Selling Yourself For the Pound

For those who aren't aware I recently left Swansea's Amazon branch for the fifth time (sadly this is not a record) and have been since looking for work. However all this has resulted in endless days of applications and a few phone interviews. Although proving the old adage you wait half an hour for a bus and then two come along at once I recently had my first two proper interviews within a few days of each other.

I was perusing the Directgov website for jobs one day and noticed that Save Britain Money had been advertising for jobs about a month earlier. For those unaware they are best known as BBC 3's The Call Centre.

Rather than apply through some old out of date adverts I thought I'd send them my CV and details directly by the web site. I've got a lot of experience in call centre environments and thought it would be a good place to get my career on track. Lo and behold after sending my CV I got a call ten minutes later from a chap called Stephen on behalf of SBM. After a quick chat I was invited to an interview at 13:30 the following Wednesday.

I always say if you've got a company which suits your background and skill set nearby send your details in and get yourself noticed. I have an extensive background in call centres ranging from front line, inbound, outbound, sales, customer service, training, floor walking and management. On top of that after looking at the web site I found they were branching into financial services which is where I've had my most successful period in my career and got my management experience.

After doing my research on the company I set out to Swansea, a 20 minute walk to the train station followed by a 20 minute train ride into Swansea Central and then a 45 minute walk to Swansea Enterprise Park in pouring rain saw me arrive a good 20 minutes early. I stepped through the door and was greeted by the sound of a massive crash, I turned to my left to see that Hayley the tea girl crashing her trolley trying to exit a lift.

I was shown in to the canteen by the security guard and spent half an hour chatting to staff and other people here for the interview. On chatting to some new starters I found the procedure was a quick one on one interview and then you'd be brought back for a group interview. After fifty minutes I was called into an office by Stephen who I'd spoken to on the phone. I politely listened when he told me about the company and various things I had already found out and a number of things I hadn't. I then told him about myself making sure to focus on my call centre experience, extensive sales background and experience in managing a sales force selling financial services. After five minutes the interview was over and Stephen said he would call me later to schedule a second interview. I made my way home, that evening while playing Mass Effect 2 Stephen called. Apparently they had "sold their available slots" and would contact me in six weeks when they had openings. Needless to say this was disappointing stuff, I had hoped that given my experience it would have been a case of "blimey this candidates good get them in ASAP" however I went to them and knew they weren't recruiting at the moment. As I type this its two weeks on and only four weeks until they start taking people on so its something in the bank if nothing turns up in the mean time.

The next day I had a text from Hays (a recruitment firm) asking me if I was interested in working for Virgin Media in customer service. This offer brought up conflicting emotions, long time readers will know that I'm transgender. A number of years ago I applied for a job at the Virgin Swansea site (when it was NTL), I applied for a job as a Com which is a managerial level job. I interviewed for the job, however on informing them I was trans all of a sudden instead of a Com I was offered a front line job on customer service. It was my second experience of HR and the recruitment industries transphobic attitude and I took the job with the agreement after three months I could re-interview for the Com job. Three months went by and the Com job interview never happened and I left.

After some thought I emailed them saying I was interested, theres no way Virgin could be as bad as NTL so I had little to lose. The following day I had a phone interview which I passed and my in person interview was scheduled for the next Monday at 10:00. However I woke up that morning to see that there had been an explosion at Didcot which had screwed up the Great Western train line. This resulted in me having to run from Swansea Central to Matrix Court. The interview was a one on one in which I had to give examples of certain situations and also put over my experience. I mentioned I'd worked on the site before and went into detail on my call centre experience. On finishing I was told I should hear back later that day, in reality it would be a week until I heard back and that was after I had to politely push them that it had been four days when I was meant to hear back later that day.

The following Monday I was called and told I didn't get the position due to "a lack of experience" which is complete bullshit. As said earlier I have a number of years experience in call centres ranging from front line work, inbound, outbound, sales, customer service, training, floor walking and management. It really knocked me for six, I had done enough to get the post and had the experience. I should be used to this by now as its something the trans community are used to,  ie not getting jobs we should walk in to. Sadly the last few years have resulted in me going in and out of Amazon on a temp basis. Hopefully the next application will have a happier outcome.