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I worked at a call center almost three years, moving from agent, to mentor, to QA Department and ended up being a supervisor for about two years. It was a really good experience, where I learned many things that helped me grow personally and professionally. However, after a couple of months of being a supervisor, the learning experience disappeared. We were on a loop with a monotonous routine.
Any idea we came up with to improve the job experience for everyone and create a better working environment through some changes in the company’s culture, was ignored by the managers. There were no new challenges. No freedom to innovate. Our mind was at rest, programmed to repeat the same things everyday.
Until finally, on January 2015, I decided to quit my job. It felt so good to be out, because I knew it was the beginning of new adventures, new challenges and new experiences. I traveled twice to my sister’s house in Miami. For the first time in my life, I had vacations! In high school I never did, I was stuck in pre-season basketball practice all summer. And in my job, my vacations were used to work on a film project, which was tiring.
So I was sure I would start growing again; however, I wasn’t the only one. An object made of plastic that usually slept in my wallet and was kind to pay for my stuff, was also growing in debt.
So, I was about seven months without a stable job. Living on tv commercials, acting on plays and two movies (I will see the income until the movie is out of theaters next year). So I wasn’t really getting a higher income than before, and couldn’t afford the expenses I was used to. But that didn’t stop me from spending. Until I tried to deposit the monthly payment, and saw it was way out of budget, I truly understood that I needed to find a way to bail out my credit card debt. I needed a plan.
At my brother’s wedding lunch, when we started conversing with my cousin, I asked the usual social question: “and how’s work?”. My cousin starting talking about his job. He didn’t really like it, however, he mentioned a hiring bonus that called my attention. So I started asking for details. We agreed that I was going to work for six weeks to get both of us the bonus, and that way I could pay part of my credit card debt with easy money from the training period. Nevertheless, I was still not 100% motivated.
When I quit my last job, I didn’t really planned on going back to another call center. Plus, with the feedback I had from the place, I didn’t really think I could grow personally, nor professionally in there. Though, the plan was temporary… just six weeks. My final decision was influenced by a friend.
A friend from Tegucigalpa told me she was moving to San Pedro Sula because she had a job offer from Company X. She is the one who convinced to apply for Company X. I did the exams a couple of days before she came to her interview and told her how they were. She was prepared. I was scheduled to go back for the last interview on the weekend.
On saturday, I went to Company X. They didn’t have a schedule with an earlier entry hour than 8am, and even though I told them that was not a problem, they said that since currently I am in a movie production,this could affect me and I could skip my job and give priority to the movie. they would call me when they had a schedule that fitted me.
THANK GOD THEY DIDN’T HIRE ME RIGHT AWAY!!!! I could have insisted that it wouldn’t affect, however I just shook his hand, and thanked him for his time. Plus I wasn’t sure in what campaign my friend was going to be in.
When I was out, I sent a text to my friend. She said she was doing some tests and that they were totally different than the ones she was prepared for. Once finished, she called me and told me to meet her at Altara.
I met her there, we got in the car and drove to a restaurant to have lunch. On our way she told me about her exams and interview. How different they were from what she was prepared for (blamed it on me). About the HR guy who runs from Altia, all the way to the top of the Coca-Cola mountain and back. She told me about a campaign in another company, but she didn’t mention the name. So I had no idea what she was talking about. But the way she described everything, sounded cool and called my attention. Of course, if she was going to work there, I wanted to be with her and work there too.
On Monday, an Altia Rep called me to see how things went with Company X. I informed her that they had no early schedule available, but that I was not interested on joining them anymore. I wanted to be part of the other company’s campaign. She explained that it was a campaign from PartnerHero and asked me to translate my curriculum to english, and send it to her email. I did.
Next day, I received a call from PartnerHero’s HR Lead. After he introduced himself with his name, I recognized his voice and knew who I was talking with. Then I told him who he was talking with (I used to have really long hair, so he didn’t recognize me from my resume picture). He used to work at my previous job as well, and he knew my work style. He asked me to meet him in one hour at Altia.
I arrived before time, completed the exams, got an interview and was hired. I started working on Thursday and found out we were starting a new campaign. We. “We” ended up being me, and a former co-worker! This was excellent news! We used to have excellent chemistry, and worked really closely with her on my last couple of months in my former job. And starting a new campaign? That was just amazing! We would have the freedom to provide ideas, innovate, learn and grow! At the same time, we will be making our new partner grow its business! Win-Win-Win!
Creating strategies to leverage the partner’s competitive advantage, spreading their business, and making sure the best customer service possible is delivered! New adventure, challenges and experiences is what I was looking for. And I had found it.
Throughout my days in PartnerHero, I learned and experienced their culture. AWESOME! I was really happy to be part of this new family. They were all welcoming, worked perfectly as a team, always seeking to share and help, and ownership on your job and projects are incentivized. They are all aligned towards a higher purpose.
Tom Hsieh, on his book “Delivering Happiness”, where he talks about the birth, obstacles and growth of Zappos (focusing a lot on their culture), explains what a higher purpose is and about the satisfaction that it provides. “The higher-purpose type of happiness is about being part of something bigger than yourself that has a meaning to you. Research has shown that of the three types of happiness (pleasure, passion and higher purpose), this is the longest lasting.” I do believe we are all part of something bigger and we can make it grow even more!
One of Zappos’ core values is “Pursue Growth and Learning”. Besides the amazing culture PartnerHero has, learning and growing is one of the major reasons why I love to be a Hero. As I mentioned before, the main reason why I left my former job, is because of the lack of this core value. So having the chance to pursue growth and learning while being part of something bigger than ourselves, and helping partnered companies expand and leverage their business, is just amazing!
I’m glad I ended up here.
