Transitioning from Call Center to Marketing or HR: Does Your Experience Count?

A call center job can be considered as work experience if one is looking to transition from the call center industry to another field such as marketing or HR.

Even working for a Social Service organization without a salary is considered as 'experience' in Western, European, and even African countries. The answer is 'YES'.

The next part is subject to the attitude of your next employer.

Good luck!

Mammu

Working by itself is not enough; however, if you can reflect on what you were/are doing and how it relates to the organization's mission and goals, and how your actions help to satisfy your clients/customers, how you could have improved the effectiveness and efficiency of what you and your co-workers did/do, etc., will be considered as experience. But whether the experience gained is relevant to the field you are applying depends.

Have a nice day.

Simhan
A retired academic in the UK.

Dear Sharonvij,

The experience of working in BPO/call centers is not relevant for your next job profile because the entire working scenario and other aspects are different. Therefore, only experienced individuals, or those seeking a change, accept offers in the BPO sector. Even freshers from B-schools do not usually consider working in BPOs.

SK Giridhar
Organizational Expert
Motivational Speaker & Trainer
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Hi,

The experience would count if it is in the same field. If call center experience is in an operational role (such as CCE, CSR, Associate, Executive) in a calling profile, it would not be considered in HR, Marketing, Finance, etc.

If the experience is in the same field, it would definitely be counted.

Experience is experienced; however, in the current era, it is again bifurcated into two parts: Relevant Experience & Irrelevant Experience. Whichever field you choose to enter, you will be prey to these two kinds of experiences.

Yes, because wherever and whatever you work, there you work for an organization and deal with people and different issues. People who really think about person-wise analysis will obviously consider your experience.

Dear,

It depends on the organization whether they want to consider it as an experience related to the field they want to recruit the person.

Regards,
Abhijeet Sawant

Call center experience can be taken into account when it matches the type of work we will be doing next. For instance, if a person with seven years of call center experience in customer care expresses interest in becoming an HR Manager, their experience may be considered invalid for the job. However, if the same person seeks a position in customer service, their experience would be deemed valid.

Call center experience is considered in the BPO/call center industry only.

If you are looking for a change, you need to capitalize on your excellent communication skills, coupled with voice and accent. Try looking for a trainer's role as a voice and accent trainer. There are loads of opportunities in the market. Your call center experience will definitely help you.

Try to move to the training and development team within your company.

In case of no opportunities, at least get mentored by a trainer to enhance your training skills.

If you don't wish to work in night shifts, you might have to come out of the BPO industry and try to start working in smaller organizations as a VnA trainer (Voice and Accent Trainer) and slowly move on to recruitments. Again, your communication with different clients in your call center job will help you. Thus, you can move to your desired role. You will have to adapt to culture change, facilities, paycheck, etc., which depends on one's attitude and adaptability. Trust me. It's not easy, but it's not tough either.

Well, in case you have a Master's degree in Marketing or HR, you need to market yourself with your communication skills, fluency in English, and your degree.

I am sure you are very well aware that communication skills don't mean good English and a nice accent. It depends on how one can communicate to convince others and come to a win-win situation.

End of the day, Change is something one should be adapting. Let me know in case you need anything.

Good Luck.

Sherry

Dear Peer,

Work experience means wherever you work, that will be included in your CV, giving you exposure in different fields. However, sometimes for specific positions, they require experts from a particular field with good experience. At that time, if your experience is in different fields, it will be taken into consideration.

When an organization is recruiting a candidate with experience, they expect the experience to be from the same field rather than different. This is similar to the difference between pursuing a course through regular and distance education. If any of your experiences do not match your desired profession, you can exclude them from your CV.

Remember, any single day in a firm will not be wasted at any point in time.

Regards,
Nelson
Chennai

Yes, it can be considered as work experience, but not "RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE." That is to say, it can be a parameter for your CTC negotiation but not a parameter for your designation.

Dear Sharonvij,

Call centre experience is also one of the different experiences that will count for relevant jobs. Any experience in any field will not go to waste if our experience is molded in such a way that it should be effective and materialistic for the purpose of career growth.

Suri Babu Komakula

Your BPO (Call center) experience will be definitely considered depends on the organization and job specific requirement.
For i.e: you have experience in BPO – Call center, and you appear for interview for a technical oriented jobs like Software development or Systems Administrator, there they wont count your BPO call center experience because its not relevant to them.
As Shiva mentioned above it is purely depends on relevant experience which you require for that particular job will be considered as experience.
Thanks & Best Regards,
Hemanshu Khanna

Hi,

Working in a call center/BPO is definitely considered as work experience even if you want to change your domain.

Regards,
Vijay Pai

Yes, it does count, because the BPO sector gives you a good amount of exposure to the corporate world. It can work as a grooming station if you're pursuing your graduation or have just completed it. However, you need to understand which sector you would be joining next and how relevant it is with respect to your present profile.

All the best,
Dib

I fully agree with you. Rest all techniques can be learned through processes and education, but handling human emotions and reactions comes only with experience.

Ukmitra

Hi,
Yes, the work experience shall be considered, as it speaks different aspects of CRM, which in inevitable entity in any business. No business can prosper without customers; handling them either over the phone or through text / any other media shall demonstrate its own meaning. Nevertheless, it's sad state of affairs if an HR does not consider what he/she has done to support the business, in this scenario, either the HR or Business Owners might be ignorant on mapping the generic and job specific skills effectively.
Regards

My frank opinion is that whether it is HR or Marketing, what matters is the attitude to excel, the urge to learn, and the effort to go the extra mile. If one acquires these qualities in any field in the corporate atmosphere, they will definitely be considered, provided the interviewer is seasoned and the interviewee is able to convince. In my opinion, functional experience, particularly at the entry or middle level, has lost its importance due to various reasons. I go by the saying "Hire for attitude and train for skills."

Regards,

Sahayaraj Sr. HR Executive

Yes, it is a working experience because one who handles the client is exposing themselves to the issue and resolving the matter at hand. So, that is a kind of gaining experience. The only difference is that the face-to-face interaction is not taking place. Sometimes, this method may be more effective for some people, while for others, it may not.

HEMANTHA JAYAMANNE