....but what in the Bloody Hell does a BPO Job have to do with a Career?
Had a charming little chinwag today with an HR rep (let’s call her Susan – she looked like a Susan) from a BPO company in Malta. Yes, Malta. The island where dreams go to be taxed, tanned, and underpaid.
Susan, with the earnest sparkle of someone who just discovered Canva, explained to me that this particular BPO company – Besedo, for the curious – offers “tremendous career opportunities.”
Ah yes. Minimum wage by law, maximum demands by fantasy. Classic.
Career Opportunities, You Say?
Let me paint the picture:
You start as a Content Moderator – a glorified digital janitor for the internet’s darker urges. But fret not! If you show promise (and survive), you might be promoted to Senior Moderator – where you do exactly the same thing, but with a title that sounds slightly more LinkedIn-worthy
Eventually, if you're really lucky (or everyone else quits), you might ascend to Team Lead, where you gain the right to schedule lunch breaks and send passive-aggressive emails about keyboard hygiene.
Ah yes, career progression, BPO-style. It’s like climbing the corporate ladder… only the ladder is made of damp cardboard and leads to a slightly taller pile of other people’s burnout.
The Demands? Oh Darling, They’re Hilarious.
Let’s review what Susan expects of me, the ideal candidate:
Fluent in multiple languages, resilient to stress (whatever that means when your job is to moderate hate speech for 8 hours)
flexible with working hours (read: good luck having a life), highly empathetic, yet somehow unshakable and of course, tech-savvy, culturally aware, emotionally intelligent, and happy with a salary that allows you to live in a converted broom closet in Lisbon.
In return? You get exposure. Not the kind that builds your brand – the kind that gives you vitamin D deficiency and existential dread. Let’s Be Honest. This isn’t a career. It’s a mildly soul-eroding loop dressed up in corporate jargon and punctuated with birthday cupcakes in the break room. And that’s fine. Really.
Just don’t wrap it in tinsel and call it “professional growth.” It’s not a career ladder – it’s a hamster wheel with a LinkedIn filter.
So, Am I Just Old and Cynical? Absolutely. But maybe also right. Thoughts?
Do we really need to keep pretending that every job is a golden stepping stone to glory? Or can we finally call a spade a spade – and a BPO job a survival gig?
Drop your opinions below. Bonus points if you’ve ever escaped one of these “career paths” with your sanity intact.
Add comment
Comments