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

When to Let Go and Step Down

There's been unrest in our alumni association for a few years now. An anomaly was uncovered regarding the use of the funds. A previous election did not wipe out the officers who did it and there was a lot of talk there was some wrongdoing their too. Changes were made on how the elections are done to allow more alumni to vote. My sister's batch did a lot of recruitment to ensure we get better results for this elections. It happened last weekend. The funny thing is there's delay again in announcing winners. 

Sounds familiar noh? That's what happens when power gets to your head. Falling in love with power leads to greed. I often wonder why people can't just let go when it's time. If you're worried about continuity for your projects, there are many talented and skilled people out there. Don't hoard power because that stunts growth. 

Last year when I was still employed, but on medical leave I realized I wasn't getting any better. I started to worry about my team since nobody was taking care of their needs. I was asked whether I wanted to transfer them to someone else. I let them go because I knew they deserved to be cared for and learn new things from a new manager. It was a huge bonus for me that they found someone I trusted too. The opportunity to manage a huge team isn't available to everyone, but I prioritized my team over my needs. I'm confident they'll all perform well even without me. 

I honestly miss my old life. I miss the challenges. I miss my team and my teammates. I didn't want to leave because of my illness and it took me a long time to make peace with it. The Didache reflection yesterday reminded me that God does things to direct you to the right path. I hope and pray that the current officers of our alumni association find it in their hearts to let go so corrective action can be done. The mission after all is to do good for others. 

#BeKind #StayHome #VoteWisely

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

Be the Best Latak of All

Growing up my Dad always joked that I was the latak* in the family because I'm the youngest in the clan. I also came 13 years after Kuya that's why the joke persisted. I guess there's some truth to being a latak. I inherited the best and the worst genes. 

When I was young I thought being the latak was bad. I eventually realized my Dad used the term as an endearment. Latak may be a slushy mess, but if it were a drink it would be the sweet undissolved mixture at the bottom (i.e. the brown stuff at the bottom of your Milo). The jokes ended when I declared I'm the best latak of all. 

I faced many situations where I was made to feel I'm not good enough. It would get to me, but Dad guided me through it. He taught me that if criticism is not constructive, it's probably politically motivated.  There was a time it eroded my self-esteem. It took awhile to heal myself, but when I found my strength again I knew how to handle those kind of people. 

Believe in yourself and your abilities. There will always be people who would try to put you down. Just keep doing what is right and you won't go wrong. Be the best latak of all. 

CB///Yr2/26  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/53 #StayHome #BeKind   

*Latak - sludge

Make the Most Out of Big Breaks

If you know me well, you would know I'm not an aggressive person. I was never one to raise my hand to volunteer to lead. I'd rather sit back and help where I can. I'm more like my Mom that way. Growing up I witnessed my Dad lead. It was inspiring to see how people respected him and followed his advise. 

I guess that kinda rubbed off me because I was put in situations where I had to lead. I considered those as big breaks for me. As scared as I was I'd always try my best. I oftentimes doubted myself. I drew my strength through prayer. 

I grew a lot through the years. I'm still the same shy, introverted person, but when needed I pull myself together to step up. Early on I learned that being authoritarian is not the right way. You also hurt a lot of people that way. Big breaks are given to you because of the belief that you can do the job at hand. You also need to remember that no one is indispensable.

Photo by Norman Gorecho.

One of the biggest breaks I've had was to develop communities. I just followed what I learned from my parents. I focused on showing the way how others can use their passion to contribute to help. I've been indisposed for many months now and I'm happy to see the communities thriving. 

Big breaks may come to you because you're entrusted with an important responsibility to help others. Use it to inspire others to come forward and grow. 

CB///Yr2/22  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/49 #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  

How I Purposely Defined My Career

I must admit, when I went off to college I really did not know what I wanted to become. I originally wanted to take anthropology. I've just always been fond of learning about the past and how it has shaped who we are today. And that curiosity has stayed with me until today. The first thing I did when the pandemic was announced was to do some research on how they survived and got back up from the Spanish flu. I super love watching documentaries and history feature films. 

My plan though got derailed and I ended up taking two degrees that were supposed to help me prepare to become a lawyer. I only realized what I really wanted to do when I was in my junior year in college. Too late to shift. I decided to finish my studies and started planning how to steer my career towards what I really wanted. I started taking my masters degree a year after I graduated. 

I firmed up how I wanted to steer my career when we had marketing classes. I super loved the idea of becoming a product manager. I slowly began to understand what skills I needed to develop to become one. Midway through my studies I joined my Mom's company and helped her to export her product. I learned a lot during that time since you need to learn everything when you're a business owner (I was the business owner's only staff outside of our workers). 

Unfortunately exporting our product became unfeasible and Mom decided to close her company. I was without a job and I started selling baked goods to sustain my studies (and Miggy's). I realized it was time to put into action my plan. Armed with experience I applied for two jobs. One was to become a marketing manager for a furniture company and the other was to be a product manager for an exporters directory. 

I failed miserably when I interviewed for the furniture company because I got super nervous when they immediately put me in front of the company president. I went home really sad, but was determined to nail my next interview. My Kuya counselled me to over-prepare so that's what I did. I got the job. 

And the skills list that I made I started to check it off. I never said no to a project, no matter how hard it would be I would just do it and treat it as a learning experience. And that's how I picked up the skills I needed to keep moving forward. I basically treated my career as a huge learning experience while doing something I enjoy. I went through ten jobs until I found one where I continue to learn everyday.

I realized now it was not so much about identifying a "title" you'd want to have on your business card. It's really more about gaining more skills as you go along. My director told me that if I wanted to move to my job I could be a GM already. It's not what I want though since I still enjoy what I do. I think as much as I didn't earn the original degree I wanted, I'm living it and more. And you'll be at the right place when you let God lead the way for you. 

I thought I'd post this tidbit since one of my anaks recently asked me advise about moving forward with his career. And he pointed out that I gave him a good idea to ponder on. I guess my perspective has been this way because my Ate and Kuya told me when I growing up that if you end up working on something you love doing, you'd never work a day in your life. 

#CB//240 #StuckAtHomeDay/270 #WFH160 #StayHome #BeKind   

Be a Pineapple

I almost lost my crown today. I actually did and was bawling my eyes out and doing some writing to calm myself when I got a call. I was need for an important task. I took a deep breath and rushed to prepare to be where I was needed in fifteen minutes. 

The mad rush was what calmed me down. I had to focus at a snap of a finger. I had to be at my best for it. That's how my Dad trained me to keep my emotions in check. I was able to set aside my upset self to deliver. My Kuya said that was a big feat. What they didn't know was right after my part a friend reached out and made time to chat with me. Tears started to fall again, but I managed to keep it together. 

I managed to keep it together for the rest of the day and that's what professionals do. During dinner I was scrolling through Instagram and saw a post by Jonathan Yabut. He said, "Be like a pineapple whenever you're stressed: (1) Stay tall and mighty; (2) Keep wearing your crown; and (3) Remain cool and sweet inside". 

Easily said than done. So that's where I bring in the lessons I got from Chade Meng Tan on "Joy on Demand". One tip he gave during the session I attended years ago is to take a deep breath just before your next meeting. Just inhale and exhale all the stress out. You owe it to the next person you are meeting to be at your best. 

It is hard to do and I'm honestly still struggling now, but as Jonathan Yabut said, "Be like a pineapple...!" Chin up, don't fall into the trap of playing politics and just do what you are good at. 

CB//168 #StuckAtHomeDay/198 #WFH114 #StayHome #BeKind

 

How Do You Shape Your Career?

[Good reading for fresh grads and those who want to change their career!]

I checked my LinkedIn profile rarely. I know it's a treasure trove for networking, but I have managed to get by building communities and getting more people to use technology through offline means (since the purpose of what I do is to get more people to use technology). I also rarely read email notifications from social media sites, but one email caught my eye. It was from an educator/musician from Sydney and he was asking for advise on how to improve his career. He also mentioned that it would really be an achievement if he'd be able to join the company I'm working for.

It took me a few days to respond to him since I had to think about how I managed to land the job I have now. I never planned to work for a global company. I always thought I'd spend my whole career in the Philippines. There was one thing I did that helped me shape my career: I purposely picked up many different skills since I was a student. And here's I picked up skills along the way:

Organizing and Being Focused. I learned this from my Mom. When I was about four years old my parents and our neighbors worked on building a new and bigger Parish church. They had most of their meetings at our house and being the baby of the neighborhood I always sat with them. My Mom always thinks ahead and lists down everything that needs to be down. I learned the 5Ps from her -- proper planning prevents poor performance.

Communications and Writing. I realized when I was in high school that I was a very bad writer. I started writing when I was just 8 years old and when I read my diary I realized I was a really bad writer. I joined the writing club and eventually our university's literary publication to improve my writing skills. I wasn't as good as my friends and I still feel awkward with my compositions until today, but I improved. I could write in both English and Filipino and the skills makes it easy for me to write reports, blog posts at work. The skill has helped me put together appropriate stories for my audience (especially during reviews).

Sales and Distribution. My first corporate job was at a telco and our team was tasked to break in new products in our sales channels. I learned to pitch, close sales and maintain relationships with frontliners to purchasing to executives. I'm not very good at selling and getting a no from a client always breaks my heart, but it helped me have better interpersonal skills and presentation skills. From this job I learned also how to strategize breaking in new products.

Production and Being Entrepreneurial. When I left the telco I worked on completing my MBA. My parents then decided to start a business on manufacturing stone crafted furniture. I had to learn to do costing, purchasing, production, managing workers, banking and finance etc. It was very hard to be an entrepreneur and at that time the export market was very hard to crack. I learned a lot about production processes since we were in manufacturing. The key skills I got from this stint was costing, budgeting and creating forecasts.

Marketing. Aside from production work, I was in-charge as well of marketing our items. This was back in early 2000s so digital marketing was just starting back then. Aside from offline brochures, I learned how to create a website and I explored the many online directories. It's so effective that we still get calls until today even if we closed shop more than a decade ago already. During this time I realized that I had a huge interested in the online world and I wanted to become a product manager.

Product Management. Since my son was growing up fast and generating furniture and houseware was hard I decided to try my luck and find work. I almost worked for a high-end furniture shop, but I flunked the final interview when I was unexpectedly interviewed by the president of the company. I froze up. Because of that I prepared well for my next interview which was for a startup tech company. I was lucky because they were looking for a product manager for an online directory for exporters. The previous skills I had acquired made it easy for me to strategize how to grow the product locally. It grew so well at some point it was bigger than the local directory. Because of that I was moved to manage the main directory.

Advertising, Research. and Trainings. I was eventually moved to the main company backing up the startup. Since the setup was more corporate I had the chance to pick up more skills. I jumped on the chance to be mentored by Dr. Ned Roberto for Research and I did not shy away from other marketing work that would be assigned to me. I had the chance to work on ads (TV, radio and newspaper). Since I was managing our online and mobile product I had to conduct a lot of trainings across the country. I learned a lot during this time but I unfortunately had a tyrant boss so I decided to leave.

Community Management. My first role at the global company was to be the eyes and ears for my country. I was alone and my mandate changed every quarter. I realized though that there were so many people who wanted to learn, but I don't know everything. I discovered that there are people who are willing to help others learn too. I was never shy to ask for help and help was given by local experts to grow the dev community. Learning this skills has helped me grow many different communities from developers, to entrepreneurs, to students and now educators.

So that's what I told him (this is an expanded version though). In the 2 decades I've been working this is has been my mantra:
1. Pick up as many skills along the way.
2. Never shy away from an opportunity to learn.
3. Be open and flexible.