A Shy Person's Guide on How to Get Hired in a Call Center

Linchipin

I once was scheduled for an interview at Friday's Restaurant in Glorietta at 5pm I got there at 2pm which was too early so I decided to head over to the bookstore to check out some books.

I've been pretty depressed that day because months before I lost my job, my second dad died, my partner and I's relationship hit a storm, I had demons from hell placed on my jaw in a form of an impacted wisdom tooth which caused infections and rendered me unable to talk or move my mouth for two weeks and had to survive drinking only powdered milk and hoping that would be enough to keep me alive, that's also where I found out that pain killers did not work on me unless taken in large doses. I also been rejected in an interview about twelve times and some of the companies I applied were rude enough to ask me what is the lowest salary you are willing to accept and proceeding to offer half of my current salary.

That day was pretty nasty because my partner does not answer calls and sends me messages to leave her alone or to go away. I wanted to cry and destroy myself that day and since I got to the interview venue early I decided to postpone destroying myself and go to the interview so I don't put the opportunity to waste. 

While waiting, I got to read a book called Linchpin by Seth Godin where he talks about how people can become indispensable in an economy where people are replaced by computers, everything is manufactured in China and jobs outsourced in India and the Philippines.

He talks about how Linchpin's are artists who give a team a huge advantage by putting his creativity and passion in his work.

The Linchpin is an artist that deeply loves and cares about his art and refers to his or her work as her masterpiece.

The Linchpin does not always follow the rules and breaks them if he or she has to in order to get results which makes him valuable to his team.

A Linchpin also gets preferential treatment, usually like a VIP and a different package of salary and benefits as you might notice in many companies.

I stopped reading because my interviewer told me that they were there already. I went to the venue and my phone suddenly got messed up I couldn't call or send a text message.

I asked around but to no avail. The restaurant, Friday's was full of people having business meetings and interviews. I decided to head over to Globe (my mobile phone provider) to borrow a phone to make a call. A cute customer service representative lent me her iPhone and I was able to talk to my interviewer found out which one they were and proceeded to meet them.

My interviewers that day are two Americans who own a recruitment company in the States and their pretty Filipina recruiter. My heart jumped. I noticed that the other applicants they were interviewing were senior and more successful looking. I totally forgot about the position I was applying for and I scrambled to look for their ad at my laptop.

Turns out I applied for a sales manager post and they invited me over. (Note: I had a bad habit of not doing research on a company until they are scheduled to interview me. I send out 300+ applications to each one and most of the companies have a boring, mission vision statement and culture in their about page. Check it out they are all end to end, cost effective, service oriented one stop shop solutions provider. Yawn.)

I was like holy shit. I wasn't expecting this. I was really scared. I pretended to do something in the laptop to look professional then I told myself there was no way I'm faking this.I remembered reading the book. Created a note titled Linchpin and wrote down key points I recalled from the book. As I wrote down the key points, I realized that what I liked about the book is the fact that it describes the Linchpin as someone that I already am (not all the time, yet) and if that was the case there's not way they won't hire me. I was still scared.

"The amount of success you will achieve in life is in direct proportion to the amount of difficult conversations you're willing to have"
­ Tim Ferriss (Author of the Four Hour Workweek)

I tried to distract my fear by doing something crazily proactive. When the Filipina recruiter passed by my table to call the first applicant, I asked her about the people in the next table "Are those the other applicants?" She said "yeah" and I smiled and said "looks like I'm the youngest." She almost giggled and said "I guess so." I thought to myself "make the interviewer like you by making them smile. She laughed so I'm two steps ahead" recounting the lessons I teach my students.

When my turn came, I answered the questions. My interviewer interrupted me at some point and said "You know Kevin, we've been doing business in the province and we went to Manila to find better quality talent. You know looking at your past experience, I don't think there's anyone with a background like you. " I said thanks and we continued the discussion about the work and they gave me a schedule for a final interview with their local partner.

At the end of the interview after I started to walk away. He asked the pretty Filipina recruiter, "Is he your guy?" She said "What?" He clarified "Were you the one who found him?" She said Yes. He said "great job!"

I moved out of there as fast as I can because I couldn't hold in my laughter. I felt like I won big that day.

10 Nice Things People Say About Kevin

1. I don't give up on people ­ Ish
2. I always have to do something extraordinary ­ Dad
3. I see important factors in business long before other people realize it. ­ Older half­brother
4. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty ­ S1 Senior partner
5. I'm shy but I really put in the effort to know someone on a personal level ­ Training Center Admin
6. I'm systematic when I do something ­ Automation company boss
7. I learned and experienced a lot of things for somebody my age ­ A whole bunch of people
8. You already have everything I want to pass on. There's nothing more I can teach you. ­ Late Future Step Dad
9. You look similar to a certain American Idol finalist named David. ­ M 
10. I wish all boyfriends were just like you ­ a whole bunch of people 

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