A Part-time Job

John: Are you now working part-time?

Mary: Yes, I have a part-time job now.

John: Tell me about it. I need a part-time job, too.

Mary: I work for the City Bank as an online customer service representative at home

John: Online representative at home? What do you do?

Mary: Just about everything a customer service representative does, except that I work at home using my computer. I answer customer's questions on the phone.

John: Wow! That sounds convenient. Where are your customers located?

Mary: I have customers from everywhere in the United States, Europe, and China.

John: Do your customers speak to you from their computers, too?

Mary: Not necessarily. Some have computers and we speak from computer-tocomputer . Some use their home telephones or hand phones, but I always speak with them from my computer only.

Stacy: Please excuse me if I sound a dummy here. They call you at your computer using their cell phones? Don't they need a computer as well? Denis: No, they don't as long as they have a telephone or high-end mobile phone, or a blackberry. Stacy:What? What's blackberry? Denis: Well, black berry is a hand-held wireless computer which has all the features of a computer. It supports email, mobile telephone, text-messaging, internet faxing, webbrowsing, and other wireless information services. Stacy: Just a hand-held computer does all that? Denis: Yes. Computers have become smaller and smaller yet more powerful today. Stacy: I've learned something new today. But I cannot take a job like yours as an online customer representative. Can I? Denis: Perhaps you can. It's all up to you, Stacy. Why not give it shut. The good news is computer technology becoming increasingly user-friendly nowadays. If you put your mind to it, you'll learn it one-two-three.