Excuse my Accent!

I just finished the second leg of my training with the new company. I learned so many things during the 12-day training but there are some things that I have to change and enhance.

Of all the trainings that I took during my previous jobs, this would be the best so far. They focused on customer service skills which I think should be focused prior to product training. I realized that even though I've been in this industry for about 2 years now, I wasn't fluent and assertive enough to be an effective call center agent.

If you come to think of it, It's not easy to be fluent and assertive overnight. it made me a little frustrated because when we defined the communication styles, I found out that I'm a very passive person. So if you're going to change a passive person to an assertive one, i think i'll be needing to have 10 sessions with shrink to be one. Hahahaha!

At least I know what to work on but I don't know how to work on it. I guess I'll consult my "Bebe" about it or just be myself and consciously tell myself if I'm being passive so that I can change it into an assertive one.

As a Filipino, most of us are not fluent enough when it comes to conversing in the English language. Most of us are not confident wnough to speak in english and according to my trainor we should have confidence in order for us to be a very effective english speaker.

Knowing what you're talking about is also one thing. Based on experience, while starting on a new product, It will be hard for me to be fluent when speaking with customers. Kasi there is still doubt and also we're still unsure if what we're saying is correct or not. Fluency is one thing that we can work out over time. But in this industry, time is of the essence and we have to be fluent pronto! This I don't have a problem, I hope! (Is this passive?)

The thing that worries me is my accent. Our trainers encourage us to have a neutral accent. Not american, not british and not australian but a neutral one. An accent that can be understood by everyone. This, I think, is the new weakness that I didn't notice for quite some time. When I was working with my first call center, my colleagues already notice it but they don't look at it as a bad thing. I was understood and there were only few instances wherein I was asked by a customer where I came from. For the longest time, I thought that was okay.

For you to have an idea what accent am I referring to, I have a slight british/aussie accent. Sometime I forget to pronounce the letter "R" and the way I pronounce the vowel sound. For example, I read "are you joking" as "ar u jowking" with a rising intonation. Huhuhuhu!

It sounds convincing but I don't If am really aussie or british sounding bloke. It's not like I don't like the accent, I think the accent is Lovely, but it's hard for me to be conscious about it. There are times when I speak, I thought I have a neutral accent but I don't.

I need to do something about this. I think I have to finish all 6 seasons of sex and the city or the past 2 seasons of heroes! Do you think that would help? I hope so...

Sunburn! At last!!

Yahoo! Finally, i was able to hit the beach this summer! Courtesy of our company, which had their summer outing in White Rock beach resort at Subic last Saturday. I really had a great time. I was with my co-trainees, about 7 out of 20 I guess.

We left Makati at 7am. We had games while in the bus since it's going to be at least 3 hours for us to arrive at our destination. We had a bring-me game and I won a sunvisor! But unfortunately I didn't win the grand prizes which are the 1 hour Jetski ride and the 30 minute kayak. But all is well we had free Jollibee breakfast and videoke!

When we arrived in the resort, I immediately get my sunblock and put it on me. I brought 2, of course one for the face and 1 for my whole body. The sunblock that I put on my face has to have a higher SPF than the one I put on my body. While I was putting sunblock I asked myself, why am I putting so much on, eh my goal is to be burnt by the sun? Well, I don't wanna have skin cancer that's why I continued, better safe than sorry!

After that, we swam in the swimming pool, it's 6 feet deep and the chlorine irritates my eyes and I don't have any goggles, Shit! I swam and swam with my friends but got tired because I'm only 5'4 and the pool is a little deep. I kinda scared of the deep.

In the program, there's a little bikini contest. In that contest, which I didn't watch, there are male and female contestants. Some of them have good bodies but the one that setruck me is the transvestite in a two-piece bikini! Ang tapang!

So off to beachy again! I wanna lay in the sand but my friends don't want to stay in the shore too long because they don't want to get dark. I don't know why Filipinos wanted to have a fair complexion. For me, I love my color! It's very oriental and I will look even younger with this skin color. It's healthy naman na once in a while e humiga ka sa ilalim ng 1 - 2 hours di ba? Kaso nga lang di ko na nagawa huhuh, kasi wala akong kasama!

Lunch passed and merienda, I saw other who were rowing in their kayaks and I told them I wanna do that too. One told me that the person who won the free 30 minute kayak didn't want to do it anymore. Yes! I thought. So I asked him if I could use it, then he said sure why not! Yippee!

At first I was having a blast but after 10 minutes, my muscles are aching and I don't want to do it anymore. It was very tiring and I don't want to be far away from the shore because I might not able to head back to the beach. What's the phobia for the deep ocean? Alam mo b un?

The day ended when It took me about 15 minutes to look for my friend because she had my claim stub, of course to claim my bag so that I can hit the shower. It's already 5 o'clock and still I can't find her! Grrrrr! So what I did is I just went there and told the person whos guarding the bags that I wasn't able to find her and I need my bag. Good thing I have an ID in my bag so I was able to claim it without the number.

In the bus going to Manila, Since I didn't have ant sleep since 11 am last friday, I just slept throughout the trip. I woke up while we were in Bulacan and the movie that is being played in the TV was an indie film about Jueteng. So I watch the movie and asked the bus to drop me at Ortigas because that's where my "Bebe" is at that time.

I can't say that It was one of the summer escapade to remember but thanks to our company I was able to hit the beach and made me even more motivated to work for them and for me to concentrate on what I am going to do oncen i hit the production floor!

Well, how was it? I hope...

Good news! I started my new job last Thursday. I didn't believe that I'm starting again as a trainee. I was nervous at that time because I wondered what my co-trainees would be like. I also wondered if my trainer and I will jive or they'll just be plain professional a dn don't have a sense of humor.

So far so good! i really enjoyed my first two days at work. I don't have any problems so far with all of them. All of them are so different from each other but I don't have any problems whatsoever with regard to adapting myself to each and every one of them.

I like the way the trainers discuss things and also they kinda make sure that we understand each slide before moving on to the next topic.

I only hope that everything will stay the same since the foundation skills training will only last for 12 days. I also hope that I won't have any problems when it come to the topics that will be discussed on the following days since I had a problem with my previous training where I was kicked out and didn't pass the evaluation-that sucks-and didn't move on to the next training.

I'm happy with the way things are right now. Good trainees and excellent trainers. I think the only thing that bugs me is if I'll stay longer on this company and hopefully won't encounter problems once I reach on the production floor.

------> i always have my fingers crossed everytime I go to work!
------> maybe that's my secret... I hope!

Yuppie for the Nth time

I'll be starting my new job on Thursday. I'm excited and scared at the same time because there are so many questions in my head that needs to be answered. I don't know if my answers to those questions are enough but there's nothing I can do for now and I hope the answers that i have is correct. But if not, then that's another blog for me. :-)



a good company for growth?



I'm not yet sure. Sana! They told me during my orientation that it will take a year for an agent to be promoted to either a Subject Matter Expert or a Team Leader. Which not too long. It's good to know that I still have a year to impress everyone. A full year of hard work, stress, friendships, problems, good times and bad times. Hope everything will be paid off.



Right now, I don't know if I'll be promoted in this kind of industry. I don't know why I'm thinking this way. I know what I'm capable of and I know I can make it but there's something subconscious that keeps me from achieving promotion.



With my first job, I was so close to be promoted. Damn! I really f%$#ed up in that company. I had so many instance of absences and tardiness. But I already proved to myself that I can go to work everyday. Kasi with my last company, from the first day 'til my last day, I didn't have any absences or even a late. Yakang-yaka!



Is the salary enough for me to live?



Yesssssss-terday!



This is the big question, Will I be working with people that I can harmoniously work with?



This, I think, is the one that I'm really really scared of. Huhuhu! I don't know if there's something wrong with me or they are the ones who have some problems. When I was with eTel, i didn't have any problems with my TL, teammates and everybody else. but when I joined the other two... the problem started.



My TLs are always mad at me. My teammates don't speak to me. When i walk past them, it's like they're always saying bad things about me. I don't know why are they like that. It's not like I'm not trying to be friends with or at least have a very professional relationship with them. But there's something that I don't know that might piss them of before.



This time, I'll be quiet (low profile). I'll make sure I'll do good in training as what I did in the two previous companies. I'll concentrate and focus with what I am doing. I'll listen carefully to the instructions of my superiors and take them to heart.

I think I'm ready for new things. There are so many lessons that I've learned from my previous companies. I hope I'll be able to apply those at para maging maayos na lahat. Ayoko nang mangyari ulit sa akin un.

I'll just wait and see what comes of it. Maybe I'm just a little paranoid because at the back of my head, the things that happened before will happen again.

But this time, I won't let that happen. I know that there are people who'll be there for me and this time, I'll listen to them.