There are many ways to explore careers in customer service, including joining finance and investing clubs in high school and college, reading books such as Mutual Funds For Dummies (For Dummies, 2022), joining the speech team to improve your communication skills, and getting a job as a retail clerk to obtain customer service experience. Finally, talk with mutual fund CSRs about their jobs. Ask the following questions:
- How did you break into the field?
- What’s the best educational background for this career?
- What skills are most important for CSRs?
- How will the mutual fund industry change in the next five to 10 years, and what can I do in college to prepare for these changes?
Consider joining SkillsUSA, a national membership organization for middle school, high school, and college students who are interested in pursuing careers in technical, trade, and skilled service occupations. It offers a Customer Service competition in which participants must "demonstrate their ability to perform customer service in both written and oral forms including telephone and computer skills, communications, problem solving, conflict resolution, and business etiquette."