CORNER BROOK, N.L. — Tammy Callahan is hoping her latest turnaround to Baffin Island will be her last.
Before heading to Deer Lake airport on Nov. 6, the Irishtown-Summerside woman stopped by a job fair held by Sitel Group at Grenfell Campus.
The company is looking for 45 people to work from home, offering support to QuickBooks and TurboTax customers.
It’s part of a Prosperity Hub that Intuit Inc., makers of the two software brands, is launching in Corner Brook.
Callahan heard about the job fair on the radio.
“A full-time position about working at home, oh, my gosh, it sounded good,” she said. “Really, the dream of not having to go away to work.”
A heavy-haul truck operator, Callahan normally does a two-week rotation on the job, but was headed in for three weeks of night shifts.
She’s been working this job since April. Before that, she commuted to Schefferville and Voisey’s Bay.
To go from driving a truck to dealing with technical support issues would be a bit of a switch, but Callahan welcomed the change.
“I love driving, but just the idea of being at home and having a set schedule.”
She has office administration training, and has confidence approaching the technical aspect of the job. She considers herself a people person, having worked in banking and property management fields in the past.
She wasn’t familiar with Quickbooks or Turbo Tax, but that’s not an issue as the company will provide full training.
Gemma Dale, site director apprentice; and James Scodellaro, senior operations manager at Sitel’s St. Catherines, Ont. facility, were among Sitel staff overseeing the job fair.
Sitel has been working with Intuit for about two years.
“They had a vision to bring jobs to a smaller community outside of a metropolitan area,” Dale said about development of the Prosperity Hub.
Corner Brook was selected as the first location for a Prosperity Hub, through a combined market research effort between Sitel and Intuit.
Scodellaro noted with the number of students in the area and these being virtual positions, the companies feel they can create an entrepreneurial vibe.
The companies are looking for people with a strong customer service background. The Quickbooks online and Turbo Tax programs also require someone with a technical background who has the ability to ask program questions, identify a root cause and utilize their resources to work to find a solution.
Job training will be conducted virtually and involve four-weeks for Quickbooks and two weeks for Turbo Tax. This will be followed by a two-week nesting period where new employees work their jobs while being provided additional expert support.
“We strive to create experts, so that our agents are comfortable answering the questions that our customers are going to call in about,” said Dale.
The company also offers opportunities for advancement.
By the second day of the three-day job fair, about 18 people had visited.
Both Dale and Scodellaro considered it a good number and have also received applications though an online job search engine.
While they hope to hire 45 people over the course of a few months, they plan to start training the first 25 on Nov. 25.
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