ISPN Reviews

During the initial interview, they make it sound like you can have everything you would expect out of a job like this after your first 90 days. Room to grow. This is a big lie. There are very competent techs that have been there for years working 40+ hours a week and they are still tech 1. Full-time status with benefits. There is no such thing as full time here. Everyone works 40 (usually more) hours per week, and yet everyone working those hours is considered part-time. How is that even legal? They never fire anyone from this job, they demoralize you into leaving. The turn over rate is like nothing I have ever seen, yet it is justified by the environment. There is literally always a new training class going on. I am convinced half their business model is to get people to quit so they don't end up excelling to the point of actually treating them as full time, and so they don't have to risk paying unemployment. Case in point: there was a particular individual they wanted gone. How did they handle that? They changed his schedule on his day off and then berated him for missing work and being late. He quite two-days later. I could carry on and on, so I'll just say that this is a place where business ethics go to die. If you get on here you best fly under the radar, do a mediocre job, and learn who to avoid.

Oh, the cons: Environment: Well, it's a call center. Small workstations, poorly lit, uncomfortable chairs, and laughably dated computer equipment for a company that deals in tech. The call volume is usually somewhat overwhelming but not without it's slow periods. Provided you've made it through phase 3 training you can browse what you like in your down time. I assume this is to help quell the crushing boredom, both on and off calls. Part of the problem with the hiring of people with no experience is the very real consequence that some of your co-workers will be idiots and terrible at their job. These people will not be fired, they will continue to create work rather than do work. Work: Mind-numbing. If you come in knowing anything about how the internet or networking equipment works, you'll find it mentally painful how stupid about 80% of the people you'll deal with are. The ISPs are mostly small and rural, so there's a lot of people who don't know the difference between a modem and a computer. You'll be expected to walk these people through technical things and read their minds to know what they REALLY mean as opposed to what they're telling you (which is almost always wrong). If you work with the supervisors they're usually OK to deal with, but that's not always the case. Career advancement: It's a small company. Someone has to leave for you to advance. Upward mobility is next to zero. Pay/Benefits: Given that no experience is required, you can't expect the pay to be high. Even given that, it's somewhat low and well below industry standards. Benefits are different. You'll be told that you'll be given full time status after a 3 month probationary period. This is a lie. If you're lucky, you'll get benefits at 6 months. That's if and only if management deems you worthy regardless of how many hours you work. What are the criteria? No one knows, management makes them up as they go along. Benefits include paid holidays, insurance, and earning time off. People can work there for years without these things for no clear reason. Management: Laughable. Micromanagement is rampant. The higher ups are too busy running the place to know what goes on and depends on management to give them the status quo. Management will then lie to the higher ups about how things are going. The supervisors you'll deal with on a daily basis are hit or miss. Some you'll get along with, some you won't. Real leadership is non-existent. Just keep your head down and try to do your job, knowing that eventually you'll be torn into for some nothing little thing. Overall: The company essentially prostitutes itself to ISPs. You'll regularly be asked to do things that have nothing to do with internet support. Why? Because someone is paying them. I'm not sure any request has ever been turned down and if it has it must have been the most ridiculous thing in the world. Most of the end users will either lie to you or act like they know more than you while fumbling through the simplest of tasks. This is all somehow treated as normal.