Don’t Hang Up on Telemarketing

If you’ve spent most of 2011 looking for a job and come up short, you might want to think of taking desperate measures. No, not that desperate! But close.

Psst, have you thought of becoming a telemarketer?

Hey, it’s a job, and it can pay pretty darn well if you give it a chance.

You might not have a landline anymore so the thought of becoming one of “those people,” might not have occurred to you. But think about it.

As a telemarketer, you’ll be usually situated in a telemarketing call center and conducts sales and marketing strictly by telephone. Telemarketing jobs involve promoting a wide variety of products and services either via direct selling or through information gathering. The job tasks may vary from industry to industry but these core responsibilities, activities, and competencies apply to the majority of telemarketing jobs. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to work from home, but if you think you’re going to continue watching ‘The Price is Right,’ and collect a paycheck, you are wrong.

Selling to people over the phone has got to be one of the toughest jobs around. Calling total strangers and asking them – sometimes begging them – to buy a product or service can be difficult and often discouraging. But when you make a sale your pay often increases. So who cares if more often than not people on the other end of the line hang up on you? It’s not like they’re your best friends. (Note: do not call your best friends if hired as a telemarketer or you will end up without friends.)

The trick to being happy and earning a decent paycheck is to find the right company to work for and promote. Not all telemarketing companies are reputable and many have gone out of business or been shut down. Here are two companies with good reputations to help you get your bank account active again just in time for the 2012.

DialAmerica, one of the nation’s largest privately held teleservices companies, has been helping military families in San Diego find work since 1959. Now, the company is looking to hire 50 more.

DialAmerica offers help and support to military families through: family-friendly scheduling, maintaining accrual records, a seamless transfer from one contact center to another in an event of relocation, as well as immense growth opportunities from agents to supervisors.

The company cites these examples of happy employees:

Brian Holzmacher, a Senior Chief (E-8) in the U.S. Navy (active duty), works as a part-time team leader and manages 10-12 agents at the San Diego contact center.

Theresa Hudgins, a military spouse, is a contact center agent who’s been able to juggle her role as a mom (and dad) while her husband is deployed with the company’s flexible work schedules.

Brian and Theresa both report to Joe Nocitra, U.S. Navy (retired) who joined DialAmerica almost a decade ago. Nocitra, who began as a contact center agent, has risen up the ranks and is now overseeing 144 call center agents in San Diego.

You don’t have to be ex-military to work at DialAmerica, but if you’re a former soldier, marine, airman, or sailor who is searching for work, this company is looking to help out a hero.

http://www.dialamerica.com/sandiego/default.asp

For stay-at-home-moms who can’t afford to go back to work because of the high-costs of child care, Nike Media Group has a great reputation for treating working mothers’ right.

According to renowned marketing company, Nike Media Group, many of their marketing positions are being filled by inexperienced stay at home moms who are able to work their own hours. In fact, the company claims that the average stay at home partner earns between $200 and $400 per day simply by being themselves and talking with potential clients as if they were already friends. (But remember the rule: don’t actually call your friends.)

Contact Nike Media Group via email at jobs@nikemediagroup.com for details.

These jobs don’t have to be a career, just something to help you pay the rent or you know, eat. Check out these jobs and hold your head high when someone asks what your new job is all about.

Candice Reed is the co-author of Thank You for Firing Me! How to Catch the Next Wave of Success After You lose Your Job.