Telemarketing vs Eikaiwa..

[Kuronama]

Hey guys.. Just thought id start something here comparing these two industries.. I wrapped up my gig with Gcon late last year and have recently accepted and begun training as a telemarketer... Just wondering if anybody out there has done both, and if so, how do they compare? Which job is more drone-like? Just wanted to hear your thoughts...

[redbar]

I called alumni and asked for money for a while when I was in uni. and it was.....

[MacGyver]

Surely telemarketing/marketers is the bottom of the bottom. Even eikaiwa is providing a service. Drone-like maybe but at least you aren't universally hated unlike telemarketers....Don't get me wrong. A job is a job is a job (especially as it sounds like its only a short term gig for you) but certainly you'd never want to make a career in telemarketing unless you absolutely had no other choice...

[In The Know]

I called alumni and asked for money for a while when I was in uni. and it was.....

That would suck, but I would take that over working for a debt collection company. You cannot imagine the verbal abuse you get every shift whiile wearing a phone headset. Unfortunately, company policy and state and federal laws prevent you from slinging back at those deadbeats. I stepped on the line a few times though.

My favorite retard was this woman who kept repeating, "It's (the debt) not my problem now! My ex-boyfriend told me he would pay it off. (their oral agreement, apparently). Stop calling me!"

[In The Know]

Surely telemarketing/marketers is the bottom of the bottom.

No, (see my post below for amplification). I lasted one week in that hellhole.

[Tokyo_Joe]

Surely telemarketing/marketers is the bottom of the bottom.

Agreed. I honestly can't think of a less admirable job. And I've never seen a fast food shop that wasn't hiring, so no-one has an excuse either, imo.

ETA: OK, I suppose debt collection agencies would be at about the same level.

[Kuronama]

You guys know the people that hang outside and try and get you to donate to various ngos? Well, thats basically what I do - but on the phone. I dont think I could ever do debt collection, or even us telesales that involve sellilng useless infomercial shite. I dont do that... More of a worthy cause I feel, at least. Eikaiwa-like in that youre pretty busy talkin for a good part of your day, but at least there's no Nova ding dong ding dong nonsense, and you can chill after the occasional call for a minute if you choose... But certainly not a permanent career choice though..

[RalphWiggum]

Did commercial telephone debt collection for a while (trying to get businesses to pay their overdue gas bills). Crap job, but not in the same league as telemarketing...

[sos]

I did telemarketing for 1 month in the States and to be honest, I didn't mind. I enjoyed to talking to different people in the different states trying to get them to buy ad space on the Internet.

100% commission based sales is not appealing to me, but I know people who only like that type of work. I have friends who like/believe in Amway/pyramid schemes.

As you said it is talking, like eikaiwa. If you enjoy it, do it. Personally, I would rather do sales on the telephone than in person.

Is your job in Japan? Do you do the telemarketing in English or Japanese?

[Kuronama]

I did telemarketing for 1 month in the States and to be honest, I didn't mind. I enjoyed to talking to different people in the different states trying to get them to buy ad space on the Internet.

100% commission based sales is not appealing to me, but I know people who only like that type of work. I have friends who like/believe in Amway/pyramid schemes.

As you said it is talking, like eikaiwa. If you enjoy it, do it. Personally, I would rather do sales on the telephone than in person.

Is your job in Japan? Do you do the telemarketing in English or Japanese?

Nah, this job is in Australia. And so the work is all in English. There are also casual dress days (unfortunately not on the days i will be working though), rewards for good selling, and you can take little breaks after a number of calls.. The good thing too is that you dont have to be 'turned on' for 40 minutes non-stop, like at Eikaiwa..

And I agree, I much sales over the phone rather than in person. Did a sales job once going door to door, whereby Id offer to make people free salads and try and book a free dinner for them, and following the dinner (which my boss would do) he would try and sell them the kitchen cookware that he used to cook the dinner (pretty sweet cookware, but friggin $$$!) Needless to say, I wasnt much good at it and lasted only about a month.. However, yesterday was my first day and I did better in that one day than I ever did at the salad job - so fingers crossed...

[redbar]

I did telemarketing for 1 month in the States and to be honest, I didn't mind. I enjoyed to talking to different people in the different states trying to get them to buy ad space on the Internet.

100% commission based sales is not appealing to me, but I know people who only like that type of work. I have friends who like/believe in Amway/pyramid schemes.

As you said it is talking, like eikaiwa. If you enjoy it, do it. Personally, I would rather do sales on the telephone than in person.

Is your job in Japan? Do you do the telemarketing in English or Japanese?

Nah, this job is in Australia. And so the work is all in English. There are also casual dress days (unfortunately not on the days i will be working though), rewards for good selling, and you can take little breaks after a number of calls.. The good thing too is that you dont have to be 'turned on' for 40 minutes non-stop, like at Eikaiwa..

And I agree, I much sales over the phone rather than in person. Did a sales job once going door to door, whereby Id offer to make people free salads and try and book a free dinner for them, and following the dinner (which my boss would do) he would try and sell them the kitchen cookware that he used to cook the dinner (pretty sweet cookware, but friggin $$$!) Needless to say, I wasnt much good at it and lasted only about a month.. However, yesterday was my first day and I did better in that one day than I ever did at the salad job - so fingers crossed...

I thought telemarketers could have dyed hair and facial tattoos/piercings...

As far as shit jobs, what about meter maids? I'd rather tell people at a party that I'm the one who called them during dinnertime than I'm the one who gave them a $300 parking ticket!

[SamhainP8]

As far as shit jobs, what about meter maids? I'd rather tell people at a party that I'm the one who called them during dinnertime than I'm the one who gave them a $300 parking ticket!

Are you talking about parking inspectors? Meter Maids are the hot chicks that go around in gold bikinis putting change into parking meters for folks where I’m from.

[Kuronama]

Update: My job BLOWS!! Its that simple! Twice now Ive been called out by my Team Leader (some very old fashioned British chick who's probably on sponsorship here, which means she's stuck there if she's to continue being sponsored - different from Specialist in Humanities sponsorship in Japan, which still legally entitles you to jump between companies) who is an absolute bitch! Never in my life have I had to work under somebody so stressful and annoying! My main beef is while she listens in to my phone calls then basically harasses me afterwards about why i said or didnt say something.. For anybody who ever worked at Nova and had lesson observations every few months, well in this job, these obs are pretty much daily. And this chick likes to constantly write shit and focus me on it while im on the phone trying to listen to the person - extremely annoying and distracting! And so today I basically let her have a piece of my mind - mainly that what she was doing WAS distracting and making me flustered. I told her my performance was probably suffering because of her..

Anyway, just thought Id update yall... Oh, and one final BOLD statement: Nova was much better than this shit! No, its not a joke.. Only plus to this job is you can choose the days you work - a definate plus. But thats it! For anybody thinking about leaving Japan to return to their home country, think long and hard before you do - or at least have a decent gig lined up. Being here in OZ on a working holiday visa and working in telemarketing, let me assure yall of one thing... aside from it being the fact that im fundraising for good charities i strongly believe in, i would gladly teach English any day of the week over this shit work!

[SamhainP8]

Are you really that surprised though?
I thought it was common knowledge that telemarketing was a fucked job full of office Nazis

[steki47]

Meter Maids are the hot chicks that go around in gold bikinis putting change into parking meters for folks where I’m from.

Really? Nice!

Despite my uniform fetish, I can't stand meter maids. In California, they were the fat, nasty trolls who would argue with you as they gave you a ticket for being 5cm over a line.

[Kuronama]

Are you really that surprised though?
I thought it was common knowledge that telemarketing was a fucked job full of office Nazis

In a way, not totally surprised, but i guess its the difference between simply hearing about someone's misery and actually experiencing it for yourself firsthand.. still a shock to the system.

Meter Maids are the hot chicks that go around in gold bikinis putting change into parking meters for folks where I’m from.

Really? Nice!

Despite my uniform fetish, I can't stand meter maids. In California, they were the fat, nasty trolls who would argue with you as they gave you a ticket for being 5cm over a line.

Same as in Vancouver, hahahah

[MacGyver]

Are you really that surprised though?
I thought it was common knowledge that telemarketing was a fucked job full of office Nazis

What he said. Any job were you have to cold call people and solicit shit over the phone blows a monkey's penis. And I should know (about the cold calling shit, not blowing a monkey's penis )

[steki47]

I did some telemarketing, back in 96 or so. Time-Life in San Francisco. I did it for 3 weeks while I went to bartending school and until I got my first gig. It wasn't so bad. Honestly, I got interested in the verbal control techniques used in such jobs. In counseling (and eikaiwa), you want to ask open questions and guide conversations. In telemarketing, you want to control and restrict output. Closed questions, "the yes trail", etc.

Glad I left, of course, but I learned a bit.

[allblacks]

Does selling cars count as telemarketing. I feel like it does. Sometimes you want to tear your hair out about it.

[Are they the lemmings?]

bartending school

Swigmore University?

[Shimano]

Update: My job BLOWS!! Its that simple! Twice now Ive been called out by my Team Leader (some very old fashioned British chick who's probably on sponsorship here, which means she's stuck there if she's to continue being sponsored - different from Specialist in Humanities sponsorship in Japan, which still legally entitles you to jump between companies) who is an absolute bitch! Never in my life have I had to work under somebody so stressful and annoying! My main beef is while she listens in to my phone calls then basically harasses me afterwards about why i said or didnt say something.. For anybody who ever worked at Nova and had lesson observations every few months, well in this job, these obs are pretty much daily. And this chick likes to constantly write shit and focus me on it while im on the phone trying to listen to the person - extremely annoying and distracting! And so today I basically let her have a piece of my mind - mainly that what she was doing WAS distracting and making me flustered. I told her my performance was probably suffering because of her..

Anyway, just thought Id update yall... Oh, and one final BOLD statement: Nova was much better than this shit! No, its not a joke.. Only plus to this job is you can choose the days you work - a definate plus. But thats it! For anybody thinking about leaving Japan to return to their home country, think long and hard before you do - or at least have a decent gig lined up. Being here in OZ on a working holiday visa and working in telemarketing, let me assure yall of one thing... aside from it being the fact that im fundraising for good charities i strongly believe in, i would gladly teach English any day of the week over this shit work!

You went from Nova to working in a call centre? Why did you do that you madman? Could you not have chatted up your time in Japan "teaching" and got onto a teaching course, or at least a job in a University, dealing with international students, or something?

[Kuronama]

Update: My job BLOWS!! Its that simple! Twice now Ive been called out by my Team Leader (some very old fashioned British chick who's probably on sponsorship here, which means she's stuck there if she's to continue being sponsored - different from Specialist in Humanities sponsorship in Japan, which still legally entitles you to jump between companies) who is an absolute bitch! Never in my life have I had to work under somebody so stressful and annoying! My main beef is while she listens in to my phone calls then basically harasses me afterwards about why i said or didnt say something.. For anybody who ever worked at Nova and had lesson observations every few months, well in this job, these obs are pretty much daily. And this chick likes to constantly write shit and focus me on it while im on the phone trying to listen to the person - extremely annoying and distracting! And so today I basically let her have a piece of my mind - mainly that what she was doing WAS distracting and making me flustered. I told her my performance was probably suffering because of her..

Anyway, just thought Id update yall... Oh, and one final BOLD statement: Nova was much better than this shit! No, its not a joke.. Only plus to this job is you can choose the days you work - a definate plus. But thats it! For anybody thinking about leaving Japan to return to their home country, think long and hard before you do - or at least have a decent gig lined up. Being here in OZ on a working holiday visa and working in telemarketing, let me assure yall of one thing... aside from it being the fact that im fundraising for good charities i strongly believe in, i would gladly teach English any day of the week over this shit work!

You went from Nova to working in a call centre? Why did you do that you madman? Could you not have chatted up your time in Japan "teaching" and got onto a teaching course, or at least a job in a University, dealing with international students, or something?

haha, I did the Nova 1.0 and 2.0 gig for almost 3 years but then got fed up with it and had long desired to work/travel in Australia (I am from Canada). So, my fiance and I got working holiday visas, moved to the Gold Coast and started our new life. Unfortunately, there werent many jobs to be had there, so we moved to the 'big city' (Sydney). A month or so after moving here, we both landed jobs. But lemme tell you, it WASNT easy! From my experience, OZ is EXTREMELY protective of their jobs here - if you aint a permanent resident or citizen, forget getting any sorta decent job. Yah, i can understand that, protecting jobs for residents/citizens, blah blah.. and Im sure its similar in Canada, but what I studied in University, my work/life experiences meant absolutely DICK here. And so I took this telemarketing (actually telefundraising) gig. Anyway, thats why... id rather have a title as 'telefundraiser' in Australia on my resume rather than waiter or barista in cafe/restaurant X, when i apply to jobs back home in Canada. Actually, I tried my guts out to get an urban/social planning gig here in OZ, but didnt even land a single interview. After months of trying (even before moving to OZ from Japan), it was a pretty clear sign. Any decent job wont be had...

[Langslave]

Just before I came to Japan I did tele-market research, not selling anything, just asking questions. I was on the dole and thought it would top my finances up a bit. Lordy was I wrong! The job paid a month in arrears while Social Security deducted from my dole immediately. The work was "casual", in other words, when they wanted you they called you, the rest of the time you could fuck off. As is/was my luck the work always came towards the end of the dole fortnight so Id be almost penniless if I worked. Several times my bank account went negative after the cock-sucking motherfuckers, sorry, banks, deducted their account management fees (terribly expensive and troublesome having poor people on the books). So I started having to knock back work.
And there was the joy of being loudly abused by people for calling them at 9AM on a Sunday...

[Shimano]

Account Management Fees?

What are they? I have never paid any of those in the UK...

[Kuronama]

Just before I came to Japan I did tele-market research, not selling anything, just asking questions. I was on the dole and thought it would top my finances up a bit. Lordy was I wrong! The job paid a month in arrears while Social Security deducted from my dole immediately. The work was "casual", in other words, when they wanted you they called you, the rest of the time you could fuck off. As is/was my luck the work always came towards the end of the dole fortnight so Id be almost penniless if I worked. Several times my bank account went negative after the cock-sucking motherfuckers, sorry, banks, deducted their account management fees (terribly expensive and troublesome having poor people on the books). So I started having to knock back work.
And there was the joy of being loudly abused by people for calling them at 9AM on a Sunday...

Update: They canned me! hahahah... yep, i was also 'casual' as well, and so after around a couple months, they fired me. Apparently, my conversion rates (or targets) werent up to par and so they sent me packing - even though I am almost sure it was personal (a couple weeks after I started, I kinda told my Team Leader off for her basically harassing/distracting me while on the telephone.. listening in to my phone calls while sitting next to me, while at the same time scribbling countless notes on countless pieces of paper all over the place, then aggressively hitting the paper where the notes were and trying to get me to focus on them - all of this of course while i was on the phone and trying to listen to the supporter on the other line).

And so I went back onto SEEK to check out 'casual' positions just outta interest.. well I was fired last Tuesday evening after my shift, and by Friday there was another ad up again hiring for multiple positions... any place thats always hiring, well... u can kinda guess what sorta place it is to work for...

Following the let-go, I briefly researched any workers' rights casual employees had here in OZ - basically.. NONE. No sick day, no paid holidays, they can fire you without notice/warning... basically no benefits whatsoever. I just hope companies that hire 'casuals' arent baffled by why they may have a high turnover.

Oh, and just to point out: aside from being able to choose the days you worked at this place (called 2Evolve, by the way...), it was by far the fucking most stressful/worst job ive ever had! Worse than Nova - old and new! I know, hard to believe...

[allblacks]

Sue them for workplace harassment and undue stress. I think you will get something out of it. What do you have to lose if you do that?

[SamhainP8]

Account Management Fees?

What are they? I have never paid any of those in the UK...

Fees for managing your account

[SamhainP8]

Following the let-go, I briefly researched any workers' rights casual employees had here in OZ - basically.. NONE. No sick day, no paid holidays, they can fire you without notice/warning... basically no benefits whatsoever.

You sign up as a casual knowing full well that you don’t get sick pay, holiday pay and that they can fire you without notice but on the flipside you also sign up knowing full well that they have to pay you a lot more per hour, you can have time off whenever you so choose and you can quit without notice.

I've been a casual for the 3 years I've been back home and if I was to go permanent part time or full time I would loose up to $3/hr. Fuck that, show me the money every single week. If you don’t have a career in mind then the best way to make some decent money here is to have several casual jobs.

[MacGyver]

Account Management Fees?

What are they? I have never paid any of those in the UK...

Fees for managing your account

Yep. And as Lanslave alluded to, the fees are higher or only for people with an amount of money below a certain limit. Ozzie banks are shite. About 12 years ago I remember all the major banks announcing record profits (in the high hundreds of millions, if not over a billion, dollars) and then shortly after announcing they were raising fees and charges...

And as for casual work, as Sam said there are good points as well. In my case I worked at a hotel for about 3 years when I was in uni. While I generally had steady weekend work, I could also take on more work during the week if I wanted to, which was awesome for holidays and times when I had a light study load. Of course some weeks I didn't get much work at all if the hotel was quiet. But the good thing was the hourly rate was higher than p/t work and I could work as much as I wanted. Some guys who only worked casual there would do massive amounts of work some weeks (like around 70-80 hours a week) cause they needed the money for whatever reason. The flexibility for some is really handy.

[Kuronama]

Following the let-go, I briefly researched any workers' rights casual employees had here in OZ - basically.. NONE. No sick day, no paid holidays, they can fire you without notice/warning... basically no benefits whatsoever.

You sign up as a casual knowing full well that you don’t get sick pay, holiday pay and that they can fire you without notice but on the flipside you also sign up knowing full well that they have to pay you a lot more per hour, you can have time off whenever you so choose and you can quit without notice.

I've been a casual for the 3 years I've been back home and if I was to go permanent part time or full time I would loose up to $3/hr. Fuck that, show me the money every single week. If you don’t have a career in mind then the best way to make some decent money here is to have several casual jobs.

Fair enough. Thats interesting actually... didnt know casuals would get paid a fair bit more, but i guess it makes sense.. theres gotta be SOME incentive to work as a casual. And I actually didnt know what 'casual' meant, according to the labour law here prior to working there/being fired - now I do, but only thanks to you guys (cuz of course theyre not gonna tell you that you can just up and leave legally without any consequences. They did follow the law, I guess (unlike Nova and especially GCon), but the whole operation just felt shady (think they were having issues with one or more of the charities due to improper or not very socially responsible business practices).

As for suing, would love to! Unfortunately I dont think they did anything illegal/wrong (other than the Team Leader just being a frantic bitch - at least up till I let her have it.. she seemed to calm down somewhat after that ) and it aint worth my time of day. I'll be leaving Sydney soon to travel around a bit more in OZ, then comin back to Japan for a short while... and the first thing im gonna do, godam it, is have a train followed by a park beer