Support sucks :(

Oct 5, 2020 48 Comments

Not sure if any people can relate, but I feel like I got tricked into a billing support role at my company, which is feeling more and more like a "call center" job after our case volume went up during the pandemic. Don't get me wrong, Microsoft is a top company, but I can't help but feel deceived after I was initially recruited as part of their college hires program last year. It was junior year back in 2018 and a Microsoft recruiter direct messaged me on LinkedIn about an awesome opportunity to join the Microsoft Academy of College Hires (MACH), which is now known as the Microsoft Aspire program. I was super excited and we had phone interview and then they flew me in for on-site interview, which was all a great experience. Not once did they mention that this would be a "call center" kind of job. It was only when I accepted the offer and finished the onboarding did I find out I got placed on the billing subscription support team. This opened my eyes to the reality on how little they cared about the candidate's well-being. I was especially frustrated to only find out about my actual role after 3 weeks already at the company. Like seriously! I was not even asked about my preferences and just got placed into billing support job :(

I don't think I would have taken the offer if I knew I was going to be "the billing support guy" at the company. No disrespect to my colleagues who work on this team, but it has been absolute hell ever since I completed the training and put on the queue for customer calls. It has just been non-stop customer complaints and accumulating caseload day-in-day out, including night and weekend shifts. We keep getting reminder about customer satisfaction and blah blah blah but my mental health is really suffering here. I really did not expect such a bad experience and really don't think I will work in a customer support job again. My friend who also got tricked into customer support role told me about Blind and I decided to join so that I can vent and share about my experience here.

I think I will look for career change soon and would appreciate any advice on how to get out of billing support. For anyone in a similar situation, I strongly advise asking clarity about the role and team you're applying for before accepting any offers. This was also partially my mistake for not asking clearly during the interviews.

I am now looking for UX/UI design and front-end web developer roles. Any help to get me through this difficult time is greatly appreciated.

--
Edit/update (5/1/21): I interviewed and accepted a L60 offer to join the Azure Identity team as a Content Developer 2! Tc: 102k base / Hoping for better things ahead :)

#burnout #depression #mentalhealth

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TOP 48 Comments
  • Apple
    aapel

    Go to company page Apple

    aapel
    WAIT! You just flew to give an interview and you did not ask about the role or anything?? LOL
    Oct 7, 2020 7
    • Exactly and that was the situation 100%. So what would be your advice if I am trying to transition out of the support org and more into dev or design roles?
      Oct 15, 2020
    • Gap
      baazinga

      Go to company page Gap

      baazinga
      If you really want to move start applying asap..even if its a TC hit you need to take to move do it..the more time u r in support the more difficult to move out..i have seen people stuck in support first resign and then search for job as support doesnt give u enough time to prepare though i wouldn’t advise that in current market...but sadly you will need to spend the extra time, prepare and move...best is to see if you can code some manual process in your current team to automation to keep up ur coding skills until then..
      Oct 15, 2020
  • TC please? 150k?
    Oct 5, 2020 5
  • Don’t lose heart. Leetcode your way out of it
    Oct 17, 2020 2
    • Thanks for the encouragement. Do you think leetcode is sufficient preparation for technical interviews or should I sign up for a CS bootcamp too?
      Oct 18, 2020
    • Amazon
      hatt

      Go to company page Amazon

      hatt
      Leetcode is enough, start with it and you will get the idea of how deep leetcode is and how long it takes to prepare
      Oct 18, 2020
  • This is a pretty common experience for college hires who are just put into random teams without getting their interests into account and then you have a whole bunch of hires who won't be putting their 100 percent into the job and would spend their time leetcoding to move internally or get out of the company. Role clarity, technical trainings, how promos happen nothing is informed.
    Oct 11, 2020 2
  • Humana
    bleop

    Go to company page Humana

    bleop
    Seems weird. Why does MSFT want to spend all this extra money filling call center positions? What is the benefit to them?
    Oct 5, 2020 3