Obviously, some people would think (even I did) that Kara* is feelingera. She had no clue what she was talking about and she has a lot to learn about this industry. Unfortunately, she wasn't willing to take her time. She was ready to jump into any kind of opportunity that was presented to her.

And she did.

A certain headhunter approached her and said there is a new call center in town. They're currently looking for supervisors to help manage the business. The headhunter told her: 'Judging from what you already know and the way you speak and the way you present yourself, I feel that you're a shoe-in'. Kara's face was glowing. She was ready to sign anything that says 'contract' on it. She resigned after only 3 days and she was bragging to everyone at work that she's getting paid more and she's found growth elsewhere. Then she told us to suck it.

Fast forward two months after: Kara is unemployed and this call center which hired her as a supervisor is non-existent. It turned out that the business wasn't managed very well. This is one thing I do not like about outbound programs (no offense). They are consistently looking for leads and clients which are sometimes either scamming people or are just in an industry which has absolutely no staying power. Unfortunately for Kara, her employer fell under one of those categories.

Here's what happened. The offer was good. It was relatively lower but she was told 'it's outbound' so she just signed it. The first month was great. She has a cool team and they were all happy. That's good. The only problem is that they weren't selling a lot of their products. First of all, she doesn't have a lot of sales experience. Add to that is the fact that she has zero management experience. She was basically an uncooked viand in front of the buffet table. She was weak but it was not her fault. She didn't have the tools and knowledge to handle things.

On her second month, she and one other supervisor was called into the Director's room. In her mind, this is one of those critical, super mature management meeting so she can't screw up. She practiced for a minute and retouched her make-up. Here's how it went:

'Kara, Dave' The Ops Manager said.
'Yes Bob. So nice to see you.'
'I - I have some bad news.'
'I know, sales have been down for two weeks and...'
'Actually since you came on board it's bad but that's not why I called you guys.'
'Okay, what's going on?'
'I'm afraid we won't be able to pay for your services anymore.'

And with those words, Kara's world crumbled. She tried to hold on to the fact that she may still be able to salvage everything with her bubbly personality so she tried to motivate her team to sell more and even more. But she failed.

As I write this, Kara is working at her new employer as an agent. I asked her permission if I could have her story as my first official blog post and she said yes but she didn't want her photo or real name to be seen here. She said she learned one valuable lesson which is to take your time.

One more thing, don't be lured by crazy offers and promises from new/developing companies out there. It's always a risk. Risk is something you take when you know you have a back-up plan. If not, and things fail, it's no longer called a risk - it's a stupid mistake.

They say in the call center industry, people get bored with their jobs easily. In the words of my great high school Economics teacher, it's called the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. You like doing something today. You get tired of it a year after. You yearn for something new and better.

The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. I was a floorwalker (I believe the more fabulous term they use is 'Mentor') when I met Kara*. She was the most promising trainee from their batch. She was pretty. She picks up lessons quickly. She can multi-task. She speaks well. She is the perfect agent a manager can wish for.

There's only one problem: the praises got to her head so quickly that she expected to be rewarded even though they have not reached their live date. She demanded for tasks that was usually given to tenured agents. She always talks about her 'capability' and how people seem to 'underestimate' her when she is 'clearly more deserving that the other supervisors on the floor'. Typical, eh?

But I told one of my co-mentors that she's probably right. I admired her guts for not selling herself to the management team. Unfortunately, the egg needs some time to hatch. An organization so young must invest on people with more experience. She asked for special tasks which were never given to her. She was very disappointed and furious. Her eye was definitely on the prize and she's going to do whatever it takes to get it.

That's when she was approached by another friend who gave her the most incredible news she's been waiting for her entire life.