The End of an Era

It's the end of an era.

Over the past 21 years, I have spent more than half of that time (10 years, 7 months cumulative) working in call centers. 3 states, 4 companies (although one of them was bought our twice, so I guess that would be 6 companies total), 4 campuses with a total of 8 separate work locations, 13 clients, and 14 programs. I've done inbound customer service, retention sales, hardware technical support, software technical support, Internet access technical support. Platforms have been email, chat, and inbound phones. I've been a "first touch" customer service agent, a mentor, a help desk mentor, technical support trainer, an Investigative Billing Specialist, and a Tier 3 Internet support technician. Over the years, I've written troubleshooting checklists, established a help desk, received three marriage proposals, been challenged to a duel, been sworn at in at least a half-dozen different languages, and even once had someone go to the trouble of tracking down who I was so he could attempt to follow through on his threat to sue me personally.

I can't do it anymore. I'm done.

I have nothing against the career itself. It's paid the bills for me for more than a decade, and I've made some good friends over the years, many of whom are friends on Facebook. But at the same time, I have come to realize that not only was I dreading going to work every morning, but that a significant part of that dread was due to the fact that I have become stagnant in my career. I was good at what I did, but I wasn't actually accomplishing anything; every day was pretty much a repeat of the previous one. It was like being in a version of the movie Groundhog Day, except without the whole "learning new skills seemingly overnight" thing.

So I've given up the call center industry and am actively casting about for a new way to support myself and my family. Fortunately, I have a strong faith/conviction that something is about to turn up; in fact, that conviction is what prompted me to take the plunge and leave my most recent employer.

I just hope I was right.