WATERVILLE -- Lisa Weese's path was set. She bounced from one humdrum job to another, she recalled, never really making progress and certainly not feeling the satisfaction that others expressed when they talked about their careers.

Weese would always have a job, she said, but never really a career.

But all that changed in 1999 when Weese was hired to work a phone at MBNA's call center in Belfast. Making nearly double the salary she had before and seeing opportunities for advancement, Weese worked her way up and her career took off.

Weese is now the human-resources manger for Global Contact Services' new call center in Pittsfield.

Thousands of Mainers have followed a similar path -- taking a job at one of the scores of call centers across the state and building modest livelihoods around them.

Maine has been a relatively good match for the call-center industry. Existing, empty structures around the state can be turned quickly into operations centers, and the state's unemployment rate -- 5.1 percent -- makes for a willing workforce.

"It doesn't matter what kind of background you come from," Weese said. "If you come in with the right attitude and ready to learn, we can provide you with the right opportunities."

Employers in the industry would seem to agree. At least three new companies -- athenahealth in Belfast, Global Contact Services in Pittsfield and Barclays in Wilton -- have either moved into Maine or, in the case of Barclays, announced they soon will. Ideally, the state would attract more high-tech, clean manufacturers with unparalleled wages and benefits, but the competition for such companies is intense and the process to land one is slow, said Peter Gore, governmental-affairs lobbyist with the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.

"In the interim, Maine people are looking for jobs," Gore said. "When we have new people interested in coming to this state we certainly can't turn away from those opportunities."

Call centers have helped turn around economies in communities like Belfast and Calais where economic development has been difficult, Gore said.

"There's a misconception about what call centers are and what they are not," Gore said. "There's also this idea it's a low-wage, low-skill job. For people who think along those lines, I would say, 'You've never interacted with the public on a daily basis.' It takes a level of skill. It takes a level of confidence."

Call-center companies in central Maine pay between $12 to $24 an hour, or $26,000 to $50,000, according to an informal survey. Most of those companies offer full benefits.

Maine was a magnet for call centers in the 1990s when centers such as MBNA hired thousands around the state. At their peak in 2000, such centers employed about 9,700, said Glenn Mills of the Center for Workforce Research in the Maine Department of Labor.

When MBNA (Bank of America) its Maine operations to its Belfast headquarters in 2005, several other companies, like ICT Group, which closed locations in Calais, Pittsfield and Lewiston, soon followed suit, Mills said.

By the third quarter of 2007 the statewide employment level had fallen to just under 6,000, he said.

"It's likely that, over the next year, we will have some growth, but you don't know because when these (center) closures happen they come out of the blue," Mills said.

Mills' employment numbers aren't precise. There is no tracking code specifically for call centers. Even the term "call center" is open to interpretation. Mills' numbers are based on employees that work at separate facilities that have the specific purpose of making and answering customer service calls. Mills estimates there are about 20 such facilities statewide.

And anecdotal evidence suggests the number of centers is growing again, which call center operators attribute to the success existing centers have already experienced.

"My clients appreciate the value of the employees in Maine, more so than in some other locations because of the values the employee brings to the job for our customer," said Roberta Lepper, director of operations for Access Worldwide Communication's call center in Augusta.

"They want to do well. That's what so unique about the employees in Maine. It's a different culture."

Many of the companies coming into Maine deal with high-end finance and insurance companies and require a staff that is already trained in those areas, said Peter DelGreco, a director at Maine & Co., which helps companies looking to relocate or expand into Maine. "The types of centers that thrive here require low turnover and employee stability," he said. "To do that, they need to pay and have benefits."

As companies seek to escape the higher cost of doing business in Boston and more urban settings, Maine offers an ample workforce that can live on less to maintain a similar standard of living, said John Richardson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.

Maine, thanks in large part to companies like MBNA and ICT Group, also has a number of facilities that have already been wired to serve as call centers for a reasonable price, Richardson said.

All of those factors were certainly important to Global Contact Services' officials as they considered moving into Pittsfield with 200 jobs earlier this year, said Greg Alcorn, the company's CEO. The company moved into a facility once occupied by ICT Group and hired many of ICT's former employees.

"There was that experience that was already there, but it wasn't fully utilized, so we felt like it was a good match for us," Alcorn said. "We'rea people business. We rely on the communication skills and work ethic of our staff."ICT Group continues to operate a call center in Wilton and is one of that community's largest employers, with 240 workers.

The company tapped a gold mine of available, skilled and dedicated workers when it opened its doors in Wilton in 1998, said Melissa Mitchell, the center's Contact Center.

Lepper, who worked in other call centers in Maine before joining Access Worldwide, believes that skill and dedication stems from Maine's manufacturing heyday.

"A lot of people who worked (at Digital) came here," she said. "They bring with them so much of the skills you need to be a good employee."

When Access Worldwide was looking to expand in 2004 Lepper touted the Maine work ethic to successfully argue for setting up in the old Digital building in Augusta. The company now employs about 100 people.

"The building was laying empty and the people that worked there were out of work," Lepper said. "It offers good full-time employment for people who may not be working, but it's definitely a new way of life for people used to manufacturing."

Lisa G. Martin, executive director of the Manufacturers Association of Maine, believes call centers can help fill voids left when manufacturers leave, but says Maine must remain committed to training employees to meet the growing needs of manufacturers. Manufacturing remains one of the highest paying employment sectors in the state, but there is a dearth of qualified workers.

"If we had 1,000 skilled workers today we could employ every one of them," Martin said.

But she appreciates the opportunities for advancement many call centers offer and skills they teach that can be plied in growth industries such as financial institutes or health care.

"There's always a role for different sectors," Martin said.

Mark Nolan, general manager for T-Mobile's customer care center in Oakland, which employs more than 800 people, believes Maine workers have played a crucial role in earning seven consecutive highest rankings for customer care from J.D. Power and Associates.

"We are very happy," Nolan said. "We love this area and the people."

That kind of company satisfaction can spread well beyond call centers, said Gore of the Maine chamber.

"The work ethic of the Maine people spreads," Gore said. "It may be a manufacturing company would say, 'That's the kind of workers we need.' It increases exposure."

Attracting call centers into Maine will not ultimately fix all of the state's economic woes, but they can help provide primary and secondary jobs, and attract a critical mass of workers and infrastructure that will lead to more business opportunities, said Maine & Co.'s DelGreco.

"They fit nicely into the economic makeup of a region," he said. "I'm not convinced you can have a region based solely on call centers, but if you look at the spectrum of companies, having a call center in the middle of that makes sense."

Craig Crosby--487-3288

ccrosby@centralmaine.com