It’s likely that you’re looking at this post because you want to start working from home, and you want that to start now (in fact, you may have wanted to get started yesterday). The jobs I’m discussing below are usually really eager to hire.
Although these jobs tend to be easier to come by (thus, super easy to get), and don’t require any degrees, certification, or experience, there is a reason for that – the employee churn (rate at which employees leave) is high.
This is because:
- The work doesn’t allow for much advancement
- It’s usually customer-facing (customer-facing jobs can be draining)
- It’s repetitive
- The compensation usually isn’t competitive
- The position can be replaced easily
- Honestly – much of the time, the job sucks 😩
However, these roles will help you to get your foot in the door. And after a while, you’ll be able to find work elsewhere (usually for better pay) because the skills you’ll gain can be leveraged across fields.
Call Center
This job requires you speaking with customers over the phone for a certain number of hours per day. Depending on the company, product, and service, you may have to deal with a lot of cranky customers.
There may be a lot of pressure to answer a certain number of calls, and there tends to be a lot of micromanaging from the company – no one enjoys being micromanaged.
In this role, the focus is getting you to answer the phones as quickly as possible, so you usually won’t receive much training. To be effective requires some personal effort to learn more about the company and product.
💡 How to deal 💡
- Remember that the reason customers are frustrated isn’t your fault. They are upset with the company, service, or software – you’re just there to make some money. 🤷🏾♀️
- Don’t take it personal. This is easier said than done when you’re interacting with customers directly. However, the best thing to do is let the customer
- Know that you care
- Feel heard – which may include getting back to them with answers later on.
- You can learn more through my blog article on customer service skills here.
Telemarketing/Sales
This is fairly easy to get into because it isn’t the most desirable role. Similar to a call center, you may be required to make a certain number of calls per day, gain a certain number of leads, or close a certain amount of sales. You may be required to read from a script, or create your own script.
In this role, it’s very likely you’ll experience some cranky folks – you’re essentially an ad over the phone (and who likes ads?). However, depending on the amount of freedom you have, you can become fairly successful in this role. At minimum, you’ll certainly gain skills that’ll help you move on to a more desirable position elsewhere.
💡 How to deal 💡
- It’s helpful if you care about the company, product, or service that you’re talking about. If you don’t care, then why should the client? Caring about the company, product, or service will naturally allow you to learn more about what you’re selling, and your knowledge (and confidence) will come across to potential clients. If they can hear the care in your voice, they may want to hear what you have to say.
- If possible, play around with the script (if you have one) – change the words slightly, change your pitch, change your tone. When I was in this role, if I noticed that I could memorize the script, I’d start sounding like a robot. So I regularly modified my script.
- Don’t take it personal. Again, this is easier said than done. But those folks don’t know you – if they get upset, they’re really getting upset at the company. It may be helpful to write down the criticisms of these folks and forward those along to your manager, which may bring about some change.
- Remember that this is a learning opportunity, both professionally and personally. You can always take these skills (i.e. sales) and apply them in a new role. This position can even help you learn more about yourself – what you like, what you don’t like, and what you need from your next job. And who knows – maybe you will like the role, and start to generate ideas on how to make the calls more effective. 🤷🏾♀️
- For example, I learned that I get excited about (and prefer) communication with customers via email. This led me to my next role in providing email support – and I loved it!
In general, the easiest jobs to get are customer service related, and require speaking with customers over the phone. Initially, these may not be the most ideal. But they’ll help you to gain more experience, and can be a stepping stone to your next role!
This was certainly true in my case. Based on the skills I acquired, I’ve been able to “level-up” – now I’m working in a role that I love!
Ready to get started with your job search? Check out this post for my most trusted job boards.