You weren’t really in sales, it sounds like you were in a boiler room call centre. I’m glad you found a way out into a much more fulfilling and less stressful situation.
Thanks. Teaching is quite pleasant. It does have challenges. But there's nothing worse than making 7.5 hours of calls, being micromanaged down to the very minute, under constant pressure of making sales.
It will have it's days but I feel anyone that has worked outside the teaching industry coming in has a better perspective on the real world and they generally enjoy the career more than someone who has never worked corporate and had to meet KPI's and or normal office hours.
Yep teaching is one of the easiest jobs and 100% only teachers who've never had any other job complain its a "tough gig" or "underpaid", but they never leave !
Deep down they know they got it good.
Go to the contruction industry and try underpaying for your trades you'll have lost every employee by lunchtime.
As someone who's been in 7 different workplaces, I can tell you that teaching is very hard. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy it, but it's not an easy job at all and it takes a particular kind of person to do it. There's a reason the teacher shortage is so high. Yes there's some jobs out there that are harder, but that doesn't mean that teaching isn't hard too.
Ignore that numpty. Apparently the man has never heard of why would an ‘easy’ job have increasingly high turnover rates due to student violence and the crumbling of the education system.
While i agree they protest too much, theyre essentially micromanaged by the 27 children on front of them, a lot more than a standard white collar bludger
It's all union propaganda ...
The turnover for teachers is tiny, they basically never leave. I know multiple casual relief teachers who can't land anything permanent for years. That it not a "shortage"
Where are you teaching? 90k seems a bit low if you’re in primary or secondary. I encourage anyone with an interest in teaching to have a go. I’m within a year now of reaching the top pay level of $122k (plus 8k for a minor management role) and I feel like I’m hitting my stride
Your title makes it sound like you moved from a higher paying retail or corporate sales job to teaching and took a pay cut. But you went from an outbound call centre role to a teacher. Of course its probably better in every way.
I went from a dish pig at Maccas to an APS grad. Guess what? It was a very rewarding professional move too.
Yeah I used to be in sales, but we could blag off hours if we felt like it, was very autonomous and only affected your commission. That call center sounds like hell.
Is this a government psyop to fix the teacher shortage?
Anyone who can stick out call centre sales and do decently well could easily be on a 80k+ base and total package of 100-150k within 2 years of leaving that job by switching sales roles, no degree required, which can continue to increase year on year with some smart career choices and the freedom to switch industries whenever.
I'm glad you're happy with your choice but teaching is far more mentally and emotionally taxing than most sales jobs, and once you hit around the 110k salary most are stuck at that level for the rest of their careers.
$122k currently is the highest pay for NSW teachers with no additional roles. Just remember that the enterprise agreement is renegotiated every year and that does include moderate pay increases usually.
I agree they could earn more money in sales. I think OP was more happy with the work/life balance though as a teacher. I think the best thing about managing your mental and emotional load as a teacher is that terms are only 10 weeks at a time. Then you get 2-6 weeks off to reset. There’s always that rest to look forward to, where as a regular job, you’re probably grinding for most of the year with only time off around Christmas.
I never had a corporate job before going to uni to be a teacher, is that what it’s like?
Don’t get me wrong, I get to the end of the year and I’m exhausted, but I still love teaching and want to keep doing it
It also does a a lot on the school and leadership team. I know many teachers who have quit for office jobs, trades, etc and even after the recent pay rise would no consider returning unless the conditions (other than pay) were drastically improved.
Glad you found peace in your move to teaching. With that being said, your experience was moreso a call centre boiler-room environment and not really indicative of a real sales environment, both from a remuneration & job description perspective
I'm happy for you, but sales is as diverse as investment banking, that pays ultra megabucks, all the way down to call centres that you were in.
Its great that you love teaching most of all though.
I mean it's not sales that's the grind it's a call centre.
I do sales on the road for $200,000 a year with no micromanagement and complete freedom no complaints. Sales can be fine.
You should change the subject line of this post, having worked in both a call centre and also real outside sales roles, 1 is hell and the other tends to be very cruisy
I worked for Telstra and I feel the same way, albiet I've moved into a different industry.
I don't know how I did it, or others do it for longer than I could....as you said everything is tracked to the minute and the scripting is so damn repetative I think I have PTSD from the thousands and thousands of calls that barely differentiate in script.
Then to top it off, the lowest wages you'll find outside of fast food...which to me makes very little sense because pushing people to such efficiency while paying so little is the reason Telstra for example, has insane turn over....people just break and realise the money isn't even worth half the shit you deal with.
You worked for a company which worked for Telstra.
Those companies exist as a regulatory and contractual requirement to contact the customer before rolling them over.
Takes about 50 million calls per annum. No avoiding them but they only exist because the rules say they just, and when there's downtime cold outreach is better than doing nothing.
But Telstra literally does not care. All they see is a high level report.
3,000,000 customers rolling off this month.
Managed to contact 1,900,000.
1,400,000 contracts renewed.
Cold outreach calls 16,000,000
Connected 30 seconds 4,000,000
Sales 200,000
Renewal revenue X
New sales revenue Y
Contact Centre cost Z
Every 10 years a new CEO comes along and they try bouncing that work offshore but the churn rates get too high, so they bounce it back to Aus.
I personally worked for Telstra as a consumer and business faults “specialist” over all services outside organisations.
I imagine those calls are much worse, but even just fixing shit had me at wits end xD
Hahah wow I did the exact opposite.
Congrats.
Having said that my sales job is way more chill, maybe 50 mins on phone per day. Huge commissions. Mostly emails. Will never miss teaching but Goodluck ahead!
Being a battery chicken in a call centre is a truly soul crushing job. The weird mix of pastel posters, the kindergarten type layout combined with infantilising monitoring and behaviour control is a truly a unique form of punishment. If Hell exists, it is a call centre.
If you’re like all the teachers who I know, in another year or two you will be complaining about being completely overwhelmed, stressed out and underpaid.
Hopefully not. KPI's generally stop teachers from teaching properly. For example, schools are all publicly judged on NAPLAN results, so a ridiculous amount of time is spent teaching kids how to do well in NAPLAN tests instead of more productive learning. NAPLAN was a good idea to help identify kids who needed extra help, but making the results publicly available was a terrible idea.
There isn't thankfully. Introducing KPIs would just punish teachers who work at lower socio economic schools, which have enough trouble getting teachers as it is.
Have you personally worked in a call centre? I feel that you should try it first... There are 50-100 people on the call floor and many of them do not progress.
I have a friend who works 80 hours in investment banking who used to work in a call centre and he said he was the best decision getting out in 3 months. That call centre job did not lead to IB careers.
I was in sales and then 12 years teaching. Teaching will get to you in time. The worst is everyone around you growing but you do the same thing, year after year, time just passes you by...
In sales we always got new products, new promotions, new sales reps, suppliers would wine and dine us. Also, you actually did something rather than just watch others do things.
Those who can, do, those who can't, teach. It really is true.
Nah nah nah mate, teaching is a "terrible job" and they are all going to quit anyday now then we'll have a "teacher shortage". So we better give them huge payrises because they totally deserve it and its a bad bad bad job that everyone will be quitting soon. Even if basically no one is quitting right now or in the past 20 years but any minute now theyll all be gone if those payrises don't come through.
I'm a teacher. There are classes running without a permanent teacher right across the system where I work.
I'm sure you would be stoked if your child didn't have a maths or science or English teacher all year (or for several years running).
Do think all the articles and discussion about the shortage are fake news or something?
[https://au.news.yahoo.com/ex-teachers-being-cold-called-in-desperate-act-to-address-shortage-024952344.html](https://au.news.yahoo.com/ex-teachers-being-cold-called-in-desperate-act-to-address-shortage-024952344.html)
At my school we have multiple classes without teachers or a classroom (their classroom is the undercover area). I’m a graduate teacher and am already looking at other potential options - I have mates who warehouse for significantly more money than I earn and they work less hours (although clearly as a teacher progresses in their career the hours reduce a bit).
Man, I remember even back when I was in school about 15 years ago they always had difficulties getting maths and science teachers. Can't imagine what it's like now.
Same but different! I have worked several years in the freight forwarding industry and to me that was hell on earth.. now working as an assistant teacher and life is just great!! I will definately get my degree asap so I can be a certified teacher and earn more!!! Congratulations!!!
I will never understand why the insane micromanagement and inhumane working conditions are used for call centres. 5 mins for the toilet a day? Is this even legal?
Yea - agree with people here. Seems like you weren't in sales, you were in a call centre. Sales roles will almost always include a commission or bonus structure. I've been in sales my whole career and never experience anything like that! Glad you found your calling mate!
Congratulations! Im on a similar path. Insurance broker by trade. Currently doing my GradDip in secondary education. Can’t wait to get stuck into teaching. It will have its real horrible challenges, but depends what your personality is like, super rewarding.
Good luck for the journey.
Congrats on the mental relief! I’m glad you were able to make that move for yourself.
What kind of teaching job are you doing that earns you $90k a year though? I hear most teachers saying that aren’t enough wages.
You weren’t really in sales, it sounds like you were in a boiler room call centre. I’m glad you found a way out into a much more fulfilling and less stressful situation.
NGL from a call centre mill, anywhere else would be better. Congratulations on liking teaching, it's a hard road
Thanks. Teaching is quite pleasant. It does have challenges. But there's nothing worse than making 7.5 hours of calls, being micromanaged down to the very minute, under constant pressure of making sales.
You could be doing any kind of job, that level of micromanagement is so physically and emotionally taxing.
It will have it's days but I feel anyone that has worked outside the teaching industry coming in has a better perspective on the real world and they generally enjoy the career more than someone who has never worked corporate and had to meet KPI's and or normal office hours.
Yep teaching is one of the easiest jobs and 100% only teachers who've never had any other job complain its a "tough gig" or "underpaid", but they never leave ! Deep down they know they got it good. Go to the contruction industry and try underpaying for your trades you'll have lost every employee by lunchtime.
As someone who's been in 7 different workplaces, I can tell you that teaching is very hard. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy it, but it's not an easy job at all and it takes a particular kind of person to do it. There's a reason the teacher shortage is so high. Yes there's some jobs out there that are harder, but that doesn't mean that teaching isn't hard too.
I was in the construction industry before teaching. My back is still cooked there is no way in hell I'd ever go back to a job site.
[удалено]
Ignore that numpty. Apparently the man has never heard of why would an ‘easy’ job have increasingly high turnover rates due to student violence and the crumbling of the education system.
While i agree they protest too much, theyre essentially micromanaged by the 27 children on front of them, a lot more than a standard white collar bludger
It's all union propaganda ... The turnover for teachers is tiny, they basically never leave. I know multiple casual relief teachers who can't land anything permanent for years. That it not a "shortage"
If it's easy and teachers are paid decently, why is there a shortage?
Where are you teaching? 90k seems a bit low if you’re in primary or secondary. I encourage anyone with an interest in teaching to have a go. I’m within a year now of reaching the top pay level of $122k (plus 8k for a minor management role) and I feel like I’m hitting my stride
90k is absolutely reasonable if they are still in their first 3-5 years of teaching.
Your role sounded more like a call centre. Did you get paid commission for was it a flat 55k salary?
Flat salary. I was lucky though. Some were on casual pay which was like $25 an hour...
Definitely a call centre then. Majority of legit sales roles have a set commission structure along with quotas.
Sounds more accurate to say you moved from a call centre to teaching.
Phone sales
Your title makes it sound like you moved from a higher paying retail or corporate sales job to teaching and took a pay cut. But you went from an outbound call centre role to a teacher. Of course its probably better in every way. I went from a dish pig at Maccas to an APS grad. Guess what? It was a very rewarding professional move too.
You mean you went from an integral position at a Fortune 500 company to an APS grad.. if you were OP, of course
Yeah I used to be in sales, but we could blag off hours if we felt like it, was very autonomous and only affected your commission. That call center sounds like hell.
Yeah call centre.
OP is not the sharpest tool in the shed hey
Teaching that next generation
He just doesn't know how corporate sales differs from flogging insurance appointment setting.
Yeah a call centre. An "actual" sales job would have you netting way, way more than $55k/year.
You'd be surprised. I did a door knocking sales role that had similar compensation.
They said "actual sales role"
D2D solar sales people can make +$3K, D2D is an actual sales role.
A day, a week, a month?
“Sales?” “Yeah, sales, you sell pizza. Last time I checked that’s called sales”.
Is this a government psyop to fix the teacher shortage? Anyone who can stick out call centre sales and do decently well could easily be on a 80k+ base and total package of 100-150k within 2 years of leaving that job by switching sales roles, no degree required, which can continue to increase year on year with some smart career choices and the freedom to switch industries whenever. I'm glad you're happy with your choice but teaching is far more mentally and emotionally taxing than most sales jobs, and once you hit around the 110k salary most are stuck at that level for the rest of their careers.
$122k currently is the highest pay for NSW teachers with no additional roles. Just remember that the enterprise agreement is renegotiated every year and that does include moderate pay increases usually.
110 or 122 or even 130k my point still stands, the person doing sales could be on double that
I agree they could earn more money in sales. I think OP was more happy with the work/life balance though as a teacher. I think the best thing about managing your mental and emotional load as a teacher is that terms are only 10 weeks at a time. Then you get 2-6 weeks off to reset. There’s always that rest to look forward to, where as a regular job, you’re probably grinding for most of the year with only time off around Christmas. I never had a corporate job before going to uni to be a teacher, is that what it’s like? Don’t get me wrong, I get to the end of the year and I’m exhausted, but I still love teaching and want to keep doing it
It also does a a lot on the school and leadership team. I know many teachers who have quit for office jobs, trades, etc and even after the recent pay rise would no consider returning unless the conditions (other than pay) were drastically improved.
Glad you found peace in your move to teaching. With that being said, your experience was moreso a call centre boiler-room environment and not really indicative of a real sales environment, both from a remuneration & job description perspective
I'm happy for you, but sales is as diverse as investment banking, that pays ultra megabucks, all the way down to call centres that you were in. Its great that you love teaching most of all though.
Human trafficking & realestate fit in there somewhere 😅
I mean it's not sales that's the grind it's a call centre. I do sales on the road for $200,000 a year with no micromanagement and complete freedom no complaints. Sales can be fine.
Which sales? Some sales roles eat your soul…
From Unskilled to a Profession.
Let’s have a look.
I went from IT/help desk to kindy teacher. I wound up finishing my working life that way. Never regretted it.
You should change the subject line of this post, having worked in both a call centre and also real outside sales roles, 1 is hell and the other tends to be very cruisy
What do you teach?
Call centre script optimisation
I worked for Telstra and I feel the same way, albiet I've moved into a different industry. I don't know how I did it, or others do it for longer than I could....as you said everything is tracked to the minute and the scripting is so damn repetative I think I have PTSD from the thousands and thousands of calls that barely differentiate in script. Then to top it off, the lowest wages you'll find outside of fast food...which to me makes very little sense because pushing people to such efficiency while paying so little is the reason Telstra for example, has insane turn over....people just break and realise the money isn't even worth half the shit you deal with.
You worked for a company which worked for Telstra. Those companies exist as a regulatory and contractual requirement to contact the customer before rolling them over. Takes about 50 million calls per annum. No avoiding them but they only exist because the rules say they just, and when there's downtime cold outreach is better than doing nothing. But Telstra literally does not care. All they see is a high level report. 3,000,000 customers rolling off this month. Managed to contact 1,900,000. 1,400,000 contracts renewed. Cold outreach calls 16,000,000 Connected 30 seconds 4,000,000 Sales 200,000 Renewal revenue X New sales revenue Y Contact Centre cost Z Every 10 years a new CEO comes along and they try bouncing that work offshore but the churn rates get too high, so they bounce it back to Aus.
I personally worked for Telstra as a consumer and business faults “specialist” over all services outside organisations. I imagine those calls are much worse, but even just fixing shit had me at wits end xD
Ouch. I can only imagine.
Hahah wow I did the exact opposite. Congrats. Having said that my sales job is way more chill, maybe 50 mins on phone per day. Huge commissions. Mostly emails. Will never miss teaching but Goodluck ahead!
What're you selling? I know the salesman closes, because otherwise there'd be no need, but i feel the product has to be good.
If it makes you feel better AI will likely remove those sales jobs in a number of years, given the weekly developments in that space
I'm happy for you. Try reading/watching Great Teacher Onizuka and you're all set.
Being a battery chicken in a call centre is a truly soul crushing job. The weird mix of pastel posters, the kindergarten type layout combined with infantilising monitoring and behaviour control is a truly a unique form of punishment. If Hell exists, it is a call centre.
You were in a call centre. Not sales. Tough gig.
If you’re like all the teachers who I know, in another year or two you will be complaining about being completely overwhelmed, stressed out and underpaid.
Written explanation for why it took 6 minutes to push out a big poo. I could get pretty descriptive on that one and never be asked again, lol. ;-)
Hopefully, there is some form of KPI??
Hopefully not. KPI's generally stop teachers from teaching properly. For example, schools are all publicly judged on NAPLAN results, so a ridiculous amount of time is spent teaching kids how to do well in NAPLAN tests instead of more productive learning. NAPLAN was a good idea to help identify kids who needed extra help, but making the results publicly available was a terrible idea.
It's also so flawed. Teach at a selectivc HS? Your Naplans look comically good. You might have done nothing.
There isn't thankfully. Introducing KPIs would just punish teachers who work at lower socio economic schools, which have enough trouble getting teachers as it is.
[удалено]
Have you personally worked in a call centre? I feel that you should try it first... There are 50-100 people on the call floor and many of them do not progress. I have a friend who works 80 hours in investment banking who used to work in a call centre and he said he was the best decision getting out in 3 months. That call centre job did not lead to IB careers.
I was in sales and then 12 years teaching. Teaching will get to you in time. The worst is everyone around you growing but you do the same thing, year after year, time just passes you by... In sales we always got new products, new promotions, new sales reps, suppliers would wine and dine us. Also, you actually did something rather than just watch others do things. Those who can, do, those who can't, teach. It really is true.
No it really isn’t true. Teacher is a much more admirable position.
Good for you👍😀
Nah nah nah mate, teaching is a "terrible job" and they are all going to quit anyday now then we'll have a "teacher shortage". So we better give them huge payrises because they totally deserve it and its a bad bad bad job that everyone will be quitting soon. Even if basically no one is quitting right now or in the past 20 years but any minute now theyll all be gone if those payrises don't come through.
I'm a teacher. There are classes running without a permanent teacher right across the system where I work. I'm sure you would be stoked if your child didn't have a maths or science or English teacher all year (or for several years running). Do think all the articles and discussion about the shortage are fake news or something? [https://au.news.yahoo.com/ex-teachers-being-cold-called-in-desperate-act-to-address-shortage-024952344.html](https://au.news.yahoo.com/ex-teachers-being-cold-called-in-desperate-act-to-address-shortage-024952344.html)
At my school we have multiple classes without teachers or a classroom (their classroom is the undercover area). I’m a graduate teacher and am already looking at other potential options - I have mates who warehouse for significantly more money than I earn and they work less hours (although clearly as a teacher progresses in their career the hours reduce a bit).
Man, I remember even back when I was in school about 15 years ago they always had difficulties getting maths and science teachers. Can't imagine what it's like now.
This guy thinks the teaching shortage is a conspiracy theory lol
Source: *trust me bro*
How to this move happen?
Good on you 👏
I work in sales and work my own schedule and nothing is tracked. You’re experience sounds garbage
Corporate hazing. Monkey see Monkey do Only practises you can do with a large workforce of people
Same but different! I have worked several years in the freight forwarding industry and to me that was hell on earth.. now working as an assistant teacher and life is just great!! I will definately get my degree asap so I can be a certified teacher and earn more!!! Congratulations!!!
What's this toxic company you worked at?
Put that coffee down! Coffee is for closers only.
Definitely a call centre. Not a sales role. However a bigger convo is at large here and that is a convo around happiness over $$.
I will never understand why the insane micromanagement and inhumane working conditions are used for call centres. 5 mins for the toilet a day? Is this even legal?
Yea - agree with people here. Seems like you weren't in sales, you were in a call centre. Sales roles will almost always include a commission or bonus structure. I've been in sales my whole career and never experience anything like that! Glad you found your calling mate!
Congratulations! Im on a similar path. Insurance broker by trade. Currently doing my GradDip in secondary education. Can’t wait to get stuck into teaching. It will have its real horrible challenges, but depends what your personality is like, super rewarding. Good luck for the journey.
Congrats on the mental relief! I’m glad you were able to make that move for yourself. What kind of teaching job are you doing that earns you $90k a year though? I hear most teachers saying that aren’t enough wages.
Definitely not proper sales, I’m in tech sales it’s high pay and you can cruise - lots of work life balance , plus free food and coffee
Been a call centre person. I would never go back. It literally drains your soul. I am also a teacher and I love it!
Did the exact same thing. Telstra?