Stuck in a call centre, how can I get out?

[TheChild]

I've been there over 5 years now but I've had enough.

The company is great, most of my colleagues are lovely, I have part time hours that suit childcare situation and work partly from home. But I am just miserable now, I need to move into a different role but I don't know what.

I have an English degree I never used, experience in finance from the call centre job, no other skills, passions or talents and no idea what I would love to do.

Ideally at the moment if I could stay with my company and just do admin I would love it, but unfortunately we are not hiring for admin (very very rare that admin role becomes available) and looking at other admin roles they are either:

• full time hours
• require experience

I'd like to stay part time as youngest is still little and full time childcare would be a lot.

I'd like to at least earn what I do now (which would be £19,000 for a full time role) but I don't know what I'd be suited to, how I could make the leap, whether I would need to retrain.

I feel like I'm going to be stuck in a job I hate forever!

On indeed you can search for jobs without putting a job title in, you can select the salary you want and select part time. You might find some jobs that you may not have considered before because they are titled differently.

If you've got at least 7 out 10 things the job description says you need I'd say apply for it. A lot of the time it's more like a wish list rather than something that they stick rigidly too.

After doing a bit of research into jobs you might notice that you lack a specific skill or qualification on the type of job you want and then you can use that as a starting point of how to get to the job you want. You might be able to do an evening college course or do some voluntary work in a related field for example.

Good luck.

Have you looked in to getting into any sort of operations? Many tech companies also have support teams who are always needing people. The dont always need a tech background. They are working with helping resolve issues for their colleagues and some customers but it’s not usually a phone based roll. It’s usually done by a ticketing system.

Operations and support I think you could find a very suitable role with your experience.

Career shifters is a useful resource.

Of course you can find something better, the first thing to do is to find some time - ideally 45 minutes a day to start looking - looking and figuring out what you’d like will be a parallel process. You have to get out and explore - the answer doesn’t just drop from on high.

I wouldn’t worry about loving or being passionate about your next job either - that can be a lot of pressure - think about something that arouses your curiosity, sounds fun, or would make you feel valued, stimulated, happy.

Call centre experience is great. Look for a general customer service job in a smallish office but a biggish company if possible. More chances to shine and move onwards and upwards

A local government admin job might suit you. They are often flexible and offer working from home. It's fairly easy to move around departments and you might then find something sparks your interest to get more training or promotion as your DC get older.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I spend a lot of time browsing job websites to see what's out there and whenever I find something I get excited about I let SOMETHING put me off eg "its too far away" "full time" "needs experience in x y and z"

I'm starting to think I will need to look at a full time role just to get a chance of doing something different. But still every role requires experience which I don't have. I'm a quick learner and have always had to learn on the job being thrown in the deep end, should I apply for admin roles that say they need admin experience even if I don't have it?

I found an adult apprenticeship at a big tech company that said you didn't need any tech experience, it looks good with a job at the end of a 2/3 year course but it says you need to be willing to travel on occasion all over the UK. I don't drive, my DP works full time and due to childcare issues I've always been the one who worked part time around the kids. So travelling would logistically be a nightmare but what if this is the opportunity I've been waiting for?

I'm working today and my anxiety is through the roof, I feel sick and get teary just at the thought of another day so I need to do something!

I think it's worth applying for the "not sure it quite ticks all the boxes" jobs.

If you really want part time, then find out if the company has a good record of employing people in part time or flexible roles. Many admin roles can be done at least partly from home these days. Can you do a full time job where you work flexibly across the day to fit in with your children (my company would be happy to allow that, but they don't advertise it!). Or they may consider employing someone part time even if a full time role is advertised. Or sometimes it's worth working full time for 6 months/a year to establish yourself - then the company would likely be more keen to let you move to part time hours.
I would suspect that in current climate a tech job that says it needs occasional travel probably needs very little travel - that's just in the job description to cover them. If it was travel twice a year (say), you could surely sort out logistical problems?

Would it be worth doing some agency work? I manage an admin team and it’s so hard to get temps at the moment and I wouldn’t think twice about hiring someone who’d worked in a call centre for 5 years, great transferable skills. Another route would be local government or in an MP’s office which gives great all round admin experience.

I used to work on a call centre and know how monotonous it can get - wish I’d escaped earlier so definitely get your cv out there and start looking.

I started work in call centres and moved into training (or Learning and Development as its called now). this allowed me to apply for roles in other financial companies and then I moved into managing an operations team.
Current company is in pensions. Company is global and tons of internal roles to move around but we are struggling to recruit from external.
5 years call centre experience is definitely enough to get you in as Administrator and then work your way up from there.

Are there any quality/compliance/training roles in your current call centre or others in your area. So instead of doing the customer service work you are auditing, training people or setting processes.

There are, not many roles as our Head Office is based in a different city to the call centre but I will have a look on our careers website for anything at the moment.

I currently have 2 days off in the week and the kids are at school, would it be silly to contact local businesses to see if I could volunteer a day a week to get experience in admin type roles? That's the only way I can think of getting experience without doing an official course but would they take one look and think what a ridiculous idea?

Yes if it was only a couple of times a year we could most likely work something out. DH is most likely going to get an internal promotion in the new year but with a change in work location it means he won't be able to pick the kids from after school club so it would be me. I am planning to learn to drive but not until DH passes his test (coming up in a few weeks, keep your fingers crossed for him!) so for the moment I rely on public transport and need to pick the kids up by half 5. So I would need to be local as well!

I feel like I've so many obstacles and I just need to tackle one thing at a time, but I'm now so miserable at my job I'm due to start in 10 minutes and I'm sitting here on mumsnet having my 5th teary moment of the day!

Have you had a look at the civil service? They would be open to flexibility as a default. There are gazillions of different roles - have a look in an open ended way on the civil service jobs site.

You are a graduate (and clearly highly literate since it’s an English degree) and have experience in finance and customer service in this job. You have a whole set of other skills (and talents). There are loads of jobs you could do.

It sounds like you are a it worn down and lacking confidence. Do you think Learning to drive would help? If you’ve struggled to in the past, you could get an automatic only license (and then buy electric cars which are automatic anyway!). That might increase both your mobility and your confidence.

One of the things you might also want to consider is that you are making a change to the family dynamics. Your husband has historically worked FT while you picked up the family slack. Maybe he needs to step up here so you can build a career that makes you happy.

Have a look on the Civil Service website, after decades of non recruitment lots of Govt Departments are now recruiting.

Lots of remote working roles, training provided, child friendly hours. Would probably be quite low paid at first but lots of opportunities once you're in!

I work in public transport, customer facing, frontline operations. Always need part-timers. You'd fit the bill, working in a call centre. We've employed loads of ex-CC employees.

I've just found a job for NHS Payroll administrator, it's advertised as full time but thought I could apply and see if there was any scope for part time but it says I need an NVQ Level 3 in Payroll and Pensions. Is it even worth my time applying? I know some jobs have an email or a number you can contact for any queries but this one doesn't.

@TheChild

I've just found a job for NHS Payroll administrator, it's advertised as full time but thought I could apply and see if there was any scope for part time but it says I need an NVQ Level 3 in Payroll and Pensions. Is it even worth my time applying? I know some jobs have an email or a number you can contact for any queries but this one doesn't.

There’s no harm in just applying anyway.

Loads of people (men in particular) apply for jobs they done meet them criteria for, and get them. You can always offer to do the qualification while you work.

Definitely look for civil service and local government jobs. Do you have a DWP office near you? Most of those offer flexibility and once you're in you can move around much more easily to a different role if you find something you're interested in.

I agree with applying anyway as you never know if you might have something that they are looking for that means they overlook the qualifications

Government also a good option too.

There are often lots of admin / customer service type roles that could be suitable within larger charities.

Something like the National Trust could lead to some interesting places to work maybe?

A hangs is as good as a rest they used to say (showing my age)

I’m in the same boat as you, stuck in a call centre for 6 years, youngest DC still in primary to am tied to school runs. I feel like I’m completely done in this role now and a lot of my colleagues have left recently which makes it worse as I really envy them going into roles which they are excited for.

I know which sector I want, and it’s completely different to my current job. I look every day for available jobs in this sector but like you say, they’re either full time or too far away to fit with school runs.

I’ve now decided that in the new year (or even the time between Xmas and new year) I’m going to draft up an email and attach my cv and send it to every single local establishment of the sector I want to work for and basically sell myself and offer the times I could be available for. My DH WFH so even if they allowed me 45mins to grab DD from school and take her home and go back to work, I’d do it!

Good luck op, I completely feel your burn out from working in a call centre. I think you just know when you’ve had enough and sounds like we’re both there!

Use your sources. Look on LinkedIn, ask around about vacancies that are available etc. Send out emails to companies who are actively hiring as well, and read job descriptions carefully. Circle key words that tell you about skills needed in order to do your job well and properly.

Go for local government. You could use your experience to get into customer care then change jobs. They often promote from within and offer all sorts of apprenticeships once you're in.