[freegull4e]

hi, I am sharada from Hyd. I appeared for CAT 2002 but I am not very confident of making it to the top this time. I;ll perhaps take CAT 2003. I either have to sit at home till next yr or look for a job [ 8th sem, BE]. Does this 5 month work exp count? ANY SUGGESTIONS?
btw, anyone from hyd here? please get in touch.

cheers! :P

[shubham]

nope..work ex of in excess of 1 yr and that too at lower managerial level(not the call centres, medical transcription and stuff) are taken into consideration.....they are gonna chek whether u hve contributed something meaningful to the company in ur capacity and wot additonal experience do u have in comparison to a fresher...

[diall4luv]

Originally Posted by shubham

nope..work ex of in excess of 1 yr and that too at lower managerial level(not the call centres, medical transcription and stuff) are taken into consideration.......

hey guyz is that really the case ????
i have been working in a call centre now for almost a year as a tech consultant in mumbai...
i always thought i contributed to my company as its employee and that i cud always explain my position of accepting the job and the things i have learnt here. i was always of the viewpoint that it is better to be working and gain real world experience than sitting at home and waiting interminably for your favorite job.
u necessarily need not be in middle management to learn discipiline, professionalism, understand the core dynamics of working in a hierarchial organization and evolve as proffesional guy.
i can always explain how i have worked in an industry which propelled the indian economy when it was in doldrums , an industry which encouraged spontaneity , vigour, required loads of attitude and most importantly helped me understand and develop team skills. Achieving the required targets under severe time constraints is one of the most striking quality i have learnt in a tech support centre ( a la call centre)...
let the views flow in and enlighen this guy.............

shads.

[aakaanksh]

Hi...
nothing is static at CAT, and ofcourse there arent any strict guidelines people need to follow for selection or rejection.
Its jst overall feeling they get from you, as you just quoted if you can convince that you have certainly learnt a lot and ineffect contribuited much to the company and society then its fair enough.Its certainly better than sitting at home and doing nothing.
In a nutshell, how you project urself, your expertise, your work in terms of experience and the knowledge imbibed by you that matters.
There are instances where in television artists, architects ( free lancers) and other fields who have made into the top B schools.
But that doesnt mean there is no weightage given to main stream job over these call center jobs.....
So it should strike to them that ur career decisions and everything you have done has helped you to a great extent and what you are today is bcos what you wanted to be.They would like to see people who have been managers all thru and want to enhance is managing capabilities not jst to thyself but to a larger stream.

[manduks]

Hey all,

I agree with Aakaansh. I dont think that working for a call center makes you inferior to any one. A call center agent interacts with a customer who belongs to a completely different geography. This agent is the one on whom the companys' and indeed the industrys' fortunes depend upon. What many people forget is that a customer interface (even by telephone on a full time basis) is very valuable experience - and these are international customers. The more exposure you get to handling customers (i think it is easier handling customers face to face than on a telephone) the better it is. Since business is all about selling to someone a product or service, with an MBA and your exposure in handling customers, you will have a headstart over someone with little or no exposure. And, people do rise to the level of team leaders, supervisors, etc. That in itself is management position. There have been people like DJ's who have been admitted to b-schools and if my memory serves me right, a ticket collector with Indian Railways made it to IIM-B and the last i heard was that he was in Infosys. A call center has different working hours, but an agent in no way is inferior to anyone in anyway.

Sharada, you should work and study at the same time. No work after graduation could be held against you in the interview. You don't need more than 2 hrs a day to prepare. I am sure you can find two hours in a day in which you can give everything to CAT. Look at the Worst Case Scenario - God forbid you dont make it to any of the institutes you apply to, then looking for a job to fill the one year gap for the next CAT (2004) would be difficult. Jobs are tough to come by, and you need to make sure you have a fall back option.

Regards,
Manu

[Morpheus]

the last i heard was that he was in Infosys

He is with lehmann brothers now

Morpheus

ps jus joking guyz :P

[diall4luv]

hi guyz
thx to aakaansh and manduks for the reply .
manduks was right when he said working for a call centre is an entirely diff xperience. i cud not agree more.
keep the ideas flowing ....
and once again thx for the encouragement...
c u all in ahmedabad....
shads

[shubham]

well it seems lots of call centre guys are out here....well I didn't mean to denigrate call centres or such...looking at the profile of sharda( she is an engineer).....so it doesn't take an einstein to make out that engineers are never in the picture of call centres and stuff..

ya, I know some of u may start rattlling some figures , but the fact of the matter is that even call centres ceos know that if they employ an engineer , than its a big risk...

so intrview panel will digest the fact that an engineer wants to work ina call centre willingly ( hey iam not demeaning non engineers , mind u)....

bout those legends bout ticket collector and stuff....guys wake up.....oddities don't creat a general trend..I can very well point out that IIM calcutta PREFERS ONLY ENGINEERS...and those selected in IIMA ,who were ur ticket collectors and film actors, were gold medallist in their colleges and had EXTRA ORDINARY skills....

if u are one of them , then , my wishes are with you......if not, then be pragmatic

my advice was only meant for engineers....comments are welcome

[diall4luv]

Originally Posted by shubham

.....so it doesn't take an einstein to make out that engineers are never in the picture of call centres and stuff



my advice was only meant for engineers....comments are welcome

For your information shubham i have completed my engineering from Mumbai Universtiy in june 2001. so ur advice is applicable to me.
as for ur info abt ur engineers never being in the picture of call centres and stuff , u r wrong on that count coz i have many fellow enggs working with me and i don't need to rattle any statistics to prove my claim.
It is not my intention to get into any verbal duel with u but ur sweeping statements made me post this message. As indicated in the above two posts by manduks and aakanksh , it all boils down to your presentation of yourself and how u xplain ur choice of workplace.
i am sure i can do that given a chance . wish u all the best and any comments are welcome..

P.S i have no idea if there are other call centres proffesionals over here

[freegull4e]

hey,
relax guys! :idea:my q was if i start working immediately after my grad, will it be of any use [it comes upto 5 months of exp by the time i fill CAT2003 form] ? Will my cut-offs be lower or something lat?:

cheers!