John and Jane, and Me

I saw John and Jane last Sunday. Before you start wondering who the hell are they- it’s a movie. It’s a movie about six youngsters working in a call center somewhere in India. All of them have their own reasons to work in a call center. Some like their job, some others don’t. However, all of them have dreams of getting out of the call center one day and making it big in life.

Three years back, I was also a part of the crowd that got up in the middle of the night to go to office, when the whole of eastern world was in sleep. Working in the weirdest time of night I have sold the weirdest things over phone- fire blanket, newspaper, loans, Dish TV connection, mobile phones and a whole lot of similar things. Initially, it was fun. After being rejected by a few companies when I got this job, I accepted the offer without thinking twice. What I didn’t realize was the pain that was to follow.

Every night I would call hundreds of people in the US. Some would listen, some would not, some would just hang up on my face, some others would abuse. While I would be going through all this, the Sales Board would still show a big zero next to my name. Some days I would make no sale and get consolation from my Team Leader, some other day I would make the highest number of sales on the floor and get appreciation. When the shift would get over every morning, I would decide to quit the job and do something different. However, every night I would go back to the office to do the same pre-programmed job.

One day I saw an advertisement in a newspaper asking for applications for a three month course in Instructional Design by an e-learning company. It meant nine hours of work in the night and eight hours of training during the day, which gave me just seven hours for other things which includes sleeping, eating, commuting to offices in two different areas in the city etc. Initially I was apprehensive about it, but finally I got myself admitted in the course. The trainers wanted me to quit my job and focus on the course but I had to take care of my finances so I decided to continue both.

While I knew that I was quitting my job in maximum three months, I didn’t want to leave the job as a loser. Despite getting no time to eat or sleep, I put in efforts to make sure that I quit the job as the best performer and with my head high. I didn’t want my tight schedule to affect my work. Though I couldn’t do anything extraordinary, I kept my performance at an above average level.

At the training classes, I was the best performer. Since I had joined this course with my limited finances, I had no other options but to do well. I also got assurance that I will be placed after the completion of the course which further fuelled my efforts. But, fate had other plans.

In just one month my body decided to betray me. I got seriously ill. I started to vomit blood. I had no other option but to decide on either this or that. I knew that I will have a good job after two months but I could not afford to leave my job for the course. I decided to drop the course and continue the job.

I didn’t go to the class for a week or so and then I got a call from them. I was asked to come to their office. When I told them about my situation, they appreciated the way I had performed in the past one month despite all these problems and offered me the position right away. Since then I have been working as an Instructional Designer and I guess I have done a good job till now.

I left my call center job and joined the e-learning company. However, despite all the hardships, humiliation, frustration I had to go through during the six months at the call center, it taught me a lot of things. It taught me that hard work pays, it taught me that every call comes with a possibility, it taught me that numbers are what matters at the end of the day, finally, it taught me to remember failures forget successes. If I had forgotten the failures, I would never have been able to reach where I am today would still be part of the crowd of Johns and Janes.