I am a lowly telemarketer.... am I a loser?

[expatriot]

You think I am annoying with my self-promoting "How old are you?" poll threads, do you own a Capital One card?

If so, have you ever been on an annoying calling list for some crappy accidental death and dismemberment insurance from Stonebridge Life Insurance Company?

Here I am, a college graduate whose major in college was officially English Lit but in practicality was political political activism, doing a job that high school kids and ex-felons seem to do best.

I actually have two jobs, during the school year I am a fulltime substitute teacher and then after school I am a telemarketer. In the summer all I do is telemarketing. It wasn't always like this. Last year, during the elections I worked for a number of candidates doing odd jobs, webpages, etc. and I worked fulltime for Kerry-Edwards and the Arizona Coordinated Campaign for the last month of it.

I was actually a fulltime teacher once, I taught fourth grade down here emergency certified for a year not long after my wife and I (who wasnt my wife at the time) moved down to this hellhole of Yuma after we both graduated from Iowa State in August of 2000. She got a great job down here as a park ranger in a state historic park and I just thought I was condemned to be a teacher. I was a teacher for a year but I was killing myself, I have severe adhd and was teaching 28 fourth graders in a room that wasn't even mine. IT was the art room., with the art teachers stuff in it and so i had no storage space anyway that is a long story. I got through the year with everyone loving me but it was a house of cards ready to collapse... i was diagnosed with crohn's disease that year that really exploded because of the stress. I was throwing up every night, having breakdowns every night because I loved my kids so much and was crippled under the idea that I was failing them. out of 28 kids, only 2 didn't qualify for free lunch.

I then thought, hey, I should try high school but this time I am going to be fully certified before I take a job. So I subbed at the high school level and loved it. I started taking evening classes to get certified. Then warclouds gathered over Iraq and I returned to activism but still took my classes and subbed fulltime but then I did my stucent teaching and it hit me like a ton of bricks.... the same panic, the same fear that I was letting these kids down returned... I knew that high school would be the same thing. So I decided to keep subbing fulltime but this was now the spring of 2004 and I was consumed with political fervor. I fought hard for local candidates and national and thought I may get a political job, but that is not really my first and utmost passion.... that is art. So I keep getting tossed and turned around in my passions, http://www.manicprogressivemedia.com.... I can't seriously pursue my art because I don't have any training in the commercial aspects of graphic design or illustration or anything like that and god knows I cant go back to school again, i cant put my wife through that again, she is the unsung hero of this all... i truly don't deserve her... I am a burden she does not deserve but she is so graceful and supportive. someday I am afraid she will see the truth and leave me.

I'm calling Capital One cardholders today to let you know you about a group insurance plan with up to one million dollars of accidental death and dismemberment insurance. Now Capital One is going to pay for the first three months of coverage for you....

[MissMillie]

1. not if you're good at what you do

just please don't call my house.

[MrModerate]

2. Well, I guess I feel your pain . . .

But if you call me, I'm still gonna hang up on you.

[ewagner]

3. The first priority

of any living organism....is survival.

You're doing that quite well. No need to be down on yourself at all.

[undeterred]

4. I did telemarketing for a few weeks once- selling extended warrantys

on cars. There was a script we had to follow and it was misleading- which I pointed out to the supervisor. I lasted about three weeks and made two sales before I was fired.

I have a lot of education and never thought I'd end up working in a call center, but I've done it a few times. I won't knock it at all.

Get whatever you can out of it- certainly customer service skills are always good. You're not a loser.

I'm shocked that Capital One hasn't totally outsourced to India by now!