How to Become a Telephone Operator: 5 Steps

How to Become a Telephone Operator: 5 Steps

Telephone Operators are a dying breed in the communications industry. To get one of the very few jobs left, you might need some precise technical skills.

Steps

1. Learn what the job requires. Software fluency, languages you would need to speak, and equipment you would operate.

2. Apply at your local telephone company.

3. Attend classes at your local college to learn telephony, and communications.

4. Develop some computer skills. You will be able to write the book on multi-tasking. There are no more wires and plugs to tangle with, but you will have to know your way around the software, and quickly. There will be several screens leading you to many different areas, including business, non-profit, residential listings and several long-distance searches active at any given time.

5. Develop these skills that you will need:

• Interpersonal skills that include great patience and tolerance.
• A clear speaking voice, easy to be heard when your caller is in a noisy area.
• Good, clear diction to be understood when speaking.
• A good, clear understanding of the listings and how to find your way through one city as opposed to another. There is general information available on many areas. For example, Phoenix, Arizona, USA is laid out in a grid with even numbers on the west or north side of the road. All "Avenues" are on the west side of town, "Streets" are on the east side of town, and run north to south, and all numbers run from a central point.

Tips

• If you are at a computer terminal, your software will be able to communicate with a public phone for diagnostic purposes. You will need how to use this software.
• It would be a great asset to be bilingual, especially when servicing certain areas populated by speakers of foreign languages. In the upper peninsular area of Michigan, it would be helpful to know English and French.
• Emma Nutt became the world's first female telephone operator on 1st September 1878 when she started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company, because the attitude and behavior of the teenage boys previously employed as operators was unacceptable. Emma was hired by Alexander Graham Bell, and reportedly, could remember every number in the telephone directory of the New England Telephone Company.