Experiences of working in a call centre for a year.

Experiences of working in a call centre for a year. I thought i'd post this since I thought some people here might be interested. Using a throwaway as I believe if I post too many things from my real life on Reddit then I'll be found out! To give you some background I'm currently 22 University student in the UK. October 2016 I decided I needed to look for some part time jobs as I needed some very much needed real world experience as well as some sort of income since I wanted to save up and buy a car. I must have applied for 30-50 different jobs, all pretty low paying minimum wage jobs (supermarkets, kitchen staff etc). I honestly just wanted a job where I wouldn't have to communicate with anyone as I was too afraid to start stuttering so I applied for the most basic jobs. Didn't get a single interview to any of the ones I applied for. One of them was to work at a call centre for a bank in the fraud department, for some reason in my head I thought I'd just be writing up reports and I wouldn't actually have to talk to that many people, and the salary was great too (around £5 p/h higher than minimum wage) with an annual bonus of around 15% of your yearly salary. I thought I'd have no chance getting it since I had no experience in banking and my degree was completely unrelated (science based) but the next day they surprisingly emailed me to set up a telephone interview, which I did surprisingly well in (didn't really stammer much). After a week I found out I had passed the first stage and moved onto the second round of interviews, there I found out that 90% of the time I'd actually be speaking on the phone to customers who had been victims of fraud. My heart sank. I really really didn't want to do the job after that, no matter how much it paid. I was terrified as i felt like I was a fraud myself. However I thought to myself I'll just see how far I can go and proceeded with the interview anyway, during the entire interview my heart felt like it was going to explode, but in the end I didn't block or stammer at all. After a few days I found out I'd actually got the job and I was due to start training soon, every day I thought about calling up and disclosing I had a stutter, but I was too afraid of the confrontation. The training itself was mostly in the evenings after university and it just consisted of just listening in to other advisers and seeing how cases are handled, I did this for around a month so I didn't really have to say anything. But I knew the day was going to come where they'd expect me to make my first call. When I came in that day I knew it was coming and I had never been more terrified of anything in my entire life. The worst word I stutter on is my own name and every single call I have to introduce myself as well as the department I was in. There was a girl right next to me listening into the call just to make sure I did everything correctly and in case I needed any help. The first call I did block on my name as well as the bank but it wasn't for too long, and I just assumed the customer thought it was a bad line. However I knew that my secret was out now, and I expected the girl next to me to comment on it, but no she just encouraged me and told me how great I did. After a few calls I sort of said the introduction as one long word that just happened to include my name rather then actively thinking about my name which helped a lot. However I still stuttered a few words here and there but I was fine. I still thought I was going to get fired though since the calls haven't been listened to by my line manager yet however a week later I sit down with him and he just gives me a few pointers and makes no comments about it and says I'm doing a great job. I some how get through my probation period without being fired. Now a months later I've probably stuttered in front of everyone as well as on the phone several times. Sometimes customers find it hard to understand me but I always make sure I get my point across. Some days were really good and I felt great about my job others were awful and the call felt like I'm crawling through glass as I blocked on each word, sometimes I'd have to go to the bathroom just to cry. But I kept on doing it, I never missed a day and forced myself to continue. I would have meetings with my manager and every time he just encouraged me more and he said he understood how I would have bad days and good days. After around 11 months of working there I decided to leave as I was moving to a University that was slightly further away and I wanted to focus on my studies. I handed in my letter of resignation and they were really surprised they really tried any means to keep me from bumping up my salary by 15% or being more flexible with my hours so I can fit in my university work but I had already decided it was time to leave. I spoke to the senior manager and he said that he'd love to welcome me back at any time. After I left the place I did honestly miss it and felt like I learned so much there as well as learning a lot about myself and what I can force myself through. In the end I didn't regret the experience and felt stronger and more confident in myself then I ever did before. If there is something that you're too afraid to try, then just do it life is too short don't be too afraid about what others think and try to experience everything. I know it's a really long post, but maybe it'll be an interesting read for the one person out there. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any.