Exploring Current Openings in Domestic BPOs
Fluency in languages is the primary requirement for a BPO job. By fluency in languages, we most often mean English and maybe some foreign languages. While it is true that English and foreign languages get you the best BPO jobs and the highest pay-packages, regional languages can get you a good position too. Not all BPOs cater to international customers and also among those who do, there are requirements for the domestic sector.
BPOs know that all customers won’t be comfortable with English when it comes to communicating within India. In order to enhance customer services, BPOs have a team which caters to customers unwilling to speak in English. To handle the domestic sphere, a team of customer service executives are hired who communicate in regional languages. For such a profile, it is desirable to be fluent in more than one regional language including Hindi.
The demand is quite big and rewards offered are exciting. To check out a few openings, click here.
Move Up With Forign Languages
In blog posts earlier that focused on the advantages of learning foreign languages, I talked about the upper hand that you get while looking for a job. A recently published article in The Hindu addresses the same and talks about a few opportunities that are available to students who pick up a foreign language in addition to their courses. As globalization spreads, being multilingual definitely gets you in touch with a wider audience and as a result, access to better opportunities.
According to the article, French still remains a favourite but Chinese and German are picking up fast. A student who is equipped with important soft skills and a foreign language to go with them, can command a starting salary as high as 30 grand. Some of the best places to pick up foreign languages in Hyderabad are EFLU, Ramakrishna Math and others. Click here to take a look at the article. I will be posting specific job openings in this blog soon.
Banks Jobs Calling
For everyone out there who are under the impression that global recession will hamper recruitment in Indian banks, here is a piece of good news. Pushing apprehensions of slowdown aside, banks are on a major recruitment drive these days. Two major reasons behind this overdrive being the retirement of a large number of senior employees and banks looking to provide more and more specialized services such as insurance, net banking, asset management and so on. In order to bring new services to their customers, they need to train people with specific skills who will be entrusted with these services.
It is estimated that about 20% of a strong workforce of 750,000 will retire within the next two years. This opens up a huge gap which needs filling. In addition to all this, banks are also expanding so that they can reach out to more people all over India. State Bank of India opened 2000 new branches in 2008-09 and are expected to open 1000 more this year. Openings exist for clerks, general banking officers and specialist officers. Recruitment is happening by the thousands according to this report in rediff.com and all major names such as Canara Bank, SBI, Bank of India,Union Bank of India are involved. So for all of you who have your sights set on a rewarding career in public sector banking, the requirement presents a golden opportunity.
Foreign Language Professionals In Great Demand
Continuing on the many prospects foreign languages can offer you, i thought of sharing an exciting information here. A one-day workshop was conducted jointly by the University of Hyderabad (HCU) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in which we came to know that the industry will require around 1,60,000 foreign language professionals by 2010. The University of Hyderabad offers proficiency courses in a few foreign languages already and plans to inaugurate a full fledged centre for teaching foreign languages. It will offer courses in Japanese, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian initially and more will be added later.
This is promising news indeed and all the more reason for you to consider picking up a foreign language to make yourself employable for lucrative openings coming your way.
Time to Wake Up
It never fails to surprise me that though the BPO industry has been around for a while now, our educational institutions do not really train the students for it. Students generally have to depend upon the many BPO training institutes that have mushroomed in recent times.
Why this neglect? In our educational institutions we are still holding on to certain traditional career paths coupled with a tendency to look upon new openings with suspicion. Even after being convinced of their benefits, it takes a long time to implement new courses. Our students end up losing out since they are not aware of these opportunities in the first place and are not given the necessary training. This results in a mad rush for the “established” careers when there are plenty of openings elsewhere.