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BPO
Career Tips
Education and Careers over the past two
decades has undergone a sea change. Until
20 years ago there were limited careers and
standard routes to those careers. Today a
student on the threshold of College Education or
opting a Career is baffled by the myriad options
before him. With the advent of
liberalization and the opening of the economy to
the international world, innumerable career
opportunities are being created all the times.
India has seen the limelight in the past few
years shifting rapidly, first it was computer
education and training in the early 90's, Y2K
was the star during the closing years of the
last century. Then as the dot com boom soared
high, it was followed by B2B and B2C, followed
by the SCM and CRM mantra. Today’s star goes
by the name of BPO or Business Process
Outsourcing. India is today at the core of the
Outsourcing Revolution. However as outsourcing
moves beyond just call centers and cost cuts,
clients are looking for companies that can
provide them with that competitive advantage and
go with them where they can’t go alone.
Companies across the globe are favoring India -
due its talented and educated work force.
Read more about what BPO careers can do for you. As
the BPO sector booms in the job market today,
you could also get a sizable piece of the pie.
What's a BPO Career all about? A BPO
career revolves around the core activity of
delivering business process outsourcing
services. This involves voice (telephone) and
non-voice (email, chat) based customer
interaction services, transaction processing,
telemarketing, technical support or analyzing of
customer specific data. It also involves
back-end jobs such as claims processing and
processing of Finance & Accounting
transactions.
In a growing BPO
organization, career opportunities exist across
various facets of the business - extending from
the core contact center to support functions
like HR, legal, marketing, quality,
administration etc. Opportunities in the contact
center include customer support, telemarketing,
technical support and multilingual support
(which require people having knowledge of
foreign languages like French, Spanish etc.).
Opportunities also exist for experienced people
from various backgrounds and industries. - like
hospitality, services and the retail industry.
The booming BPO industry
seems to very complacent with its success, for
the pavilion at the Bangalore IT.com had just
about a few big BPO/call center players. Business
process outsourcing jobs are increasingly being
sent by American firms to the low pay nations,
nation to register the highest growth in BPO
jobs is India . Most of the Call Center jobs are
now moving to the countries like India,
Philippines, Russia, Mexico, and Canada where
cost is low which is huge savings for the
companies outsourcing.
In a growing BPO firm the
career opportunities exists across various parts
of business, from core contact center to the
supporting functions like legal, HR, quality,
marketing, administration etc. Opportunities in
contact center involve telemarketing, customer
support, telemarketing, technical support and
multilingual support. Because of its vast English
speaking population, India has become an ideal
candidate for outsourcing US workload through
business process outsourcing. English is a
popular and well spoken language here. Indians
learn English as their second language and are
familiar with it. But speaking the global
language is not the sole reason for this choice.
The fact that Indian labor is relatively
cheaper than American, was also a valid argument
for those in favor of outsourcing. Indian labor
cost is almost one tenth as compared to American
when it comes to the call center industry in
particular. That stems from the facts that
Indian standards of living are lower than
Americans and that Indian pay structures vary
greatly from their American counterparts. So
America saves costs and benefits from the same
by outsourcing its work to India. Call center
units are not very demanding as far as
qualifications and prerequisites are concerned.
Most call center jobs require a basic
understanding of computers and a good grasp over
English. And the urban youth of India are
computer literate graduates with a command over
English language. This is the ideal unskilled
labor that the call center industry is looking
for.
Call Centers in India
Call centers are a phenomenon that has taken
over the young crowd of metros in India by a
storm. Its implications are social, cultural and
economic. It is a new society of the young, rich
and free, selling the new dream of an
independent life to the regular desi.
With a bang in telecommunications and the
boundaries of countries fast disappearing
because of the Internet, the world is shrinking
into smaller and smaller dimensions. It is
getting slighter by the day and faster by the
hour. Whether it is culture, arts or economy,
you are no more in your own national space. The
world has telescoped into one big melting pot of
ideas. In this shrinking economy, India has made
its presence felt in many fields. And the Call
Center industry is one of them.
India shining!
What started as a niche service provision has
evolved into a whole new industry in itself.
Call centers are organizations in countries
where an offshore company services American
customers for American clients. Although the
business did start off with America, it is no
more restricted to the United States only.
Countries like Australia, Canada and The United
kingdom have also started outsourcing their work
to India. The work that is outsourced is from
various industries like credit cards, healthcare
products, personal care products and education.
Because of its vast English speaking population,
India has become an ideal candidate for
outsourcing US workload through business process
outsourcing. English is a popular and well
spoken language here. Indians learn English as
their second language and are familiar with it.
But speaking the global language is not the sole
reason for this choice.
The fact that Indian labor is relatively cheaper
than American, was also a valid argument for
those in favor of outsourcing. Indian labor cost
is almost one tenth as compared to American when
it comes to the call center industry in
particular. That stems from the facts that
Indian standards of living are lower than
Americans and that Indian pay structures vary
greatly from their American counterparts. So
America saves costs and benefits from the same
by outsourcing its work to India.
BPO and Outsourcing Jobs - A win-win situation
Reiterating the economists and the sociologists,
the cheap labor in India owes its origin to the
high rate of unemployment here. Hundreds of
thousands of graduates are jobless and desperate
for work in India. With higher studies only an
option for the affluent, professionals too are
facing increasing difficulties in recruitment.
And as far as skilled labor is concerned, it is
limited to few technical branches of work. Here
is where the call center industry fills the
gaps.
Call center units are not very demanding as far
as qualifications and prerequisites are
concerned. Most call center jobs require a basic
understanding of computers and a good grasp over
English. And the urban youth of India are
computer literate graduates with a command over
English language. This is the ideal unskilled
labor that the call center industry is looking
for.
Call center executives only need to be trained
in soft skills that include voice neutralization
and accent training. This helps to give them an
accent more familiar with the people they are
going to be talking to. For Indians, this is a
smooth transition. Ours is not a country that
has evaded the influence of the West and
Americanism has seeped into our daily lives like
ink on blotting paper.
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