What is wrong I think is if it is a requirement that you have a college degree to get a call center job. I actually do not know if that’s the case there in Pinas.

More than likely I think, as you said, it is the absence of other non-call center career alternatives is the reason… and definitely the expat comment is a shot at “desperately third world culture” of Pinas. I’ve worked in a company with call center and their requirement is you that you can read the script and nothing else.

Call center jobs pay the bills but… I wish Pinoys do not consider call center jobs a career, but just a stepping stone to whatever other passion that may be.

The absence of alternative careers as high paying as call center jobs is a huge factor; I think there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with a call center job, but outsourcing as a whole can be detrimental to a country if it’s the only industry that’s booming :P

http://farfromneutral.com/exodus/archives/2005/04/25/perils-of-outsourcing/

an alternative to being employed in BPOs here in the country is freelancing: setting up a small outfit and performing outsourced work on one’s own terms. you could be self-employed that way and probably even earn more than an outsourced worker.

but a lot of filipinos don’t seem to want to risk things in that manner. the mindset is still service-oriented: take care of your job and your job will take care of you. on the up side, this makes filipinos ideal workers, even at “dead end” jobs. but on the down side, it doesn’t do much for entrepreneurial competitiveness. a lot of our young people would still prefer to work than set up their own businesses, even if the option to do so is available to them.

the reason why it took me n months to land a job was i didn’t want to work in a call center as a csr…i knew i could do better than just answer calls and be treated in an insulting manner by irate foreign clients…but hey, it’s still a career I think..for a number of Filipinos who want to get away from being another statistic…call centers have greatly helped the status of the educated Juans and Juanas(even undergrads)… being in a call center is better and more helpful than just bumming around….but i hope them people(the undergrads) would realize they need to finish school first and explore other opportunities… it could be a dead end job because call center people enjoy earning the lotsa moolah they earn….who would want to look for another job if you get a minimum of 10k a month? Not all employees get to earn that much eh? but then again.. i wouldn’t in anyway succumb to being a csr or an agent even if the compensation is way better being one and even if I lose my job..hope I wont..i love my job and the team so much…:D hope the boss’ll take care of me and the rest of the team..ayt milk?! :p

phew! that comment was long…could be an entry for my blog…harhar!

Diong, it really depends on the company. Some only accept college graduates, which I think makes for good branding copy. “We’ve got college graduates who’ll get the same results as their non degree holder US counterparts for half the cost. So, how many seats do you need”.

Jorge, couldn’t agree with you more. Government may be putting too much emphasis on BPO. Once the volume of English-proficient people in China reaches critical level, the BPO sector here and India will take a big hit.

Rebecca, I hopped over to your comment in Jorge’s post here and this really hit home: “…the Filipino worker appears too focused on acquiring money to spend, not to invest”. I guess this “fiesta mentality” (spend like crazy for show without regard for the future) is a much overlooked cultural flaw, worse than crab mentality and negative utang na loob. Re: the entrepreneurial spirit, guess I wasn’t born with it. But that hasn’t stopped me from pursuing small business opportunities here and there…baby steps ;)

Reah, no worries. There’s always room for one more idealist in this company ;) we need more people like you to fight the war against mediocrity.

Hi Marc, in response to your comments on this and my blog:

Somehow, yeah, I do think we resent the fact that they make more money for less work. When I was working as a CSR, I resented myself too. But I think what’s more relevant is: we distance ourselves from the entry level call center position because we know for ourselves that we could be doing better and better things, we just don’t have enough opportunities. Rebecca was right in saying that the Filipino worker seems less inclined to invest, an issue that the government needs to look into. Why is the Philippine business environment not conducive for investments from Filipinos?

the only thing that can rival the relative ease and high pay of a call center job is… prostitution.

which i do during my day-offs. hihi :)

(sorry kung nawala yung intelligent thread.)

Jorge, that’s a very interesting blog topic..I’ll try to work on that soon.

Hender, nawala? nonsense. Glad to see you posting again hehe

Hi again. I was finally able to put down my thoughts on the service-oriented mindset of Filipino BPO workers. My post is here.

I failed to mention earlier that for the record, I don’t think Filipinos are the only ones who think of making a career out of working in BPOs — the Indians have been pretty hyped up by the BPO wave too. Then again, they’re also starting to think that BPO jobs are “dead end.”

Marc just needs to keep his BPO job to jumpstart his being a SEO+contextual advertising guru who will pwn us all!

Migs, I actually like the BPO job ;) it just so happens I like Internet marketing better mwahaha