23rd Day: Mocking Day

"This day was all about emotions being stirred and combined to drain whatever energy was left within our body."  

As soon as I stepped on the vicinity of my workplace, I saw my workmate Lassy who's spirit was still floating in the heavens and was shouting for joy while telling me that she just passed the Nursing Local Board Examination. I could still feel her jubilation underneath my skin until the elevator pulled us up to third floor wherein a lot of nursing graduates were jumping and screaming out their happiness from passing the board exam just along the lobby. Those mirthful scenes brought back some good memories I've had two years ago where I once passed the nursing board examination. haha! 

Well not every nursing graduate was merry that day. Two of my wave mates failed to pass the board exam. And while everyone was celebrating, they were somewhere at the cold corners shedding a tear. I felt for them. Taking the board exam and not to mention its preparation is not a joke. Failing it would mean going  through the hardship all over again. I advised my friends to never give up. I've seen a lot of nursing graduates who also failed at first but made it on the second time they tried. Some are still even trying up to this day. Failing the exam is not the end of the road. It simply means that the game is not yet over! 

While everyone was so busy talking about the board exam, we almost forgot that today was our pre-mock day. haha! It just came back to our senses when we saw our trainer, one QA representative, and one core skill trainer. Weeeew! We've been dreading for this day to come and there it was happening inevitably. Kim , our mate who had a long experience about the nature of our job, volunteered to first take the pre-mock. He finished the call seamlessly and there we were in front of him trembling as our trainer randomly called out names through draw by lots. A number of us did the pre-mock and gazillion of constructive criticisms came out from the mouth of our mentors. Well the best thing about the activity? We had learning at its best. 

117a having dinner at Jollibee

My heart was drumming like nuts for like 8 hours. Try to imagine that! And I can't imagine myself having this kind of feeling tomorrow once again. So I volunteered myself to do the pre-mock first thing tomorrow. Pretty brave huh? Well not brave, it's more of suicide. And I just want my heart to rest, act normal and stop acting like drums. :-)hehe

22nd Day: Meet the QA!

We've spent half of our shift practicing the different environments that we will undergo during the mock calls. We used the simulators provided by the training team and practiced mock calls with our trainer and team lead guiding us all through out the calls. And while we were practicing, I realized that technical issues were sooo much easy when you're guided by your mentors and exactly opposite when you're left alone doing it by yourself. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I'm ever absorbing all the information I get from the training. haha! Our trainer or team lead would often say that we'll get the hang of it and someday we'll get used to it. So when's that someday huh! hihi

me with Lassy, Ney, and Ian during break time!

By 7pm, two representatives from the QA Department went inside our training room. By the way, who are these QA people? They are the Quality Assurance Team. And from the name itself, they assure that all the calls or agent-customer interactions are strictly based on the STANDARDS. I believe every call center in the world has  a QA team. They monitor every call that an agent has to make. They call your attention if you're already crossing the line. They measure your metrics or your performance on the floor. And more than anything else, they will have the last say if you're going to be an agent or not. So how is that?! haha! If in school we used to have our Guidance Office or Student's Affair Office or simply the Disciplinarian Office, at work we have our QA Team. 

So to speak, two QA representatives came inside our class and conducted a lecture regarding the standards of making a call. They tackled stuff like the proper way of handling a call, the dos and don'ts, how our performance is measured through metrics and the like. And lastly, they introduced to us the pre-mock call, mock call proper, and live call certification which will all be happening in the following days. 

So this is it! The make it or break it part. God bless us 117A! :-)   

 

21st Day: Serious Day

After 21 days, it's getting more serious here. Enough of those playing around and enjoying the friendly environment our company has been showing us. This time things are nearing to reality. I could almost here our CEO directly telling us to straighten up because he means business now. haha! Well it's not that we're just playing around the whole time we were on training but we did have fun. A lot of  fun. But that doesn't mean that we already put aside all the learning that our trainer has imparted to us. 

We learned many things. And proving it to the company that we did learn has been adding a little bit of pressure to all of us. I mean come on! We weren't just paid to sit there, relax and enjoy the air conditioned training room. We're there to work and learn stuff for us to become extraordinary agents who would someday become an asset to the company. In a nutshell, we are an investment.  In our end, if anything goes wrong, well it could put our job at stake.

We just started practicing different call scenarios using the different techniques that we have learned in the training. Good thing we were already provided 11 scenarios that we have to focus on. These scenarios are the possible call that might occur during the mock calls. So together with our trainer, we spent half of our shift practicing step by step. Inasmuch as we wanted to go through all the environments, we can only do so much of our little time. The irony of time - it runs fast when you badly need it to slowdown and slows down when you really want it to fast forward. haha!

Anyway, God bless to all of us 117A! We'll just have to give our best shot and if this job is really meant for us then by hook or by crook, it would be for us!

Aja!
 

20th Day: Wireless, Crownless

Woke up at 9am and was still groggy while I switched on the television. I was awakened by the text message updates about Ms. Universe sent by some of my friends. Since I don't have cable at home, I just opted to watch a delayed telecast of the most anticipated Ms. Universe 2010 at ABS-CBN. So there I was in front of the TV while receiving text updates from people who had home cable and were able to see Ms. Universe live. And yes, watching a delayed show was so exciting. I was so thrilled to death that it crossed my mind why Papa would punch anyone who'll spill out the result ahead of a delayed telecast everytime Pacquiao has a fight. haha!

Our representative for this year's most coveted crown for Ms. Universe was Ms. Venus Raj. I first saw her on TV at the height of her dethronement issue. I wasn't really sure or I just didn't get the gist of that issue but then I was  still on her side and believe it or not I also gave a little prayer for her to get back the crown of Binibining Pilipinas. My reasons were plainly because her appearance resembled an authentic Filipina beauty. She's tall and exuded with overflowing confidence. She truly had the makings of someone who'll bring home the crown. In a nutshell, she was perfect to be the country's representative. 

When she made it to top five, I was one of the many Filipinos who were uplifted by such achievement. Just try to imagine, eleven years had passed since Miriam Quiambao almost got the crown and landed as first runner up. Eleven years of drought then there was Venus Raj once again proving that Japanese and Indian women are not the only Asian women capable of making it to the final five.

She was almost there but not quite. She sadly flunked at the question and answer portion which was the highlight of the said pageant. Right then and there, tweets and shout outs from facebook flooded the internet. There were various comments but in general those comments say- our representative was a pretty dumb! I say it's unfair to judge her just like that. First of all, it wasn't that easy to fall and be hailed as one of the top 5 candidates. I mean from all of those preliminary interviews coming from the press to the pre-judging (prior to coronation night), you can't be dumb. Personally, I was a bit foiled by the fact that she "almost" got it. However, I'm happy to know from her interviews that she enjoyed her experience there and that alone is a great achievement. And who knows? She might just set the trend for our next representative next year! Remember Japan? hehe

I arrived at work and people were still talking about Venus Raj's major major answer in a major major beauty pageant! haha On the other hand, we then moved on to our next topic which was all about wireless connections. Our trainer taught us on setting up a wireless internet connection for our customers. We simulated using three different operating systems such as Windows 7, XP, and Mac (Leopard).

Well I had fun learning about wireless! But pretty sad for Ms. Philippines going home crownless... :-(

19th Day: E-mails & Hostages

It's just another day at the training room. We started the day checking our log records and our trainer together with our Team Lead assisted us with some discrepancies in it. We moved on with our lecture which focused on troubleshooting e-mail problems. Our dear trainer taught us the steps in configuring Outlook Express and the rest of the electronic mails in which our company supports. I really had fun in our activity wherein one has to play the customer and the other one should be the agent who will troubleshoot and help the customer configure his email. It was fun and learning at the same time! Good job Sir Caro!

While we were earnestly listening to our trainer as he imparted his knowledge in troubleshooting email issues, the other part of our country was in great chaos. Naive from the tenebrous news, some of us received text messages about the story of a former police officer who took over a tourist bus in front of Quirino Grandstand in Manila. It was during our break time when we opened the internet and realized how serious the hostage drama was. A disgruntled ex-police inspector took 25 people (mostly Chinese Nationals) hostage in an attempt to get his job back. Police officers and SWAT team flocked the area and so were the media and of course the bystanders who foolishly pried in exchange of their own safety.

I was already at home when I watched the late local TV news and was dumbfounded upon learning about the aftermath of that fateful hostage drama. The lunatic perpetrator wasted his life for that job he can't possibly retract. Chinese Nationals lost their lives for being in a wrong place and time. Philippines' security sector failed once again for the Nth time. The local media people just habitually and selfishly added fuel to the fire.



Now what's gonna be the consequence? Hmmm... they say it's a domino effect. Let's start with the foremost piece - Tourism drought! But seriously, our government should make amends before it's too late.   
 

18th Day: Berlitz Day

We have been dreading for this day to come. It's not that we're not capable of speaking the English language, it's just that one rater's decision could mean our contract ended just like that. But we have to face the inevitable and swallow it whole. Five other trainees were ahead of me while I waited for my turn in taking the assessment. I expected myself to feel nervous and nauseous to the extent of throwing up but I didn't. My heartbeat was in its right pace. My breathing's just fine. I was relatively calm but certainly not confident.

me, shin, and the blurry tan2x

And so time's up and it was my turn to dial and ring the rater back at the States. His name was Dan. Funny how his name reflected the second syllable of my first name. lol He had this affable voice and that helped  me to relax a bit. First, he asked me to tell more about myself. Until he hoisted some topics relating to local politics. Yep, I can still relate with that kind of topic but not until he started asking me questions such as the global economic recession and stuff about business. Oh golly! Those were mind blowing queries I got there. I figured it was utterly out of my best interest (business and recession) but somehow I managed to answer all of it but not with flying colors. If I were to rate my answers? Hmmm.. quite mediocre for it to reach a C2 level which is the highest grade for Berlitz. 

Anyway, there's no use in crying over a spilled milk. It seemed to me like people didn't mind the stressful conversation with Dan. We visited youtube.com and viewed some funny stuff in there. The Japanese pranks really cracked all of us out. And then we also viewed some of the world's most talented people through America's/Britain's/Ukraine's/Slovenia's got talent  or from So You Think You Can Dance or from America's Best Dance Crew and the like. It was a nice diversionary tactic though. Instead of people brooding about the bloody conversation that they just had or worrying the conversation that they're about to have, laughing out loud was the best solution ever.

At the end of our shift, I hastily left the office and headed to Ayall mall. I met my college buddies there whom by the way I haven't met for ages. We just lingered outside the Starbucks Coffee then talked and caught up with our recent happenings. As talkative as we are, we decided to take  and continue our huge chitchats at McDonalds, IT Park. Just ordered coke float which was worth 25 pesos and talked then laughed a lot which were worth a gazillion! It's been 21 days since the last time we hanged out  and it's pretty obvious. We missed each other so much. 

After McDonalds, we went to Jollibee (still at IT Park) and had our breakfast! Keisha's treat! Thanks Kei! mwaaaah! Until our next morning the night session guys!!!☺

   

17th Day: Dropped a Brick

Mr. Trainer came inside the training room and dropped the biggest brick ever. We're gonna have our Berlitz Language Assessment tomorrow. 

I didn't know how to react. We've known that this day will come and eventually we'll have to take this assessment. But still butterflies in my stomach wouldn't stop in churning up every intestine that I have. Waaah! I just hate the feeling! 

I tried to convince myself that this kind of assessment isn't new to me. I've taken the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) and got good results. The interview was more gut-wrenching because it was a one-on-one conversation with a British native speaker. And Berlitz will just be conducted over the phone. See? I don't even have to worry about the rater's facial expressions. I've got to focus in our conversation and that's it!

But why am I worrying so much?! Grrrrrrrrr!

The happy faces of 117A a night before the Berlitz Exam. I'm positive that we're still gonna go out from work tonight wearing the same faces! Go 117A! Nail that Berlitz!

God be our guide tonight! ☺