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West At Home is Now Alorica
For those of you wondering, West at Home no longer exists, it is now named Alorica.
I am keeping this page up simply because it was the first work at home job that I ever had, so I thought it might be good to keep up just so you can see the beginnings of my work at home journey, but please keep in mind that this was almost 10 years ago, and obviously the company has changed.
To apply to the company now, please see the link at the bottom of this page for Alorica's website.
Alorica is a legitimate corporation that has an on site call center as well as a virtual call center for at home workers!
If you are anything like me, in your work at home job search, you may have wondered what it is really like to work for some of these work at home companies. Having worked for this company, I hope to answer some of those questions here as clearly as I can and put your mind at ease in regards to what you can expect through working for them.
So below, I offer my opinion on some advantages and (perhaps)
disadvantages of working for West at Home ( now Alorica), as well as details on how to
apply and what you can expect to experience throughout the application
process..
My goal is to give you all the information you need in your work at home
job search and all the tools you will need to make an informed decision
about whether West At Home is the right job for you!
So what are some of the advantages of working for for West at Home?
They offer GREAT flexibility!
In my opinion, NO other company can beat the great flexibility in
scheduling that West At Home offers to their work at home agents.
Let me backtrack and give you a little background information on me so I can explain exactly what I mean…
As you may know, I was on the hunt for a job that I could perform from home…
I was a mom with two very young children and my schedule would change
from day to day and as well, my husband had a very demanding schedule at
work and it was never the same schedule from week to week.
So, I obviously needed something that would be VERY flexible and after
researching many companies, I decided to apply with West At Home first
because of the flexibility they could offer me.
I quickly applied, went through the training process (for me it was a
self paced program which took me much too long to complete, due of
course, to nothing but my own laziness and procrastination but more on
THAT later!) and was finally hired on as an independent contractor.
(They have since changed it to make all their independent contractors
“employees” of the company).
Once I FINALLY completed the training, I was up and running!
I found that I could go in and schedule myself to work in half-hour
blocks, so I could work during the kids nap times, or after the kids
went to bed. The flexibility was wonderful!
I also found that I could cancel my scheduled work shift as long as I
canceled a full 24 hours in advance, with no penalty to my work
adherence stats.
AND, if it was less than 24 hours in advance, I could still post my
hours on a bulletin board for an even trade or to see if someone would
be willing to take my hours completely!
I felt like I hit the jackpot!!!!
Very, very rarely did I have a problem with someone not taking my hours
because as I found out very quickly, employees at West are very hungry
to find hours to work!
Which leads me to … trying to get hours….
How Easy is it REALLY to find and schedule hours to work?
To be honest, I found that to be one of the more challenging things
about the particular project I was assigned to. It was difficult to get
hours. I can’t say it is like that for all the projects, but I have
heard from many an employee that they have to “stalk” the job boards
for available hours.
It wasn’t a difficulty for me because I didn’t particularly want a lot
of hours but for those who do, it may be a hardship. So that is
something to keep in mind.
However, I know of many people that are able to get 30 or more hours
with West, just know that you have to be diligent about getting to the
computer promptly on the day the schedule drops so that you can get the
amount of hours that you need AND the hours that will work best for your
schedule !
Many of the projects offer hours round the clock. In fact, the project
that I was assigned to offered a 24 hour schedule, making it easier for
those who worked a second job to pick up a few late hours here and
there.
What About Pay?
Pay will vary depending on what project you are on, your skills, experience, etc. West pays you by the minute for every call you take.
For example, some projects will be pay .20 per minute . Some will go as low as .14 cents a minute and I have seen them go up to .35 cents a minute.
Sometimes you will get phone calls for the entire hour , back to back with no break in between. Other times, it will be a slow call volume day on the phones and you may not get very many calls at all.
In cases like this, they will pay you a guaranteed hourly rate (usually minimum wage).
So you will never get paid less than minimum wage, and you can perhaps be paid more if it is a high call volume day.
Working for West (in my opinion) is not a high paying job. I would say, go in there expecting to be paid minimum wage, if it works out to be more than that, great!
For me, as it was my first work at home job, I didn’t have huge expectations and so, flexibility was the most important thing, even over pay.
However, if you find that pay is going to be one of the deciding factors in your choice of which work from home company you will apply to, just know that they may not be the highest paying work from home opportunity available.
What Types of Projects are available?
The company offers a variety of different “assignments” or projects”. Some projects may include taking calls for companies such as “HSN” , “Pro-Flowers”, or “Sirius XM Radio”.
You may be placing orders for customers, offering them a more expensive product, or simply answering questions about the product(s) being sold.
When I was working as an employee for them, I worked a project that basically had me taking orders for many of the infomercial products you see being sold on network t.v. and cable.
One of my responsibilities was to try to “up-sell” meaning to try to sell the customers a more expensive product or perhaps simply additional products.
I did however, have some customer service responsibilities such as checking on the status of orders or simply answering questions about the many products being sold.
The company will provide you all the information you need in
regards to the many products they sell so that you are able to answer
any question that the customer may have about the product or service.
My Final conclusion/opinion on this company
So, in the final analysis, this, in my opinion, is a GREAT work at home opportunity for either those just starting out in the “work at home” world, or for those who have challenging schedules but would like to pick up a second job on a part time basis.
Pay is not great, let’s be honest here, it is somewhere around minimum wage unless you get calls in back to back.
A friend of mine described it to me like this, “too much work for the money”…. so that is definitely something to think about.
However, you can’t beat working from home. I mean, let’s think about all the money you are saving on gas, wardrobe expenses, buying lunch everyday, not to mention the time that you save on your commute (or lack of it!) and the most precious commodity… time spent with your family!
I am very grateful for my time with them because it gave me great experience , which I then took to other work at home companies that I went on to work for. I am also grateful because it was available at a stage of my life when no other work from home opportunity was going to be a fit for me.
I hope this helps any of you who are curious about Alorica and what it would be like to work for them.
See below for more details on the application process to get hired on with this company….
Work From Home with Alorica
West Corporation has an site call center as well as a work at home option available to its employees. Over half of their employees are work at home agents.
Below are some details on working for this company:
Must complete the online application process to see if there is a need for at home workers in your state.
The initial application can take anywhere from 30-45 minutes or more.
If you are hired, before you can begin training you must submit to and pay for a background investigation to be completed, the cost is $29.95... You will receive a copy of your completed background check via e-mail. Next you will take an assessment in which you will rank your job preferences.. For example: Do you have a high degree of technical computer knowledge? Perhaps working in a technical role would be your best fit. Love sales or customer service? This is where you can list your preferences!
After that you will take a behavioral assessment, take it slow and make sure your answers are true to you. Don’t be afraid to present yourself in your best light!
If you seem to be a good fit for the company and they are a good fit for you, they will invite you to take further screening assessments.
After this, if you successfully complete the screening process, you will receive an offer for employment from the company!
ONCE HIRED:
You will be paid hourly for training.
(One note about the training, it is self-paced, so, one bit of advice... don't procrastinate and leave it all till the last minute, do a little bit each day, BELIEVE ME, you will grateful you did it that way!)
Phones must be free of any features such as call waiting, caller id, voice mail and answering machines. West strongly recommends on their website that their agents obtain a second line so that personal calls are not an issue while working.
You are required to have a:
and a
No cordless or cell phones allowed.
Benefits:
Flexible schedule. Every week you will be able to choose and schedule the hours you would like to work.
If you will not be able to work those hours, you can put the hours back on the schedule for another agent to pick up . You can do this with no penalty to your schedule adherence as long as it is at least 24 hours before your scheduled shift.
If there is a shift that you cannot work and it is less than 24 hours away, you can no longer put the hours back on the scheduler but you can post the hours for trade to see if someone would like to trade shifts with you.
West employees are eligible to receive medical and dental benefits.
Pay: ranges from .14 a minute to over .35 cents a minute with a guaranteed hourly rate (usually minimum wage)depending on the project and your skill set.
Employees are paid every other week, direct deposit is available.
For More information go to:
http://apply.aloricaathome.com/
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