TELUS call centres are good pay, but if you have a degree and any ambition at all make better plans for yourself.
Pros
- Best pay out of the Big Three telecom companies (Telus, Rogers, Bell) for frontline call centre positions in Montreal, but only beats the others by $1 to $2 an hour. - Commissions paid out quarterly based on sales - if you can hit up the customers who call inbound for tech support. Other techs complained, but it wasn't too hard once you got the hang of it - I actually was doing most of my clients a favour, since the services they had were no longer sufficient for their needs and didn't match current industry price points. Yes friends, dial-up is still alive and used every day by tens of thousands, believe it or not - and these people must be liberated! (lol) I made about 1.5 extra paycheques worth of commissions over the course of a year - not bad for a putting out couple of well-timed questions every now and then. - Bonuses also *may* be paid out yearly, *if* the company as a whole is also performing well. - Bonuses for consistently meeting or exceeding Key Performance Indicator stats can be made permanent for those who have taken the "mastery" exam for their positions (although it's only about half a dollar more per hour, not much of an incentive to stay in a position which inevitably does become a bit of a mind-number). - Lots of swag (gift certificates, hats, etc.) given out semi-randomly (have to sell to be part of the prize draw). It's pretty cheap recognition, but it could add up to a free gadget or two a couple times a year and makes the daily grind on the call queue a little less dull. - Very ergonomic physical environment, feels great to work in. There's even a gym (tiny, but has a decent range of weight-training and aerobic equipment) with showers! - Nice camaraderie among the frontline grunts on my level, most of my colleagues were also quite well qualified - overqualified, even. Most of the expected "newbie-hazing" from the old-timers was actually good-natured and constructive. Managers were a different breed, however. - A bit of opportunity for promotion, if you can swing it...See Cons.
Cons
- Like most frontline consumer-facing call centres, it really is modern-day serfdom with a paycheque. Although everything is tracked statistically, it is still quite easy for evaluations to be skewed by subjective assessments, especially from call quality managers. - HORRIBLE SCHEDULING. As noted by another reviewer, most frontline workers are students or lifers officially on part-time status (whether they work full-time hours or not), and it's hard to understand why they have this nonsensical part-time schedule where you start hours before the sun rises (winter) one week, and then two weeks later start in the early evening. Yes, the part-time schedule cycles down from early morning to early evening shift start times - and back up, a difference of up to 12 hours. Endlessly! This is unless you apply for a "full-time" position which is usually exactly the same job with about the same number of hours, but at least then you're guaranteed a [crappy] schedule of shifts that will begin and end at a consistent time [at midnight, probably] for specified days of the week. Then after some time (2 years, presumably) you can bid for a coveted 9-to-5 full-time tech support schedule. Hey TELUS, there IS life outside the call centre, and it's important, especially to part-timers - otherwise what's the point of working part-time anyway? I'd gladly have taken at least a 10% pay cut just to have more control over my schedule. - Experience VARIES WIDELY based on who one's "support person" (read: frontline manager/overseer) is. They actually have a lot of control over your career at the company, because their personal opinion of you trumps all when it comes to promotion, no matter how awesome your stats might be. This is scary, because a surprising range of behaviours can be exhibited from these people, from real support and encouragement to abrasive condescension. But hey remember, it really IS their job to breathe down your neck and listen to your calls once in a while (more than that if they don't like you!). Better hope you don't get a bad manager who just enjoys cracking the whip to feed their ego and power trip - that's a guaranteed 4 to 8 hours of telephone misery every work day that no-one can save you from. - Promotion?! What promotion? Usually that's a transfer to just another department of yet another TELUS call centre. The most outstanding frontline grunts sometimes work the internal help desk for the frontline agents, but rarely are selected as managers. In the end, it seems those who get the promotions are just the odd (and crafty) survivors of the positively horrendous Wireline turnover - some get fired, but many more just quit or grab whatever chance they get to transfer to another department (TELUS Mobility is popular!). By the time I left after a year, over half of the people who were there when my training cohort was new had already gone, and more were fixing to leave. I did cartwheels when I decided to say goodbye after a year, and still think it was one of the best decisions I've made in recent memory. I wasn't going to waste time busting my rear trying to figure out who to kiss up to for an indefinite number of extra months just so I could get a transfer to a better department. Now, I am FAR more satisfied in my new non-TELUS job.
