It's been three months since I've left my town to try and discover another pace of this journey called life; I never imagined myself adapting once more in a new scenario with different characters trying to play a role and become someone who plays a significant part, well I guess we are all part of this "show" and we're bound to do this again and again; because we are part of the all singing and all dancing crap of this world; and yes I've coined that from the movie fight club.
It took quite a while for me to adapt in this congested area filled with different kinds of people; waking up everyday hoping to make ends meet; hoping to feed their family; or just to survive, but to do this you must have a plan or a scheme to get through the day, some work their asses off, some use their wits to outsmart another, some would just bum around and still make it through the day.
I could still remember as if it was yesterday when I was scheduled for an interview for the company I work for now; I was kind of nervous and a bit shocked because I could not believe that a "punk-ass" like me would wear some sleeves, slacks, and black leather shoes, to give a good impression to the person who'll interview me; I was scheduled for 2:00pm but arrived 2:40 because it was raining and I got lost; and my luck does not really end there because I forgot to bring an umbrella so to sum it all up I arrived late and was soaked with water and still went on for my interview.
It went well since it was just a usual interview but one question bothered me and until know I'm hoping that I could get a chance to answer that question again; the question was: during my term as a public servant what were my difficulties and how did I manage to overcome them; well to be honest I lied to that person telling him that the problems I encountered was just time management and I've managed to overcome it by setting my priorities first for the short term and then make another one for the long term goals; yes I lied, because what I really wanted to tell him was the most difficult part of dealing with my job as a public servant was encountering "trapo" or traditional politicians yes it was difficult because you would never know their schemes and agendas you'll never know if what they're telling you are lies and would only benefit them or worse just to use you; I have to be honest maybe the reason for this difficulty is because It was my first time to work as a public servant ignorant of this kind of people; I wanted to tell him that for as long as we are not vigilant enough this traditional politicians they would abuse their power and use our ignorance for their own good for as long as they want; and until now I am still regretful of being powerless during those times I am still hoping to get another chance to show these "trapo" that we the masses can survive without their lies which blinds us from the truth, I didn't mention any of this to that person because I know he wouldn't give a damn about it.
After the interview I was told that they would call me after 24 hours to know if I'm in or not; I went home in our town waiting for a good news; I arrived just in time for the 6 o'clock news so I sat down in front of the T.V. and ate my dinner while watching after pigging out I fell asleep on our couch and went into a deep slumber, I woke up the following day 10:00 my usual time of waking up and saw my cellphone with 15 missed calls and 3 messages; I didn't bother opening it and went back to sleep I finally managed to rise on 12:18 and had the liberty of reading the messages to my surprise it was the number of the company and a message saying that I am scheduled for a contract signing on the 16th of June I was happy reading that because finally I could stop being a student/part-time bum in my family's house; I told this to my mom and made lunch for me my favorite "torta" eggplant dipped with egg and fried, YUM!
On the 16th I wanted to look presentable and sneaked into my sister's room and took some magazine to check what would be the latest outfit for men, too bad what I got was a couple of YES magazine featuring kris aquino and KC concepcion and 1 candy mag, so what I did was use my resourcefullness and browsed through the pages and looked on the outfit of the men and wrote down what they look like, YES I wrote them down, after reading a segment about a good SPA in laguna I threw them back in my sister's room and brought out all of my dress and it took me an hour to decide what to wear at first I wanted to wear my white MADBALL shirt pairing it with khaki pants and white adidas shoes and that would definitely make me look like a ghetto from NY but decided to wear again polo with sleeves and the same khaki with leather shoes after taking a bath and wearing this dress I stared at the guy in the mirror and admired him a bit fixed my hair and went on my schedule.
In the office I waited for my name to be called to have an orientation and to sign some documents after a few hours a cute girl called: "Mr. matsuuuka?" I immediately stood up and corrected her and she told me to enter the room where the orientation would take place; in the room I saw 2 women talking about their children 1 man in his late 40's,one teenager who kept on texting and another guy who happens to be gay who was in the phone having a fight with his boyfriend after a few minutes the same girl who mispronounced my name entered and went on with the orientation; the last part was the actual contract signing and she told us that our training would be scheduled next week.
During my training the same people were; the first part of the training was the communication skills training and an introduction of Canada since it was a Canadian account I was actually surprised to know that Keanu Reeves and Mike Myers were Canadian; I wanted to ask our trainer if he watches South Park or if it is still being aired in Canada; all of us passed this part of this training I've got an average of 97.68% it lasted for 2 and a half weeks and then shifted to the product specialization part wherein we will be trained for 3 weeks to know the system and know all of the products i had a hard time in this part since It was my first call center experience I didn't know what the hell an Avaya is; I didn't know what an "opening spiel" is and I didn't know how in heaven's name are we gonna convince a Canadian to have internet and use Long Distance with us; but fortunately I've managed to learn all of this and passed this part of training with an average of 89.32% lower than the communications training having those two we now proceeded for the call assessment wherein we would be monitored twice during a call and check how we handled it and if we applied what we've learned during our training I guess it was luck which made me pass this because almost half of our wave received an L.O.D ( letter of discontinuance ) for not being able to reach the required grade my two calls were just about billing disputes which I'm kind of good at; after these examinations we are now endorsed in the regular queue.
So now I am working in this company not really that happy because I find it really tiresome and our benefits aren't really that good, maybe it's just that I'm new or the system is difficult or the company expects too much from us in exchange for little benefits, so what I could see in the near future would be me looking for another Job or another company with the same industry or to go in Japan and stick to my dad's plan and work my ass off their atleast I am sure that the benefits would be heavenly; but still I would never forget the hardships I endured just to get in this company, the times when I get irrate Canadians denying their long distance calls and for unsatisfactory products, the times I defacate in their comforting bathrooms, and the times I snore in their snooze box and wake all of my officemates; all of this would be charged on experience
It took quite a while for me to adapt in this congested area filled with different kinds of people; waking up everyday hoping to make ends meet; hoping to feed their family; or just to survive, but to do this you must have a plan or a scheme to get through the day, some work their asses off, some use their wits to outsmart another, some would just bum around and still make it through the day.
I could still remember as if it was yesterday when I was scheduled for an interview for the company I work for now; I was kind of nervous and a bit shocked because I could not believe that a "punk-ass" like me would wear some sleeves, slacks, and black leather shoes, to give a good impression to the person who'll interview me; I was scheduled for 2:00pm but arrived 2:40 because it was raining and I got lost; and my luck does not really end there because I forgot to bring an umbrella so to sum it all up I arrived late and was soaked with water and still went on for my interview.
It went well since it was just a usual interview but one question bothered me and until know I'm hoping that I could get a chance to answer that question again; the question was: during my term as a public servant what were my difficulties and how did I manage to overcome them; well to be honest I lied to that person telling him that the problems I encountered was just time management and I've managed to overcome it by setting my priorities first for the short term and then make another one for the long term goals; yes I lied, because what I really wanted to tell him was the most difficult part of dealing with my job as a public servant was encountering "trapo" or traditional politicians yes it was difficult because you would never know their schemes and agendas you'll never know if what they're telling you are lies and would only benefit them or worse just to use you; I have to be honest maybe the reason for this difficulty is because It was my first time to work as a public servant ignorant of this kind of people; I wanted to tell him that for as long as we are not vigilant enough this traditional politicians they would abuse their power and use our ignorance for their own good for as long as they want; and until now I am still regretful of being powerless during those times I am still hoping to get another chance to show these "trapo" that we the masses can survive without their lies which blinds us from the truth, I didn't mention any of this to that person because I know he wouldn't give a damn about it.
After the interview I was told that they would call me after 24 hours to know if I'm in or not; I went home in our town waiting for a good news; I arrived just in time for the 6 o'clock news so I sat down in front of the T.V. and ate my dinner while watching after pigging out I fell asleep on our couch and went into a deep slumber, I woke up the following day 10:00 my usual time of waking up and saw my cellphone with 15 missed calls and 3 messages; I didn't bother opening it and went back to sleep I finally managed to rise on 12:18 and had the liberty of reading the messages to my surprise it was the number of the company and a message saying that I am scheduled for a contract signing on the 16th of June I was happy reading that because finally I could stop being a student/part-time bum in my family's house; I told this to my mom and made lunch for me my favorite "torta" eggplant dipped with egg and fried, YUM!
On the 16th I wanted to look presentable and sneaked into my sister's room and took some magazine to check what would be the latest outfit for men, too bad what I got was a couple of YES magazine featuring kris aquino and KC concepcion and 1 candy mag, so what I did was use my resourcefullness and browsed through the pages and looked on the outfit of the men and wrote down what they look like, YES I wrote them down, after reading a segment about a good SPA in laguna I threw them back in my sister's room and brought out all of my dress and it took me an hour to decide what to wear at first I wanted to wear my white MADBALL shirt pairing it with khaki pants and white adidas shoes and that would definitely make me look like a ghetto from NY but decided to wear again polo with sleeves and the same khaki with leather shoes after taking a bath and wearing this dress I stared at the guy in the mirror and admired him a bit fixed my hair and went on my schedule.
In the office I waited for my name to be called to have an orientation and to sign some documents after a few hours a cute girl called: "Mr. matsuuuka?" I immediately stood up and corrected her and she told me to enter the room where the orientation would take place; in the room I saw 2 women talking about their children 1 man in his late 40's,one teenager who kept on texting and another guy who happens to be gay who was in the phone having a fight with his boyfriend after a few minutes the same girl who mispronounced my name entered and went on with the orientation; the last part was the actual contract signing and she told us that our training would be scheduled next week.
During my training the same people were; the first part of the training was the communication skills training and an introduction of Canada since it was a Canadian account I was actually surprised to know that Keanu Reeves and Mike Myers were Canadian; I wanted to ask our trainer if he watches South Park or if it is still being aired in Canada; all of us passed this part of this training I've got an average of 97.68% it lasted for 2 and a half weeks and then shifted to the product specialization part wherein we will be trained for 3 weeks to know the system and know all of the products i had a hard time in this part since It was my first call center experience I didn't know what the hell an Avaya is; I didn't know what an "opening spiel" is and I didn't know how in heaven's name are we gonna convince a Canadian to have internet and use Long Distance with us; but fortunately I've managed to learn all of this and passed this part of training with an average of 89.32% lower than the communications training having those two we now proceeded for the call assessment wherein we would be monitored twice during a call and check how we handled it and if we applied what we've learned during our training I guess it was luck which made me pass this because almost half of our wave received an L.O.D ( letter of discontinuance ) for not being able to reach the required grade my two calls were just about billing disputes which I'm kind of good at; after these examinations we are now endorsed in the regular queue.
So now I am working in this company not really that happy because I find it really tiresome and our benefits aren't really that good, maybe it's just that I'm new or the system is difficult or the company expects too much from us in exchange for little benefits, so what I could see in the near future would be me looking for another Job or another company with the same industry or to go in Japan and stick to my dad's plan and work my ass off their atleast I am sure that the benefits would be heavenly; but still I would never forget the hardships I endured just to get in this company, the times when I get irrate Canadians denying their long distance calls and for unsatisfactory products, the times I defacate in their comforting bathrooms, and the times I snore in their snooze box and wake all of my officemates; all of this would be charged on experience
3 comments:
bahahaha! benta ka boi! wahaha!
mr. corporate attire man.
mr. callcenter guy
mr. not a student
mr. not a bum
-from bum, student, uncallcentery, and cant-afford-new-clothes guy
nabasa ko. haha. sipag...
haha! oni! ung damit ko nun sa tatay ko di ko lang kinabit kakahiya eh! hahaha!
see you soon dude!!!
to Anonymous
thanks po sa comment!^^
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