Okay, so my 6-month streak of unemployment has finally come to an unexpected end. I applied online for a call center CSR job that was being offered through a temp service, and they called me in for some aptitude testing. Apparently I knocked their socks off, because after a couple of additional questions, I was told, "You start on Monday."
*blinks*
Whoa. So, like, that was easy. I go to the place on Monday and get a rather nasty surprise. I'm not a CSR. I'm a goddamn telemarketer.
Fuck.
Now, I know most of you would have no issue with it, but I've got two reasons why I'm not thrilled. One, consider any salesperson you know. Bold, assertive, outgoing at best. Aggressive, manipulative, and self-serving at worst. That's so not me. I just don't have the balls-out self-confidence needed for the job in the first place. It'd be easier if I was trying to sell a product I actually believed in. But, no...my job is to convince the customers of a certain cable company to upgrade their services.
Which leads me to reason #2. I. HATE. SALESPEOPLE. I get it, it's a legitimate field, and the economy needs it, blah blah blah. But to me, sales is just the art of manipulating someone into wanting - and thus buying - something they don't need. You're not looking out for their interests, you're just trying to make a commission. Seriously, in this economy, who in their right minds NEEDS to pay more for extra cable services they probably won't use anyway??
The whole concept seems borderline predatory to me. And almost immoral, at least from my point of view. I know, some of you are rolling your eyes at me. What can I say? I have a weird moral compass. The more immediate problem, though, is that if I don't believe in it, there's no way I can sell it effectively. And if I don't sell, they're not going to keep me around.
So, here's my game plan:
1. Do the best I can, while I continue to apply for other jobs until either they can my ass or make me permanent. And strive to remember that in either case, I'm not a failure.
2. If by some freak accident they do keep me on permanently...well, they have an in-house IT department. I'll cozy up to them, and see if I can slide in there when a position opens up.
3. Regardless, I'm going to try and learn what I can from this whole experience.
In the meantime, my hours are 2pm-11pm local time which totally JACKS my free time up. School's been hard to keep up with on this new schedule. Ah well....however long it may last, I'm at least earning a paycheck. Which is never unwelcome! :)
