American Express Call Center Agents 24K Salary

Hi there my loyal readers! As you may well know by now I occasionally post some very interesting stuff going on in our call center industry. I really like writing about stuff that I know will help people find great jobs and make their life a little better.

A few days ago, Arvee, a frequent reader here too asked me if I could blog about their recent openings for call center agents. The details are very tempting especially the salary offer. Here's what he gave me:

The opening is for the financial account (American Express) and the account pays P25K above monthly.

Company: HTMT
Location: Libis Quezon City
Requirements:
* A college degree (any four year course)
* Excellent English communication skills
* Excellent interpersonal skills
* At least 6 months experience gained in a customer service oriented environment (contact center, sales, banking and finance, hotel and restaurant etc.)
* Very good exposure to Internet

You may email Arvee directly at bibaybest@yahoo.com or send their questions also at 09178870580. The requirements don't look too stiff and I believe it will only be a matter of who applies first and gets the slots first. If you're interested I suggest you act soon and email or text Arvee to get started.

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Startek Call Center Philippines Sounds Like StarTrek

Guys and girls, for those of you who have been reading the news, you know that there's a new BPO around this year. Startek BPO is reportedly establishing a foothold on the Philippines particularly Makati and it is their first venture outside the U.S.
StarTek Philippines will open its doors for prospective employees and start operations on the fourth quarter of 2008. A company executive is already in the country taking care of business for the launch of a huge call center location in Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue Makati.

According to StarTek officials most of their clients are the largest telecommunications companies in the U.S. This U.S.-based BPO estimates around 1,100 employees to hire for their makati call center.

Another reason to cheer up for those Octoberians or for those looking for "greener pastures." :D
Read their company press release here.

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Call Center Bloggers I Like!

It's a Sunday guys and I felt it's time to take a day off from call center blogging and pay attention to the growing number of call center bloggers. I'm so pleased that our call center peeps are beginning to embrace this cool hobby. I usually find call center blogs through email alerts I have set-up and some I found while analyzing this blog's traffic sources.

I am honored to mention a few of these call center blogs I admire for one reason or another. Some I've come to love because of the honesty of the author, some because of the author's effort and creativity in putting together a unique design but most interestingly I love all of them because it gives me a sneak peek of what the call center author's life is. Blogging is not necessarily about making money. Most of the time, it's just nice to put an online journal where you can look back and read about the awesome times you've had in the past. Check out my quotable call center blogs here:
And I defied the Gods... - A nice journal slash poetry blog. I was impressed by the author's creativity. An honest scribble of the author's feelings and daily life. Love the pictures.

Call Center Guy - I found about the call center guy through an email alert I have set-up. It's a simple personal blog of a former West Contact Services employee. Very insightful reads and simple blog design are the things that attracted me to come back every now and then to the Call Center Guy.

Manong Calbo's blog - A nice journal of a Pasig call center employee whose main blog focus is on life outside his call center life. It's perfect read for those who love reading about what I call center employee's life outside his work is. Personally, I love this type of blog because it's kinda hard to talk about work all the time as most call center peeps would agree.

Callwork Comics - Hazel is one of the first blog friends I've ever had online. She presents a cool comedic perspective to everyday call center situations. I love visiting Hazel's blog because of her original call center comic strips. I believe she is the one and only who does this type of blogging in the Philippines. If you'd like to get a few laughs while working, Hazel's blog is worth the read!

Carpe diem - Is also one of the first blog friends I had online. His blog is more similar like my own blog. It focuses also on making money by blogging. If you want to find out how we do it, Carpe diem is a good start. Full of call center stories and making money online experiences.

Peeps, these are just five of many of us Filipino call center bloggers out there. I'm doing a series of these reviews to praise them for their awesome blogs despite of their schedules. It's tough enough working in a call center environment but to find time to blog is really commendable.

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Call Center Bloggers Domain Names

For those who have been following my blog since the beginning, you all know this started as a blogspot subdomain blog called callcenterveteran.blogspot.com. Then about January this year, I decided to get my own domain name for several important reasons.

First of those reasons was my decision to continue blogging as a profession. Blogging has opened doors for me that I thought wasn't even possible. Currently as a pro blogger, I earn roughly $500 a month in between 2 blogs through advertising. I thought it was necessary for me to get my own domain name because most advertisers prefer blogs that have its own dot com domain. Secondly, it was a matter of branding myself and securing my name as an authority in my chosen niche which is as call center blogger. Hence the domain callcenterblogger.com.

If you're planning to go on blogging for a longer time even if it is not as a professional earning money through it, I strongly suggest you to get your own domain name for the same reasons. As a website owner, your goal is to be read and viewed by others. It is therefore important that you're website address is simple to remember for better recall. We have to admit callcenterblogger.com is easier to remember than callcenterveteran.blogspot.com. If you want to be remembered by your name then that would be much better. People who already know you by your name can easily just type in your domain procopiotacio.com instead of procopiotacio.wordpress.com. All you need to do now is just tell them...Right?

Nowadays, domains are NOT expensive at all. You can get your own domain name through Yahoo.com Small Business for only $1.99 or roughly 80 pesos for one year. Click here to use my very own secret link to this cheap Yahoo domain promotion. If you want value for your domain purchase, register a domain name through www.GoDaddy.com and get additional stuff like free web hosting, your very own email address and a lot more. Godaddy's price ain't too expensive as well. It's only $6.95. Use discount codes from ashoppy.com to get it at a cheaper price.

Even if you're not really making any money out of your blogs, it still really does make sense to get your own domain name.

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Business Process Outsourcing: Is The Philippines Too Dependent

I've recently read a news headline quoting President PGMA discussing how she thinks BPO will offset the increasing gas and commodities' prices but I can't help but wonder, is that all the Philippines is right now? Is BPO the only thing keeping the Philippine economy afloat?

Maybe we, especially our leaders, are depending too much on the BPO industry to save the economy. Unwisely so. The BPO, with all its great promise and good things that our country has reaped for mildly sustaining it, is not forever going to be a sunshine industry of the country. Remember, the biggest reasons why BPO companies come hear are the relative relatively cheap labor, decent infrastructure, pool of qualified individuals and government incentives. Our money is relatively the same value with the Indian Rupee and India is definitely way ahead of the Philippines in terms of manpower pool. With these reasons alone, I don't think these BPO companies will ever have trouble moving to OR back to India.

And then there's China. With all the advantages that the Philippines has kept steady in order to attract foreign BPO investors, China can match it and even present itself as a way better low cost destination for BPO in the near future. Other countries are, in fact, building themselves up to get a piece of the BPO pie, even in Africa.

In conclusion, I think it is way wrong to totally depend on BPO alone. Our leaders should not make it as a flagship industry where we brand ourselves as a top BPO destination and make our country's living out of it. Sooner or later, some other country will rise up and "take our candies." We should instead be promoting and throwing more government support towards industries that are already inherent to our country. Agriculture and Tourism will provide more jobs and sustain our economy longer because it is not dependent on the factors that affect BPO. In my opinion, the people leading us are just looking at the wrong direction towards sustainability.

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Funny Call Center T-shirts From A To Tee

I've always been a fan of t-shirts with witty messages. Trust me, I've got some weird, funny and naughty ones myself. Today, I got an email from one of the blogs I commented awhile back about cool call center t-shirts. Click on the pics below to get a full view!

This is an awesome idea! I'm regreting I didn't come up with it myself a long time ago. For those interested, check out From-A-To-Tee's multiply page.

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