Wahey! Got The Job At Halifax Call Centre
Sunday 6th March 2005 02:57:00 AM
I've been unemployed since leaving Safeway Dewsbury for nearly two months now, and I'm delighted to say I have found a job at Halifax Call Centre which is located in Leeds City.
My role will be as a Trainee Collections Advisor working in the Collections & Recoveries Department. This will involve dealing with customers over the phone (in/outbound calls) convincing them to make their loan repayments.
Sounds like a bit of a tough one, but I shall gladly rise to the challenge.
Since leaving my previous job I only applied to two other employers; both call centres' in Leeds. One was First Direct and the other was HSBC.
I have to say that First Direct have a rigorous recruitment process as I had to go through three stages. Just to get a chance to work there I had to commit to a half an hour telephone interview; I passed that. Second was the two and a half to three hour role-play. The first half consisted of showing us around and telling us about the company, department and break facilities, and the remainder was role-play.
Here I had to go through a practice telephone conversation with a member of staff located elsewhere in the building pretending to be a customer. You have to check the customers' account and process general queries. First Direct also have a policy where staff have to try and convince the customer to take on 'add-on' services to further benefit the company, and the staff have to meet targets this way.
I passed the second stage of the recruitment process therefore I was invited to attend the final stage which was a two hour face-to-face interview.
In the interview they require full lengthy descriptive answers to the questions they ask, and if you don't know, consider yourself out. I was doing well until they asked me, have you any selling experience and how did you convince them to purchase the product/service? The answer was (and still is) 'no'; I have never convinced anyone to purchase a product/service. So that was the knock-out stage for me.
Anyone who is recruited by First Direct must have a ton of experience, and patience of course to see if they get through.
After being turned down from First Direct, I decided to try HSBC. Unfortunately for me they didn't have any part-time vacancies available; they took my details so they can contact me when they arise.
Next I decided to apply to Halifax after finding out from a friend that they had vacancies in the Collections & Recoveries Department. My interviewer was so laid back I couldn't believe it, when the interview ended I knew I fulfilled their requirements and had a good chance at receiving an employment offer. A week later I received a call from a member of Halifax Personnel telling me I could join the team in a month's time.
The same day I received a call from HSBC telling me I could attend an interview if I wanted. Like they say about buses, you wait for one and then two come along at once.
A month has now passed and I will be starting tomorrow at 5pm; induction is for five weeks, weekdays. All I can say at the moment is I get a pay rise compared to my previous job!
i dont want to know ur story wht is that for. i really dont understand what is that for email me and u can also write me a comment. people dont want to know about ur job and how u get ur job and waiting for bus they dont want to know that. not people fault if bus dont come. psych man i just feel like to play and i just feel like to write u a comment.
Oh shut up Sohail. I found every single word useful! Fanx a million Piniyini.
Hi, thank you for your post, I found it very helpful. Did you go through a phone interview with HSBC? I've got one on friday and I'm praying it goes well.
Exactly shut up, Sohail you obviously read it throughly bfirst which means u were intrested, i found it very helpful and useful it's good to see people making an effort to work, Sohail probably aint got a job and can't get one cus he is socially retarded, thanks alot piniyini..plus so true about the buses! not that i sue them ne more, all about car-age!!!