Is there much progression from working in a call centre?

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I am debating whether to take a call centre job for a bank however it's not really what I want to do but I'm aware that you have to start somewhere. What type of careers can evolve from call centre work?

Ps I have no clue what I'd like to do so I'm open to ideas that might arise

It can be a foot in the door for any of the wide range of roles in financial services. Often, there will be opportunities for apprenticeships you can do as part of your role, or other more specialist qualifications if you are prepared to work in your own time.

The downsides are that you need to be resilient because you do get a lot of angry or very distressed callers in a banking environment; and the hours are often very anti-social.

Not a bank but a small/medium professional services firm, a number of my colleagues started as call centre agents, stood out and are now in roles involving MI analysis, product ownership, QA

Anything, really. And one of the advantages is that, after three months, you'll be one of those people who doesn't bat an eyelid at being shouted at, cried at, called names, accused of being gangsters, racists, thieves, stupid and every other insult you can possibly think of. And be able to talk most of them down rather than getting upset. Pretty much bombproof, in fact. And then there's the management side - the scripts, the timescales, the call rates, everything about the obsession with figures being the only way to prove effectiveness - and the utter control that management want to have because those numbers are the way that they justify their pay rises.

I wasn't a fan of my call centre roles, as you can tell. But it's the fastest way of gaining the ability to deal with everything that's thrown at you in an office environment, even if you don't find that actually, it's the perfect job for you and you love it.

If your not working, take the job and keep looking. Id rather employ someone demonstrating a work ethic with initiative.

As with everything it depends on the bank. How good you are and how you present yourself.

Thanks for your replies. I do agree there will be angry customers (this scares me a bit) but I think all jobs have there downsides. It would be better hrs than I have atm as I'm in retail so My hrs are very unsociable anyway so it would be better already.

what is MI analysis @Euphesmia ? Sorry if that's a dumb question lol

@NeverDropYourMooncup oh no which back did you work for? 😬😬😬😬

I did. I started on the phones. Then became a complaints agent, then a team manager, then an operations manager. From there I moved sideways into Business continuity and data handling.

I then left for the job I have now which is head of internal reporting. My teams look after anything from H&S to financial reporting for the board. I am actually considering going back to call centres as I did enjoy it.

Being shouted at by customers over the phone never bothered me Tbh. Much easier than it happening in person.

The way to go is to take the job and once you are settled, start looking at what other opportunities there are within the bank. As with any corporate role, there are opportunities in tech, marketing, data quality, people management, HR, project management, audit, business analysis etc. as well as roles specific to financial services. If there is a path that interests you, you can start to 'develop' yourself towards that role. Banks are very hot on having personal development plans and your manager will be assessed on how they support their team in their career goals.

@Itsbeenashortyear I agree while I don't want to be shouted at, at all, I think it's easier when you aren't feeling intimidated with some 6ft 5 20stone man shouting at you directly.

Sounds like you have made a good career for yourself. I would love a change from retail preferably into an office setting so I just need to get nyself there somehow

@Alacarde thank you so much. There are opportunities to get into different pathways with this job so that's really why I'm taking it to be honest.

Working in HR would be a nice number

If call centre work is better hours and suits you then take the job for now. Take up training offered whether that's first aid or an apprenticeship to beef up your CV.

I think when trying to move sectors it's just as important to think of what you don't like doing as what you do like to do, it's easier to narrow the field.

I suffer from regular ear infections and have slight hearing loss so call centre work is not for me but I like working with children and being outside. I do the outside bit of my likes through work and used to teach but have moved industries and have left working with children as a career for now but still do it in a voluntary position.

Depending on your education levels you might be able to access other government work related training online in your spare time, administerial training, excel, word, outlook, speed typing etc if those types of work areas interest you.
The future is in tech so there are lots of It and coding courses available although probably not free if that interests you.

I do agree there will be angry customers (this scares me a bit)

As pp said, it's not as bad as having them screaming at you in person and you will get training and support in dealing with them; there's also a lot of camaraderie - your colleagues will be supportive - and after a while, it does become like water off a duck's back. The only thing is, it does tend to dull your 'argue back' reflex in real life, which may or may not be a good thing!

Also if you want to do office work look at the civil service website and others like it like the Environment Agency, Cefas, Border Agency, Natural England etc. There are lots of remote and hybrid roles in admin support at the minute with good local government pensions. You just have to accept that working for the public sector you not likely to earn big bucks but you do know that (hopefully) the work you do goes to make this part of the world a better place.

Entry-level HR roles often involve HR telephony and query handling, so call centre work would be an excellent way to gain experience for this - I know of several people who took that route where I work.

@Alacarde oh that's very interesting thanks you. That's something I could maybe focus on for the future !!

Loads of opportunities spring from front line bank/insurance company jobs. You could get into -

operations leadership
operations governance
risk/audit - 1st / 2nd / 3rd lines
finance
pricing/actuarial
product owner/propositions
change/project management
IT
HR
financial advice

Knowing the inside out of the front line operation (call centre/admin roles) puts you in a good position as all of those functions exist to make the customer journey work.

Look into doing a professional qualification in the path that interests you - eg you could do

• CII qualifications for financial advice (R01 is a good grounding for any financial services role tbh)
• Prince II and Agile for project management/change roles

Have a look at people’s profiles on Linked In, see what the leaders in the company have done and what they’ve studied.

Ask the company what progression is like and if personal development is supported.

And I will stress it's not all angry customers. Some will go out of their way to praise your handling of their query/problem, especially if you are the one to sort it out after others have failed; and many will just be routine enquiries that are easily dealt with.

Depends which bank you work for as to how many unhappy customers you get - we literally get 3 complaints a month. You could always start off in a bigger bank and move to somewhere more niche once you have some experience under your belt.

I worked in a call centre and then worked as a telephone travel agent, then as an admin assistant and then as a secretary, and then as a PA and then finally as an EA.

I do agree there will be angry customers (this scares me a bit)

just remember they’re annoyed with the company and the processes, not you.

You are not your work!

detach from it a bit.

Empathise with them and listen to them - tell them you understand where they’re coming from and then do everything you can to be proactive and fix it for them.

These are the best customers as they’re the ones who will end up giving you glowing feedback which you can put on your appraisal!

And they also help you discover gaps and problems in processes which you can look to fix and raise with your leader - also gets you brownie points and improves things for future customers.

Win win! Don’t be scared - turn it to your advantage.

In aviation, working in the reservations call centre has always been seen as an ideal way to gain a solid grounding in how the industry works, and a great platform from which to establish a career. Trained reservations & ticketing agents can move into operational roles, airport ticket desks, sales, IT, marketing, revenue & pricing, finance etc etc. I also know people who have used a reservations job as a means of funding their training to become commercial pilots.

I'd say it was very similar in banking.

I work in financial services. It's not the route I took but I know many of my colleagues started in the contact centre and moved into various roles. As a PP said upthread, experience with customers puts you in a great position to transfer into many of the functions that support the customer experience.

You've all been been so incredibly helpful to me. I'm gonna try my best and work hard and hopefully I'll get my break from it!!!

@purplemunkey how do you find the contact centre?

You're already better equipped - you've dealt with angry people in person, so you might find that them being on the phone means it really doesn't bother you because they are just voices, rather than people who might actually be able to do something - you're already de-escalating situations in person, on the phone can be far easier (and at the end of the day, you can hang up on them if need be).

I did insurance/independent contractors rather than banking (you get access to training and qualifications through banks, though, which is much better) - dealing with anybody/any role outside the call centre environment in the future usually means that people are amazed how easily you deal with people that would have them in tears; you get to a point where, when there's a really difficult caller, you volunteer to take those calls off others 'Oh, them. Put them through to me' or can tell when somebody else is on the receiving end of one of those calls and provide support.

It can really increase your confidence quickly - and be good for developing good boundaries/assertiveness all around, along with being able to respond quickly to situations confidently because you're used to having to switch on to a completely new situation every 3 minutes, for example.

DP's done similar in financial, telecoms and Local Authorities. He can take anything that's thrown at him over the phone - he was worried about going into a job where stuff happened in person, but once he'd done it, he found that the phone skills had been really useful, so he was then able to deal with both for later roles.