Let's see... airline reservations agent (outsourced, but still...). Moved up to supervisor, then had to leave due to personal reasons (i.e. family despised my crazy schedules
). This job was what sparked my love for aviation, by the way.
A couple of unrelated jobs... then landed a gig as travel agent. The job itself was fun, but the workplace sucked. So I went back to airline res at the same place it all started. That job rocked.
It was all fun and games - then the airline was bought out by a larger airline (
merger my arse), and they decided to keep the larger airline's vendor. So my employer moved me to another account, with an online travel agency. Which was not bad, but they pretty much cut my paycheck in half -- and managed to get away with it legally, the bastards...
I was fresh out of training, when I left for a brick-and-mortar corporate travel agency, hoping to improve my financial situation. And I did - just barely. It's a challenging job, and I definitely learned a lot. But I was certainly not being compensated accordingly, as you may recall from my many postings in the 'state of the job' thread.
So after a couple of years, I did what every former call center employee swears they will never ever do -- I went back to the call center business. (Hey, it's a different call center, at least...) The client is an online travel agency, and we handle corporate accounts. As an aside, it's the same one I worked for at the previous call center, only those were leisure bookings.
I landed a promotion after six months, and now I do customer support -- basically, when a customer has an issue, I have to put my detective hat on, find out what/where/when/why/how things went wrong, and solve the issue. Quite fun, actually, even if sometimes I feel like slapping people upside the head.
I can say this is the best workplace I've had so far. The salary is great, the benefits are better than average, I'm doing what I like for a living, and with a good work schedule to top it off...
But you know how merger-crazy the travel industry is... and it turns out this online travel agency was bought out by a bigger agency... and they are consolidating vendors... I think you know where this is going now.
We were told just this week that the client is not renewing the contract with the call center. We still have several months left, and then it appears we will all be transferred to a new account, so it's not like I'll be out of a job. But still, it feels like history repeating itself.
So come August, who knows? Word on the street is that the new account is related to air cargo -- something new to try, I guess. For the time being, I intend to stay put until I get my college degree, which should happen in a year or so. Then we'll find out what will be the next chapter of this adventure
Money can't buy happiness; but it can get you flying, which is pretty much the same.