There is no doubt that the Indian BPO's are the latest booming industry attracting lakhs of young men and women all over the country.
The advantages and disadvantages of Indian BPO jobs have been discussed in this article.
Advantages / Benefits of BPO jobs:
1. SALARY:
BPOs in India - Typical salary of a person working in India can vary between 15000 rupees to 30,000 rupees or even higher. This is much higher than individuals working in most other jobs.
2. QUALIFICATION:
All BPOs require you to be fluent in English, although most do expect you to have at least a bachelors degree like BSC or BA. Bilingual (people who speak multiple languages) have a great advantage over others.
3. CLEAN WORK:
Well there is no running around to get your work done, most bigger BPOs will even provide you a convenient bus service from several pick-up locations in the city. This is especially convenient for girls. Your job requires talking over the phone after going through an intensive customer support training. Most BPOs also provide free snacks and drinks to their employees.
4. GROWTH- FLEXIBILITY TO CHANGE JOBS EASILY:
People with just a few years on experience are in great demand, and will usually be able to change their jobs to a competing BPO company for a better salary and position.
5. ON JOB TRAINING:
BPOs provide trainning and how to deal with customers and the best part is that they even pay you when they train you. The trainning typically lasts for a few weeks and often followed by a supervised practical experience.
6. OPPORTUNITY TO WORK OVERSEAS:
Often Indian all centers have an overseas office, they will regularly send a small percentage of their employees to countries like United States, Britain etc .. so that they understand their working environment better. These trips can not only be fun but also a great opportunity to earn higher money in US dollars.
8. BPO EMPLOYEES MAY BE ABLE WORK FROM HOME NOW:
The Indian government has given its go-ahead to agents working at BPOs, other service providers included, to work from home. But BPO firms are already voicing security concerns which, they say, would not allow them to make full use of the concept.
Disadvantages of BPOs:
1. ODD WORKING HOURS:
Most of the BPOs in India support overseas operations and majority of professionals have night shifts. Although many have day shifts as they support domestic Indian customers, or off-business support hours of the overseas company which happens to be day-time for India. In majority of cases Indian BPO jobs mostly have odd hours.
2. FAMILY LIFE:
This is somewhat associated with odd working hours. Evenings are the best time to spend quality time with your spouse and children and those are actually your working hours. Your life as a BPO employee can be very lonely and frustrating at times.
3. HEALTH ISSUES:
Sleep disorders, heart disease, eyesight problems and depression are just a few issues surrounding the BPO jobs. People also tend to gain weight as most of the time they are sitting in their small cubicle. Health issues in Indian BPO industry is becoming a major issue. Even though you work only 5 days a week, for rest of the two days it is not easy to swap your sleep cycle the other way around.
4. ABUSIVE CLIENTS:
Many of the customers you speak with can actually get very abusive or angry. They are often able to guess from you accent that you are located in India and many customers are anyway unhappy about their work being outsourced to India. Since your call is often recorded you cannot reply them back angrily, in most cases you will transfer the call to your manager or to a BPO located in their own country or in worst case hang up. American accent and Indian English accent are quite different and takes time to overcome the difference. As a BPO employee you should try not to take things too personally.
5. AGE FACTOR:
Since BPO jobs are quite stressful, especially after a few months working in this industry many individuals quit and change their profession, often to a lower paying job. If you able to make your way up to the managerial level or the higher corporate ladder, life is much better, otherwise the daily monotonous work starts to really frustrate you.
6. FUTURE TREND OF BPO JOBS:
BPO jobs are the easiest to be transferred from one place to another. Today India offers a great cost saving compared to other locations, but with salaries rising about 10% every year in near future they will become comparable to other low cost locations like Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico and Eastern Europe. In that case either the salary increments will slow down substantially or companies will start moving jobs from India to these locations. RUPEE APPRECIATION - Additionally if the rupee becomes stronger then your current salary will start to appear costly overseas.
Other disadvantages which have been raised recently include Loss of direct managerial control, security and confidentiality, legal costs and unfavorable contract lengths.
It totally depend on your view.. do you see a glass half empty or half full.
