Call-boys and Call-girls

I was surprised during my last trip to Cebu when my Cebu-based cousin told me that being a “call-center agent” is a sign of “success” in life. The common stereotype of a “call-boy or call-girl” (as they are often called in jest) is that they are young and hip English-speaking college grads that frequent the local Starbucks and have enough dispensable income to buy a second-hand car.

I was surprised because here in Manila, the impression is that being a contact-center agent is just a job you take while looking for a better (supposedly, more respectable) job. Getting hired is easy plus the pay is pretty good; but, definitely, it is not a viable career path for most.

However, the trend of BPO’s looking for more practical and feasible outsourcing sites is causing an upsurge of development in ICT-enabled, BPO-friendly cities across the nation. These cities are now reaping the benefit of being favored sites for outsourcing companies. It has created a significant number of jobs across the archipelago and has enabled graduates to work well within their own provinces for the same salary, without the stressful traffic and the high cost of living in major urban cities.

The increased purchasing power of these ICT workers in turn fuels the growth of local SME’s. Sectors like housing, transportation, food, communications, clothing and entertainment have cashed in on the increased consumption, generating more revenues and more upstream and downstream jobs.

At the rate the industry is going, it is not farfetched to see the nation’s economy, both national and local, being boosted phenomenally by the ICT sector. The number of young and hip English-speaking college graduates with their own cars in places outside NCR will surely change how we, the less-enlightened people in the NCR, look at the contact-center industry.