Job roles and descriptions

I started in the Contact Centre 10 years ago working 20 hours a week. At the time that suited me as I had 3 young children so I only wanted to work while they were at school. Now that the boys have grown up I work full time. I love speaking to people, and get a real buzz in turning around awkward calls.

The staff are really supportive and there is always help on hand. In fact, I am a mentor now to new staff! You need to have a lot of knowledge, but once you become more experienced there is the potential to earn a lot of money through the bonus scheme. Every day is a new day as you don’t have any admin work that you carry over. The CC is what you make it – I have just been promoted to another department!

I have worked full time in the Contact Centre now for just over a year. After finishing my degree at Uni in Film and Media Studies, I moved to Edinburgh and started working in SW after my brother recommended it – he works here too.

The best thing about working here are the people – there is a really friendly atmosphere, and the managers are on your side and always trying to help develop you. What you do is constantly monitored so there is no room for laziness, but there is some flexibility when you need it and you are responsible for your actions. But there are no restrictions on the time spend on calls or wallboards buzzing in the background, so it isn’t at all like what people imagine call centres to be!

I have been full time in the CC for 1 year now, but I am reducing my hours when I go to University this year. Working here helped me to decide that I wanted to do Business Studies at Uni – it gave me a real flavour of what it's like to run a business. With the bonus potential, working part time can give me a salary equivalent to being full time so it's ideal to continue working here, and I can increase my hours during the holidays. After Uni, I plan to become self employed – I would love to open a comic shop!

I’m now a mentor as I am multi-skilled, and have managed to achieve this within a fairly short period of time. I like the diversity of each call, although you do tend to get the brunt of complaints as you are the first point of contact. We are trained on how to deal with these types of calls, so I am comfortable with them now. The facilities here are great – you can use the gym at lunch time, or relax by having a game of pool in the canteen.

I moved over to Edinburgh from Ireland with my boyfriend in February of this year and had previously working in the travel industry so I had no financial services experience at all. I had 4 weeks of intense training and am now a fully fledged member of the team. I love it here – it's definitely the best atmosphere I have ever worked in, and the managers are all really supportive.

I have been working here since December after finishing my degree in Accountancy & Finance last year. There are lots of opportunities for progression within SW – I hope to do my professional finance exams at some point.

Best thing about working here is definitely the onsite Starbucks Coffee shop! The shift patterns are fine – except when you have to work till 6pm on a Friday night and everyone else is going to the pub!