“They say if you love your job you will never work a day in your life. That is the feeling I have while working here at the Hamilton Call Center.”

It all started 5 months ago when I walked in on a chilly Tuesday morning in February. I was starting my final semester of grade 12 and opted to have a  co-op placement. My mother Diana is an account manager for the Hamilton Call Center and asked the Director of Operations if I could do my placement here. That Tuesday morning was a little nerve racking because I had no clue what to expect coming in for my first day. I walked in and was greeted with a smile from the receptionist and continued into Jen’s office. I was given a headset and went to sit with a virtual receptionist in the call center.

The atmosphere was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Most of the cubicles were filled and people were on the phone all around me. I sat down and plugged in my headset allowing me to listen to the calls the remote receptionist I was sitting with took. It was amazing how fast she typed everything the caller was saying, remembering to repeat back everything ensuring it was correct. As a child I had come into the Hamilton office many times, but had never gone into the Inbound Call Center. I was in awe of all the people around me working on the same system and helping the clients with a variety of different services.

As my time continued, I learned about the specific accounts and after being trained, I had the opportunity to sit at my own station and work. It was big day for me as I had only been observing other Virtual Receptionists working and now I got to be one for a few hours.

After about a month of working on the accounts I started to learn some of the different reports that needed to be completed daily and my time in the call center became less. I learned how to work on the call stats report and the call traffic minutes. These reports gave me a different perspective of the company, being able to see the call volume and how many calls were answered each day.

I had the opportunity to see things from almost every department during my placement and it was an amazing thing, because each department focused on different aspects of the company. Running around and working with the different people in different areas made each day like an exciting adventure. I never knew what exactly I would be doing that day and that made it fun. Each day was different, one day I worked in operations, and helped the account managers and the next I was working with the director of operations and completing a report for the Toronto call center.

They say if you love your job you will never work a day in your life. That is the feeling I have while working here at AnswerPlus. I have been having such a good time here, I will be continuing my internship into the summer months, as my second semester placement has come to a quick close after 5 months. AnswerPlus has been a great placement and I could not have asked for a better place to spend my mornings.

All I can say is that this is just the tip of the iceberg for me, because I’m here to stay (for the summer at least)!