"Name your own price and save!"
Who hasn't heard Priceline's seductive offer on everything from gasoline
to home mortgages? The Internet dotcom's popularity has resulted in
millions of families saving money, as well as jobs for thousands of
Priceline customer service representatives. Catherine Linscott is one of
the latter.
Working from a tiny cubicle among rows of similar cubicles at CallTech
on Columbus' west side, Linscott efficiently takes airline reservations
for Pricehne and fields customer inquiries. Navigating through a series
of computer screens to do her lob poses no problem for Linscott, who's
blind. In fact, she's so proficient that she's figured out shortcuts and
helped other employees learn the system.
A soft-spoken young woman with a sense of humor, she's also one of the
fastest employees at a business where phone calls are timed and
accuracy's vital. "I like it at CallTech," she said. "The people are
nice and it's interesting. I enjoy working with the computer."
Linscott moved to Ohio from Maine in 1995 in search of greater
opportunities. "Before I came here, I did clerical work for a trust
company," she explained. An excellent student in high school, she was
named to the honor roll for 15 of her 16 quarters and subsequently
achieved an associate degree in automated office management.
When Linscott arrived in Central Ohio to live with her aunt in the
suburb of Dublin, she had one goal, to get a job. However, she wasn't
quite sure how to start. Her aunt suggested that she contact the Ohio
Rehabilitation Services Commission, where she met Counselor Rob Young.
While in Maine, Linscott received services and some assistive devices
from that state's vocational rehabilitation agency. After learning of
her goals and abilities, and following evaluation at the Vision Center
of Central Ohio, "We decided that Cathy should participate in Goodwill
Rehabilitation Center's Customer Service Program," Young said. There,
she worked with adaptive equipment including JAWS voice-output computer
software, to hone her typing and clerical skills. According to Goodwill
staff, she possessed "superb" abilities in equipment usage and was a
highly accurate typist---two qualities guaranteed to interest employers.
After interning at Goodwill, Linscott was ready for the job search, with
assistance from Goodwill and Young. "I was interested in customer
service work." she recalled. Getting to a job, however, posed a
problem---she lives in an area with no bus service. Project Mainstream,
Central Ohio's public transportation for people with disabilities, was
Linscott's only option.
In September 1999, she interviewed at CallTech, a company that
coordinates and implements customer service programs for national and
local businesses such as Priceline. Linscott was hired one month later.
"I worked with an instructor from the Vision Center to learn the
building's layout, she explained. "I don't have any trouble finding my
cubicle."
Getting transportation to the work site, however, can be troublesome.
CallTech is located in an industrial park. Even if Linscott could catch
a bus near home, there's no stop near her job. She must rely on Project
Mainstream to get to and from work. Because of the service's
regulations, she must phone Mainstream every day to schedule her ride
for that day the next week. "I start calling at 5 a.m." she said. "You
can only schedule a week in advance and lots of people need rides, so I
want to get in early.
Transportation hassles aside, Linscott excels in her work, which
requires her to strictly adhere to a script while assisting the airline
reservation customers. She uses a computer with JAWS software and wears
a headset, like other employees, to keep her hands free for data entry.
Her supervisor told Young that Linscott does "a great job." In fact,
thanks to her abilities, CallTech has hired several other employees with
visual impairments, Young said. "She s been able to open doors over
there for several people," he commented. "It's really gratifying to see
her succeed."
Linscott wants to advance her career and someday move to her own
apartment. Her advice to other job seekers is straightforward: "Try to
find something you really like to do."
