I live in Boise, a city that has multiple call centers, and I worked at a Verizon call center for about 2 months. I won't lie, it was a very difficult job. Some people are able to do it successfully, but for me it wasn't a job I wanted long term. On the other hand, I know several people who have worked in call centers for years, love their job, and are good at it. Some things to know going in:
First of all, the most important thing, and one I wish I had known up front, just accepted, and moved on, is the training is usually horrible and useless. I was put out on the floor after 5 weeks of training, and I felt completely unprepared. But people were willing to help me, the person on the other end of the phone had no idea I was clueless, and by the end of the second day, I had a pretty good handle on how to deal with most issues.
Two, there will be people who yell at you, who are upset, who call you names, and who are just overall unpleasant to deal with. They suck. But the majority of your calls won't be people like that. Most of the calls I handled were perfectly nice people, who were happy to find a competent person on the other end of the line.
Three, it can be hard to "leave work at work". One of the things I noticed was that people who work at call centers tend to spend a lot of time outside of work with their coworkers, which is fine, but when all you do is talk about the calls you took at work and the jerk who demanded you give him a free (fill in the blank), the job kind of takes over your life. Self care is important no matter what your job, and very important to sobriety. If you can't leave what happened at work at the door, then you have to consider that a call center job has the potential to be damaging to your sobriety.
Four, it does pay pretty decently, and there are usually lots of opportunities for overtime, which can be great for someone who is trying to get back on their feet. I also found a fair amount of satisfaction in solving the problems that people called about. I viewed each one as a challenge, and derived a sense of satisfaction when I was able to successfully solve it.
If you are someone who doesn't take it personally when people are rude or mean to you over the phone, then you sound like someone who would be great at this. It is a high stress job, but lots of jobs are. I guess at the end of the day, if you go for it, and realize you don't like it, or that it's hurting your sobriety and not helping, you don't have to stay. And side note, I had a huge outstanding bill when I took the job with Verizon. It never came up, and was not a factor at all in their deciding to hire me. Best of luck with your decision! Whatever you decide to do, stay sober, and don't be afraid to put your sobriety first!