Old Blogs

I've been reading through some old entries in my Multiply site and I had this mix of emotions. I almost laughed at some bad grammar and typo's and scratched my head because of gruesome sentence construction. It really feels good to reminisce on great memories from the past and see how much I changed through the years. We will never remember all the details of our lives but journals, blogs or photographs help us remember and relive these memories. Below is one of the entries there that I wrote about landing my first job. (Edited some errors)

Unexpected Employment

written: July 17, 2007

After all the drama of whether to enroll or not I decided not to enroll and try to find a real job. I was browsing through the web one day and stumbled on eTelecare's Website. Honestly, I really do not want to enter the call center industry but I sent my application online just to test whether they would really call me after 48 hours or not. They did! LOL. I'mm a little bit rusty when it comes to these application processes so I showed up for the exam just to get the feel of it again. I graduated 2 years ago and my first year was a disaster; exams, interviews but I failed on landing a job before October of that year, so as promised I stopped job hunting, helped out in the farm a little and prepared my self for law school. June 22, I went to manila for the exams. Quite honestly I was expecting to pass the exams because they were just simple English grammar examinations. The real challenge for me was the interview part because I always mess up during Q&A. I passed the three exams; I passed the first interview, and then the second and the third. I was so surprised because after that they made me sign the training agreement already. I signed it because it was not really an employment contract and I could always back out if I wanted to. Before the training started July 16 I was really thinking about it. My mom advised me that I should accept the first job that comes to me. Oh bummer! I am not really thrilled to work in a call center. I guess I just want a job which will provide me opportunities for growth but I'm a little bit unsure if this job will give me that.

Anyway, none of my other applications showed interest with me before July 16, and not to mention I need to find a job fast before my dad arrives and sees me inside the house being a couch potato again. So I decided to suck up my pride and show up at the training. It’s obvious that I do not really have a choice. I looked for an apartment, but it was not ready for occupation up until Wednesday so I had to stay in Caloocan for the first three days of training. The first day of training came. My schedule was 3 pm to 12 midnight. It was not really that bad. I made new acquaintances and enjoyed good conversation for at least 4 hours straight. The first activity for the day was the prescreening for all the newbies in the training. While waiting for our turn we did not have anything to do but to chat with one another. Considering we do not have our phones with us, we will die of boredom if we will not do anything. I was observing people inside the room and everyone is desperately trying to express their thoughts in English. Understandable because maybe they are trying to be more comfortable with the language. It’s a just little bit intimidating and irritating to hear people using this very flared up, flamboyant accent which to me is just an over acted version of the accent they were trying to emulate. So while almost everyone in the room was conversing in English, pasaway ako nagtatagalog ako… belat. Soon enough, Marie and I was absorbed in this circle and pasaway kami lahat nagdaldalan kami sa tagalog…belat.

It was my turn at the prescreening. It went smoothly and then I went back to my seat, after a few minutes the trainer called me back again. At that point I was thinking they just forgot to ask questions that’s why I need to go back. The trainer talked to me outside the room and told me that they feel that I do not need the training anymore and I can go straight to the floor already. She asked me to go down the 12th floor so I could sign the contracts already. Yebah! Hehehe It came as a real shocker for me because during the prescreening I was just being my self and I was not trying hard to adapt any accent. I just spoke the same way I do every time and I guess being particular on my pronunciation and enunciation through the years have helped me a lot on this. I guess my peeps in law school were not kidding when they said I speak very well especially in English. So I went back to the room, said goodbye to Marie, Apple, Lot, Malyn, Jhay and Gino. I signed the contract last night. Now the Batangueno guy is back in his hometown tumatambay at gumigimik na naman and waiting for his start on August 6. Apir!