MNCs repackage BPO jobs

One Night at the Call Centre’ glamorised it, while the media touted the industry as the next big thing, but BPO and KPO jobs, once the pot of gold early up the career rainbow, have categorically lost their sheen. The most endemic spin-off — now these ‘peppy’ jobs are being repackaged to lure youngsters with fancier titles.

Ankit Goyal, a 2010 graduate from St. Mary’s Degree College explains, “I was involved with the placement activity in college and have come across cases where students have refused to be employed by BPO companies. They pitch fancy titles like business analyst, financial analyst, technical analyst, medical processing manager, which give an impression of greater responsibilities. However, these titles are misnomers as you are asked to take mundane phone calls. Some of my friends realised what the job profile was after having joined. The recruiters position the job as being hands-on and involving analysis; there is very little of that.” Pramod Nandiwada, placement consultant with Reach Management Consultants agrees. “It was always known that BPO jobs were essentially back-end positions at any MNC. Today, fancy titles like business development manager or business analysts are being offered to youngsters who are seeking entry-level positions. Youngsters often face disappointment because there is less learning here and candidates climb the corporate ladder very slowly. There are hardly any takers for the jobs. Where the salary levels were once at Rs 10,000 or higher, they have dipped to Rs 6,000,” he says.

As a result, youngsters are now leaving their jobs with big MNCs. Tanvi Agarwal, HR at Avigna Consultancy cites cases of youngsters who have left their jobs with big corporates like D.E. Shaw and Dell. “Previously, the brand of the company held more value than the actual job profile. Now with increasing stress levels, lifestyle changes and monotonous job profiles, operatives don’t even want to get hired for the job.”