More Jobs In AsiaTown It Park As PeopleSupport's New Building Opens

Aegis People Support just launched their new building in Asiatown IT Park. It will seat 3000 reps, making them again one of the leading global outsourcing companies.


According to Inquirer -- Rajiv Ahuja, Aegis People Support president for Asean and ANZ, said they aim to increase manpower by 50% as soon as phase 2 is finished.

“We have about 4,000 people in Cebu. We hope to add 2,000 more when the tower is finished,” Ahuja said in a press conference Monday.

The BPO has close to 12,000 employees in the country based in three delivery centers in Metro Manila, Baguio and Cebu. By year end, it expects to  have 15,000 employees.

The tower alone is  an investment of P2B – P1.5B for the building and P500 million for three lots purchased in the Ayala-managed IT park.

It's amazing how the BPO industry is still expected to grow by 15% annually over the next 5 years, bringing in approximately $270 billion


“At present, there are 600,000 people in the country working for outsourcing companies. We need to be able to sustain the supply because we might end up hiring people from other companies, which will put a pressure on the economic index,”  said Aegis People Support managing director and chief executive officer Aparup Sengupta.

Philippines' Biggest Call Center - Convergys To Hire Even More Agents

I picked up this article from ABS-CBN on Convergys expanding 5 of its existing stations and opening 3,600 additional jobs.

It's amazing how these guys have expanded. With the construction of an additional 2,300 work stations in 5 sites: University of the Philippines TechnoHub, Nuvali, San Lorenzo, Cebu, and Bacolod, more opportunities are opened for more people.

According to the ABS-CBN article, Convergys country manager Marife Zamora said their operations have been “outstanding," prompting the company's expansion. She also cited increasing demand from the US as one of the reasons for expanding in industries like technology, communications, cable, financial services, health care, and retail.

“Our clients demand more seats, more capacities…With the continuous demand, it is logical for Convergys to expand on these areas,”Jomari Mercado, Convergy's director for business development, told reporters on Friday.

Convergys estimates that it can increase its workforce to around 25,000 and open another workstation in a new area by end of 2010. Currently, Convergys employs 21,000 Filipinos in 12 sites in Metro Manila, Cebu, Bacolod, and Laguna.

The Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) earlier reported that the sunshine industry posted P7.1 billion in revenues during the first quarter of 2010.

BPAP estimates that industry revenues will rise to P9.3 billion by the end of this year, and workforce to 550,000 from the current 475,000.

Winsource Looking for 600 Outbound Call Center Agents

Here's an ad from Winsource solutions
They're looking for 600 outbound call center agents
If you'd like to work in Mandaluyong City, you can contact them from the info in the pic above
Ideally you should have

• 6 months experience or more since they pay premium for agents with more experience
• Preferably with Sales & Credit Card extraction experience
• Excellent English communication and comprehension skills
• Computer literate
• Fresh graduates welcome
  

To Work Or Not To Work... In A Call Center

That's a question I asked myself a few years back when I was still pretty darned ambitious and all these call centers were popping up. There are even more now mind you! It seems like they're growing by the minute and they're all hiring like crazy!

In Cebu there are Convergys, eTelecare and People Support as the big three I think, but there's also ePerformax and Teletech and probably a bunch more that I'm just not familiar with.

I have met a lot of people who vowed that they would never work in a call center. Some of them call it the "last resort" and many think that it's actually a no-brainer job.

I actually respect people who work in the customer support industry. Believe me it's not easy. I have not tried myself, but I've seen how it's done and I've seen how agents are trained and I've seen how they are managed.

It's pretty rigorous and agents should get more credit for that. I for one, can never hold my patience down when somebody annoyingly stupid is on the other line.

I haven't tried being a call center agent and although there are prejudices about being one, I think it's a pretty good industry to be in nowadays. Even with the economic crisis, it doesn't seem like any of them is slowing down in terms of hiring. So that's a positive indication that the industry is still strong.

I work in marketing, where I'll probably be for the next few years of my life - God willing. But for sure, I won't turn down an opportunity to work in a call center for the right opportunity.

Keep an open mind. Call centers may have high turn-over rates but based on experience, this also accelerates growth and corporate ascendancy in the business if you just stick to it. Like all things, it's a job that somebody's got to do. If you do your job with extra effort and just shine. People will notice you in whatever industry in whatever position. You can succeed.

The BPO Industry Set To Grow To Need 1 Billion Employees - So Who Are They Looking For?

With BPO growing at a break-neck pace particularly here in the Philippines, there has been a projection that the industry will provide more than 1 billion jobs in relation to BPO - otherwise known as business process outsourcing.

To correct some misconceptions, which is that BPO only relates to call centers and contact centers, which is a majority but not the entire truth, BPO is in fact composed of many different industries:

• We already know of the call centers and/or customer service centers that are now everywhere. They employ hundreds of people and also, exit a lot of them considering that many workers have to come in during the night and try to sleep during the day. That is a difficult job, but since the clients are on a different time zone then that will have to be a work-related adjustment many of us have to make if we indeed need and/or want the job
• There are also numerous back-offices that include finance or accounting offices that are outsourced, this employs numerous accountants, analysts and finance executives
• Design is also a skill that is often outsourced. More often supplied by freelancers that actual companies - website design and graphic design in general is very common as a service that can even be done within the convenience of home. Designers are quite lucky.
• There is also the medical-related back office which is mostly now medical transcription. These companies are paid a lot of money I hear and that is why I think they are investing in ways to train people before they hire them

There are many kinds of people that the BPO industry is looking for, I may have missed some of them but rest assured that there are a lot of job opportunities for different types of graduates available if only you work hard and not get picky at the job you want to do.

Why are young Filipinos going abroad to find work?

Young Filipinos go abroad to find jobs because many think there's more money to make out there. Aside from that you also get the following perks:

• Adventure - you get to live somewhere else FAR away from parents and relatives who just love to tell you what to do with you life. It's the ultimate adventure
  
• Independence - along with the feeling of getting away from it all, there's also the reverberating exuberance of making and spending your own hard-earned money. And it's not just any money - it's foreign currency!
• Compensation - of course the last bet, everybody else is paid higher. Let's make an example of Call center agents since there are so many of them floating around these days.

  • Call center agents get a starting salary of P15,000, but many are being recruited in Singapore to receive at least three times their salaries here.
  • A separate study by IT publication ZDNet Asia says the average annual salary of senior IT professionals in the Philippines is $12,425 year. That is the equivalent of P521,850 at the exchange rate of 42 pesos to the dollar, but it’s still lower than $44,858 in Singapore, $57,303 in Hong Kong, and $76,851 in Australia.
  • Even coffee shop workers earn as much as $2,500 Singaporean out there, which beats a decent hard-working IT professional in the Philippines these days. That's tough, specially with prices rising as they are

Of course, the problem isn't the same for us simple folk who already have families and responsibilities here. It's more difficult to move abroad - for me specifically. I respect those who choose to go elsewhere for opportunity, but mine is here... with my daughter. I just hope I don't end up leaving her for money soon too.