Back When I was an Office Girl

I honestly never planned to work in "tech". I just stumbled into it. I worked for a Telco, then helped my Mom in her business which forced me to learn how to make a website, make marketing materials, and figuring out how to use the world wide web for business. 

It eventually led me to work for a company that made websites/directories. I ended up as a product manager of the Philippine version of an import/export directory. It eventually led me to the yellow pages - the electronic version. 

The skills I developed through my career led me to work at the biggest search engine in the world (it still is!). Looking back though, what led me to work for tech companies was not because I planned it. I was led to those companies because of my quest to learn new skills.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in marketing but what fascinated me when I took my MBA was the different pathways you can take to become an expert marketer. At that time I didn't know what path to take, so I thought I'd do stuff to learn. My experience and skills led me to become a product manager (eventually program manager) and it allowed me to learn new things. 

If you're feeling lost in your career, perhaps learning new skills in your particular interest can be a way to grow :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Throwback Thursdays: Career Advise for my Fresh Grad Self

Remember when you had your career orientation just before you graduated from college? They advised all of us to have a "plan". The only thing that stuck to me from that class was to chose your place of work that's close to your home and to gather skills as you go along. 

I graduated with two degrees, AB- Political Science and BS-Legal Management. A lot of people asked me how come I didn't pursue law. I didn't because I already found it hard to finish my LM degree. I wasn't into it and at that time I realized I should have taken up marketing instead. And that's the reason why I got a Masters in Business Administration. It gave me additional skills to understand better what else I needed to learn. 

So that's what I did with my career. I went through the 7Ps of marketing in the different jobs I had. Much as I didn't really have an "end goal" I was happy in the roles I had because I continued to learn. What probably helped me was being part of the market development team in my first job. Our role was to break in new products in the market and that's why I enjoyed doing. I never really cared much for titles and funnily used different titles on my business cards depending on the market I was serving. 

My career was cut short because of my illness. My doctors advised me it was time to slow down and rest. It was too late when I stopped. I should have probably stopped after my first PE four years ago. I was fired up though because I liked what I was doing. My only regret is not leaving some energy for myself. On the brightside, at least I'm not a financial burden to my family. 

This would be my advise to my fresh grad self -

• You can reach anything you want as long as you put your mind and hardwork to it
• Don't be a slave, leave something for yourself
• Focus on roles that would help others
• Just keep learning
• Don't be picky on what you need to do, but draw the line if it goes against your values
• Budget your money wisely
• Plan your retirement from the beginning

A lot of my friends grew tired of their corporate job already. Working abroad just happened for me and I always knew I wanted to go home as soon as Miggy finished his studies. I was just surprised my career ended this way. I blog everyday to keep my brain working. My doctors made me promise not to let my brain waste away.

I think it wasn't so bad I followed the learning path for my career. I was happy to just keep learning since it removed the pressure of going up the ladder. Whatever movements I had was because my work and skills were recognized. It would have probably helped though if I was a bit more noisy about my accomplishments, but it just never felt right. 

The only way I could work again or maybe have a business is if my quality of life improves. My doctors keep telling me I'm still young and they're hoping they could help me get better. In the meantime, I'll just keep writing 15 to 30 minutes a day. 

PS I had 10 jobs before I joined the last one. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

It's All Coming Back to Me

Did you notice it's been very windy lately? PAGASA said it's amihan season. Wind from the North is prevalent and will last until March. The air is also much cooler especially in the evenings. We normally stay in the living room to feel the breeze. In the afternoons though it's nicer to stay at the basement since it's cooler. I've started to unbox my fabric stash and have been busy organizing my craft room. I hope to finish soon since summer is just around the corner and I know I have to stay somewhere cooler. 

I'm happy. I feel much more relaxed nowadays. I guess because of this the fog in my brain has been lifting. The past few nights I've been dreaming about forgotten memories from my university days and my 20s. For a few nights I dreamt about being in campus and rushing from one class to another. Remembered those days I had to run from Miguel building to the La Salle building to make it to my next class in time. I can't imagine how I managed going up so many stairs back then! No wonder I was just 85 pounds when I was in college. 

Last night I dreamt about that time I did part time work at Shell. I joined as a writer, but also got to learn how to layout a newspaper manually. At that time we were already using Pagemaker in our student publication, but they were doing some things manually. It was fun to learn so many things there. A few years later my boss at Shell tried to recruit me back. I decided not to pursue it since I was advised about the glass ceiling for women at that time (I heard it's gone now). My life would probably be very different if I chose that path. I still remember my former boss' name and found out she eventually became an editor at a leading newspaper. 

Of course, the fog also revealed some painful memories from the past. Ugh. It's apparently still lurking somewhere in my brain. I wish though the fog just kept it hidden. Not remembering is bliss haha. It's true that forgiving is much easier than forgetting. To keep it from eating me up, I just shifted my position in bed and it soon went back into the abyss. I just prayed and reminded myself that it's all in the past and those are just ugly memories now. 

My doctor told me I had too many major episodes (health). I also had too many major emotional episodes. I take comfort in the fact that those episodes (physical, mental and emotional) never broke me. My Mom would always tell me I'm an Apolo and I was born to be tough. I have many battle scars. I survived it all because of faith and love. And that's all you need :) 

Happy weekend everyone!

#BeKind #StayHome #VoteWisely

My Journey at Google, the End

Today is my 10th Googleversary in Singapore. I have spent a total of 5,529 days with Google since 2006. That's a decade and a half of my life. It's been an amazing journey. I have grown and learned a lot in the past 15 years. It's been the adventure of a lifetime.

How the Journey Started

I applied on a whim after seeing the post a second time. The job description was overwhelming, but something at the back of my mind told me that maybe I could do it. I submitted my application and did not expect a reply. I received an email the next day and went through months of interviews. It was like going through the eye of a needle. 

I pinged my Kuya when I was on my way to one of the final interviews in HK. I was very nervous since I didn't know what to expect. He told me, "If it's meant for you, God would lead you to it." At the interview I was asked to present a plan. At that time I didn't own a laptop and handed over a thumb drive. Haha! On the final interview I was super sick. My doctor wanted to ward me in the hospital. My Dad drove me to Makati for the VC. I don't know how I managed to get through the interview with super high fever. 

The First Month

I shed a few tears when I arrived at SFO airport. It was my first time to travel to the US alone. Good thing I was given directions on how to get to Mountain View. I was very nervous. It was overwhelming and it was quite hard to digest things because of jetlag haha. My teammates and I immediately formed a bond. We were all in a unique position of working alone in our countries. We naturally bonded because we had similar experiences and challenges. We still keep in touch with each other. I started this blog during a meeting with the Blogger team. I copied my first post from Friendster.

The Scouts, 2006.

I spent the next few months understanding the market. I started by joining a Digitalfilipino club meeting. I was familiar with it because I was already a member. That's where I met Sweetie! And then I was invited to the SEO Beercon. I realized then that it was important to meet the different communities. I traveled to Cebu, Davao and CDO and met many wonderful people who now are my friends. This continued in the next year. 

Digitalfilipino Club meeting where I meet Sweetie for the first time, 2006.

In Bukidnon during our Cebu-CDO-Davao caravan with Digitalfilipino, 2006.

SEO Beercon, October 2006. My only photo for that day with PDI folks.

Meeting Davao IT people, 2006.

Getting Into Community Management

Eventually I saw the need to help developers learn more about our technologies. I started by bridging some of our Filipino devs based in the US with local developers. What was supposed to be a small roundtable event ballooned to a huge session held at AIM. It was the start of the Google Technology Users Group (GTUG), eventually renamed to the Google Developers Group (GDG). The community grew with the support of tech companies who welcomed devs in their offices for sessions. Eventually we started to see devs create useful apps in the Philippines. Aside from apps, the communities (devs and bloggers) jumped into mapping the Philippines. 

TechTalk, November 2007.

DevFest 2008.

DevFest 2010

GTUG meetup on HTML5.

Mapping -> Crisis Response, Tourism and Elections

I almost drowned during typhoon Ondoy. I lost everything except my desktop (priorities!). When electricity came back I got to work doing crisis response. The mapping efforts of the communities became very useful. It was used for rescue efforts. Eventually the communities helped with mapping evacuation centers to help with relief. 

A mapUp in GenSan hosted by GBG GenSan 

A mapUp in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The mapping project was my 20% time project. I was lucky I was supported by the Map Maker team for it. The effort eventually gave birth to other projects, crisis response, tourism and elections. I was really proud when we had Filipino representatives talk about the projects during the Map Maker summit in Singapore. 

Geo Users Summit, Singapore, 2011.

Establishing the Office

I did a lot of community projects, but my real job was to justify opening an office in the Philippines. This was my 80% work. It was a great opportunity for me to work on the industry side of things. Yehey.com practically adopted me and helped open doors for me. I did a lot of trainings on Adwords with IMMAP, CICT, GoNegosyo, PTTC and brands. Eventually the office opened, but my heart was really into community management. I moved to Singapore before the office was officially opened. I was noticeably absent during the opening because I just had heart surgery  I told them not to wait for me and just go ahead with the inauguration. I always believed that I'm just an instrument to help facilitate growth. 

I left the Philippines with a big bang haha. We launched YouTube and had the YouTube World View Live with PNoy. We also managed to include the Philippines in the launch of the Chrome Webstore. That was a busy time convincing media companies to sign up as a partner. Also had to work with developers to create web apps for the Philippines.  

The Next Five Years, Southeast Asia

When I moved to Singapore I joined the Emerging Markets team. At that time I thought my journey was about to end already. I did not want to do sales and told my managing director then that maybe it was the end of my journey. He was so surprised with what I said and told me they wanted to keep me. They were really good to me and it was fate when my manager met my future manager in a trip to Indonesia. He arranged for us to have a chat and in just a few months I found myself moving to Singapore. 

To be honest the only thing I brought to the table was lakas ng loob. I had no regional experience, but I had to incubate the Google Business Group community. Taking my learnings on how the GDG grew, I challenged myself and incubated the first community in Indonesia. The country was a bit familiar to me because I visited it a lot because of my Kuya. Eventually I started organizing in Malaysia, Thailand, Phiippines and other countries. The key to growing communities is knowing the characteristics of what makes a great community leader. 

Yogyakarta, 2013.

GBG Indonesia.

GBG Malaysia.

Aside from growing communities I organized the gDays across Southeast Asia. These were 2-day large events. I honestly don't know how I survived organizing these events. Ahhh that was why I was so thin back then hahaha. I coupled the gDays with the DevFests during this time to help the dev team. Oh boy, it was fun. 

Eventually I inherited the Google Student Ambassador program and I now have over 400 kids calling me Mommy Aileen across the region (yup, even until today haha). Of course all the students are grown-ups now. Some have married and have kids. Others have their own companies, while others are going up the corporate ladder. I wish we could gather everyone again one day. 

GSAs, Singapore, 2012

GBGs at Search Summit, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2013

GSAs, Cebu, Philippines, 2014.

The Last Five Years, APAC Education

At the tail-end of my stint with the Emerging Markets team I was asked to incubate the Google Educator Groups (GEG). Of course I went back to familiar ground to work on this. We embarked on our first teachers workshop during Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). We proceeded with it since the weather was good in Baguio. We had a scare though in the evening. We thought the windows in our room was going to break with the heavy winds. Needless to say, in between hopping from the teachers workshop and GBG and GDG events I was doing crisis response. The response went on until after Christmas. 

After that crazy time I was given the opportunity to choose between moving to the dev or education team. I chose the education team because I wanted to continue growing the educator community. We had our first GEG Summit and Google Teacher Academy in the region. With Philip onboard I got to also focus on developing partners in the region to help with training. This was important so we could bring more programs in countries. I surprised myself with more lakas ng loob when I had to expand my work across Asia Pacific. 

Google Teacher Academy SEA 2014.

Me and Philip. Dunno why we were crying haha.

The Gaylas, my loves.

Innovator Academy SEA 2019.

The last few years I focused on developing more capacity across the region. I learned from the beginning that I can't do everything and I always got help along the way. I always thought that the best use of the opportunity I had was to share and expand this to others. I believe that's always been my mission when I joined Google. 

My friends would always tell me, "Madami ka na nagawa, magpahinga ka na." My work never felt heavy for me. I did everything with love. That's where I got all the energy. In 2006 I was asked to make a top ten wish list. I listed ten things I wanted for my country. I ticked off the last one last year with the distribution of Google Workspace for Education accounts for all DepEd students (and I did this for other countries too). 

I guess when I ticked off everything on my list my body told me, "Tama na." Promptly got so sick and here I am today retiring. I would have just gone on and on working. It wasn't an easy decision, but I understand now that Papa God is redirecting me to something else. I don't know what it is, but I know I have to go back home now. My doctors have also repeatedly told me that it's time for me to live a stress-free life. I love what I do, I love my communities and I'm happy to give part of myself in whatever I do. But the end of this journey has come. I will treasure all the experiences I've had in the last 15 years. It was my pleasure to serve. 

Thank you to everyone who supported me through the years, my family and friends (especially during the early days when I'd do events by myself), my colleagues, partners, suppliers, the communities, everyone. I tried making a list, but I might miss out someone so I just want to thank everyone from the bottom of my 8-year old repaired, leaking again heart, THANK YOU. I love you all!

CB////*Yr2/189 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/210 #NewG259 #Home17 #Xmas69 #StayHome #BeKind

 

The Future I Wanted for My Son

I couldn't sleep last night again. I was thinking about Miggy and his future. He had finished his schooling and was about to start a new phase when the pandemic happened. I gave him the independence he wanted so he could learn the ropes. I did that after I graduated and I was adamant about making my own career decisions. 

I had a lot of challenges growing up. Our generation missed a lot of school because of protests, the EDSA revolution, coup d'etats and typhoons. We oftentimes didn't have electricity at night so I had to do my homework by candlelight. It was a small sacrifice compared to what my parents went through, war and martial law. 

I told myself I'll work hard to make it easier for my son. I was hopeful he could have better opportunities in his future. I wanted him to be able to do whatever he wanted. I realized that after you graduate from school there's really a lot you can do. I plotted my path carefully and thought that was what I would do forever. I later on realized that it is a huge, huge world and there are a lot of things you can do. 

And since I had the opportunity to help pave a different future for my son, I worked really hard to contribute programs that would benefit a lot of people. I developed communities, introduced new technologies and also got to work on crisis response. The work paid off and I saw how it helped others and how it benefited a lot of aspects. I was happy because I felt it would provide a nice baseline for Miggy to work on. 

The landscape has certainly changed especially in the last two years. A lot of people would ask me how come I allowed Miggy to go back home after finishing his schooling in Singapore. He wanted to do his thing back home. I did not have it in my heart to keep him from growing. I cannot help but be worried though. What would his future look like now that things are stalled because of the pandemic? What will happen to the younger generation who are cooped up at home? 

We can certainly work on things that we can control (the micro-level). It would be immensely helpful also if the macro-level would be in order too. I can just hope and pray that my prayers for a better future for us and our country will be answered. 

CB////*Yr2/183 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/204 #NewG264 #Home23 #Xmas75 #StayHome #BeKind

Filling the Void, How I Ended My Existential Crisis

Two years ago I experienced a crisis. I've always known that the time would come I would move on and go back to my old life. It came to a point when I considered creating two identities of my social media accounts. I wanted to separate my work and personal posts. It seemed like a good idea and my counselor agreed. Eventually I realized that wasn't the right way to do it. I had to find a way to accept all aspects of myself. 

My friend Marv posted an article from HBR.org, "What Happens When Your Career Becomes Your Whole Identity". The article described exactly the existential crisis I went through. What made it the struggle worse for me is being far away from home. I always felt that I put my life on hold when I moved to another country. 

I super love my work. I thrived in the challenges I faced everyday. I'd like to believe I achieved a lot. I was also conscious about having a good work-life balance. I would usually end work by six or six thirty. The problem was I'd be so spent by then, I just ended up resting at night. I couldn't also completely turn off "work mode" because most of my friends were part of the communities I was managing. 

I only managed to put things in proper perspective when my doctor mandated me to stay offline. It took six weeks before I started to clam down. Another three months before I accepted that my situation has changed. And another couple of months before the existential crisis ended. This is what I had to do -

1. Accept that there are things that you cannot change. 

2. Accept that I was where I supposed to be in the past 10 years. Regret only provides value if you learn from it. 

3. Accept that whatever I did, however I did it is part of who I am and that's how I roll. [I give my all in whatever I do.] 

That is the problem when your career becomes your whole identity. I didn't ask for it. It just happened because I was chosen for the responsibility. I'd like to believe that the relationships that I've established would stay and evolve to a different level. Realistically it will change because I can't provide the same value anymore. 

My contemporaries from 15 years ago have all moved on. They all have led very interesting lives in the past few years. I just wanted to share today that we've decided to go back home. It was not an easy decision to make, but unfortunately the issues have left permanent body damage. My doctors think it will be better for me to recover surrounded by my family. I will focus on transitioning back home in the next few months. 

Day 7 Minimalism Challenge, Write your best qualities. Errr this is so awkward to write about haha. I guess I could say I'm flexible, creative, a planner, and a survivor. That's about what I could think about for now haha. 

CB///*Yr2/118 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/141 #NewG328 #Home86 #StayHome #BeKind 

Knowing When It's Time to Let Go

Break-up. Leave. Move on.  

Ending something is probably one of the hardest things to do. It always brings heartbreak and a mix of emotions. I have been through many of these painful moments, but I've always come out of it stronger and wiser. 

But how do you know when it's time to go? 

I must admit when it came to relationships it was always hard for me to let go. The reasons were always very obvious, but I always held on. I would just sum it up to what my Mom advised me before, "When you don't have the same values as your boyfriend, it will probably not last." I held on to those words when I finally walked out of a 7-year relationship. After that I just let God take over my love life. 

I had ten jobs before I found the one. My career movement was always driven by my quest to learn more. I did have my fair share of bad managers, but that's not what really drove me away (well, once). I had a list of skills I wanted to gain and that's what I followed whenever I moved to a new job. Key for me was to learn as much as I could. 

It's really hard to know when it's time to let go or pursue a new path. My Kuya gave me a list of questions I fill out whenever I have big decisions I have to make. He also advised me to do the St. Ignatius spiritual exercises to make sure that it is the right decision. 

CB///*Yr2/38  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/65 #StayHome #BeKind

How I Got Into Tech

I cannot really claim that I'm a "techie" person. I can get around stuff mostly because of curiosity. When I get stuck I get help. I didn't really plan to get in the tech industry. My path just naturally led to it. 

This looks a lot like the computer I inherited from my Kuya.

I was 10 years old the first time I got my hands on a computer. My Kuya enrolled me in logo programming summer class. Kuya also took the pains to teach me how to use a computer. Eventually I inherited his old computer. It was fascinating too for me. I used it mostly as a tool for writing, designing posters and publishing*.

When Mom got into exporting I discovered Dreamweaver. From my publishing skills I learned how to create a website. Then I played around with promoting the website on the web. What got me really fascinated about how the web would work for businesses was a class I took when I was taking my MBA.

My professor had us read Tim Berners-Lee book "Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web". 

I was excited to use all my learnings. My destiny was reset when I botched an interview at a premium furniture company. My dream then was to become a product manager. I overprepared for my next interview which was at a startup**. I got the job and that's how I got into tech. I just realized it's been 20 years since I went on this journey. 

I'm on sabbatical now that's why I've been thinking about where it all started. I think it's important to look back as you plan for your future. I've been spending some of my time uploading old photos. It's been a good way for me to remember where I've been. I hope it will help me determine where I want to be. 

*I was part of our university literary folio and newspaper.

**They weren't called startups back then.

CB///Yr2/6  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/33 #StayHome #BeKind