting for your turn, you get to interact with those sitting next to you, who could be a fresh out of college cool-dude looking for some adventure or an experienced north eastern girl supporting her family back home or a seasoned BPO employee there for seasonal migration. The interview comprises of those regular questions beyond which neither the HR manager expects you to answer nor would you expect him to know. Fluency in angrezi is the only reason he would or would not hire you, and an under quoted salary would be your only reason for turning them down. The deal is struck when their downward spiral of expectations in terms of your suitability for the job meets the upward curve of yours vis-a-vis remuneration offered. Those who manage this go back with an offer letter in their hand and a grin on their face with a short lived sense of joy in their heart. For others, the day wears on.
It wasn’t my lucky day, nor was it for Avinash, the 25 year old graduate (another fake documenter) and ex-call center employee who carried a flashy mobile phone, infact two (later identified as Chinese maal). He was a seasoned job searcher and was in the database of many such consultancies. We both talked and found that we had a few things in common- sense of humour, opinion on the girls sitting around and of course- the fake graduation mark sheets. Like minded people with a common aim do not take time to get along anyway.

The next day Avinash and I landed at another consultancy which was run in a rented house by two men in their mid twenties. After a long wait I was scheduled to be interviewed by HRs (call center terminology) from HCL. They would divide the entire selection process in 4-5 rounds comprised of HR interview, reading and accent test, telephone round, reading test, story formation, ops (operations) round and maybe a couple of more. All nothing but an exaggerated farce to aggrandize the brand name of their company and portray themselves as people rigorous in their selection procedure.

It’s hardly a secret that after the first round itself they know how the interview is fated to culminate. My sharp communication skills and ability to come up with convincing answers got me the offer letter. Though they paid much less as compared to the other interviews I had managed to clear but HCL’s infamous reputation among aspirants for being complacent in scrutinizing the documents submitted by the employees was something that was bound to attract me to my perspective employer; i settled for it. I filled the slew of forms which asked nothing my name, address and DoB some 200 times…..yet another meaningless formality. And finally there was a “Congratulations Mr. Sharma” from one of the managers with a super fake smile on his face and a pseudo professionalism in his tone, which is probably to reassure the candidate that it is indeed an achievement to have been selected for their company. Everything set and done, and I was asked to join after two days. But luck eluded Avinash today as well, none-the-less he did put up a brave smile to congratulate me and escorted me to the metro station.

End of part 1
Friends, this is my first venture into putting an experience into words and it would be only realistic to expect shortcomings. I would appreciate if you all could point of the grey areas, thereby accentuating the pitfalls and giving a candid feedback so that i can strive to improve. My friends who connect with the particular incident may feel free to add anything they wish to! In case you find the time spent reading this article worthwhile , do drop a word of appreciation...it would give me the impetus to continue.
PS- All the events, conversations, incidents and people mentioned are real, however, i have substituted the real names with fictitious but similar ones to maintain anonymity.