Just My Luck

Don't get me wrong. I am not going to write a review on a movie with the same title, but shall I say, I haven't been feeling any luckier lately as well. For some reason, God has removed me from the list of the "lucky ones" and cut-pasted my name into an entirely different table, that table under the heading, "the UNlucky ones".

My third week at work hasn't been all glam and glitter. I've had my own share of booboo's which have been quite depressing when pondered upon. For one, I realized my "ignorance" on Microsoft Excel and my Powerpoint skills won't bring me anywhere with this kind of work. Having only a cent's worth of knowledge on Excel made work much worse. I only found out about "insert", "delete cells", "drag", "=!B13", and, "book1..." last week. It felt like I was in school all over again, learning more acronyms and shortcuts more than ever!

And as the cherry on top of my "melting" ice cream (melting due to misfortune), I screwed up on my first task under documentations. I was making a draft on this crucial document which, when found with at least one error (misspelled word or even just a difference in the punctuation marks), we will be fined $40.00. I ended up revising it four times because of my stupidity. For one, I never dared to ask questions to my co-workers that might've avoided me from committing this mistake. Also, since all the encoding had to be done on excel, it made matters worse. The never-ending mistakes caused me to have a one-on-one tutorial sessions with a more experienced "docs specialist" (as I would like to call it), and a little bit of sermon from her as well. Although the $40.00 fee was waived (despite having it revised thrice!), it still felt so uneasy to commit a mistake such as this one. Lesson learned: be super detailed and DOUBLE-CHECK!!!!

On the brighter side, I found a new place where I could feast on salads and pastas near work. There's an ala-Oliver's Sandwiches cafe in Orient Square named Plaid, and having lunch there made the day a bit better. I ordered the Lechon Kawali-silog, which was the bomb (only for 95 bucks, which was actually a good buy)! Definitely, I will be back to try their Caesar's Salad. Oh, how I miss eating nothing but salads and bread! But that's another story. =)

I need to get my good luck charms back!!!!

IMC: I Miss Comm!

Last Friday was a blast. I had dinner with my SDL friends at Greenbelt. It was so nice seeing old faces once again. Although it has only been months since we've last seen each other, it felt like I haven't seen them for years. Perhaps everything just seemed so sudden that after getting too used with the faces you see everyday, in a snap of a finger, chances of seeing the whole block together again are rare.

That's why we thought of having a reunion. Only 7 of us were there- Arthur, Ris, Midge, Angela, Nina, Nadine, and I-- nothing felt like being in the company of your SDL buddies. :)

(That's Midge, Artz, yours truly, Nina, Ris, Angela, & Nades)

.. Nadine was right. Everybody basically talked about their current jobs. Arthur, Ris, and Midge, having gotten into 5th year, are currently residents at Unilever, Loewe, and ARC, respectively. Nina's with Club Media, while Nadine is still searching for THAT job. Angela also happened to bring along her oh-so-cute baby boy, Yuan (or Johann), who looked a lot like his dad. She's continuing her studies in UA&P, but not with SDL. She could've had more fun with us! hee hee.

I found out how much fun they're having with their jobs, and how much IMC is applicable in the field that they're into (duh, it's advertising! hehe). It thrilled me to see how enthusiastic they were everytime they'd tell their office stories. I, on the other hand, had a different story.

Being in another field, I kinda felt out-of-place not being able to share anything IMC-related. I admit that sometimes, it feels a bit depressing that I'm not able to apply anything I've learned in the job I have now. It makes me miss all those market research and concept development we're used to back in college. Now, I have to deal with capitals, currencies, accounting, and Microsoft Excel when all I knew back then was limited to psychographics, share of voice, sweet spot, and Microsoft Powerpoint.

Having this kind of dillemma sometimes makes me wonder how work would be like if I got in an IMC-related job. Could've I been happier applying everything I've learned and limiting myself to these alone? Would sticking to what I know make me happy? Or will I regret not learning more about other fields instead?

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. I enjoy learning a lot about export and tuna. It made me realize how much knowledge is available out there for me to learn. Heck, if not for my current work, I wouldn't even bother knowing what the oceans of the world are! ... which, by the way, are the ff: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern (I all along thought it was Antartic, now they call it Southern!)

I guess getting into this job gives me an opportunity to widen my horizons. Looking at it strategically (long-term!hehe), learning about the world market actually gives me a glimpse of how every market is different (and similar!) from one another. It's not enough for me to stay inside my shell and depend on what I know. Getting into export allows me to expand my knowledge not only within my own bubble, but bursting this bubble and going beyond it. :) As my mom would always remind me, "It doesn't mean that if you're an Advertising graduate, you stick to that field. Explore. Try to learn more. Who knows, you'll end up doing something totally different but still loving it."

Now I feel better. :)

I've been tagged!

Thanks to Nadine and Midge, now it's my turn to tell you some things about me;)
Here's how it works:

"Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write 8 facts/things/habits about yourself, saying who tagged you. In the end you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs."

• I'm SUPER scared of anything related to RAIN. Call me a coward, but I've had ombrophobia since high school, thanks to an unforgettable experience. I was once flirting around school (yes i was. haha.) when suddenly, it rained like cats and dogs. My friends were able to find shelter, while I was left drenched in the rain. I was already crying by the time I found a roof. A few days after that, I had the worst cough ever (which actually resulted to my allergies/asthma which required me to take an dose of inhaler twice a day). From that day on, I swore I'd never put myself under a situation where I'll be soaked with rain.
• I'm a sweets addict. Anyone can bribe me with chocolates and candies. One trip to Candy Corner will definitely make my day. A meal wouldn't be complete without dessert. :) I just love how sweets can make you go all hyper and happy and.... sweet. :)
• I have a mole in my earhole... Many people actually think it's an earring. Some even thought it was cancerous (hell, I've had it since I was a kid! hehe) But I'm proud to say that having a mole in that special spot makes me one of a kind :) FYI, it's on my right earhole.
• And speaking of ears... I have attached ears! If most people have "hanging" ears, then I have alien-like ears. For some reason the lower part of my ears are directly attached to the sides, so you wont see "excess" fats hanging. It's like the shape of a half-heart. Weird, but unique ;)
• I was once cast under the spell of three brothers who had a band named Hanson. Damn, you should've seen how my room looked like 8 years ago! I even had remnants of my Hanson days on my study table... I couldn't remove the official Hanson stickers anymore! haha. (gosh, I even remember buying them for 2 dollars!) I even have a complete set of Hanson trivia books, Mmmbop to the Top (the first unofficial biography of Hanson), copies of all the singles (in cd) and the albums Middle of Nowhere (both in cd and tape), Snowed In (tape), and this other album they released (in tape). I also collected pin-ups of Taylor and Zac, memorized every song in Middle of Nowhere, and predicted which single was to be released the next... See, I've had my "teenybopper" moments too ;)
• Happy thought for the day: Being the ombrophobic that I am, I got stuck in Ministop after it started to rain like cats and dogs. I was in Ministop for around 20 minutes, and I was already a bit hopeless that I would be able to make it home for the next 30 minutes when suddenly Kuya Tap from Ministop approached me and lent me his umbrella. That was such a nice thing to do! It inspired me to spread the lovin' and do a good deed towards others too :)
• I have never had a boyfriend since birth. For some reason, no guy has ever admitted to me straight to the face that he had feelings for me, or that he ever liked me in one way or another. Heck, I've never even been out on a REAL date! Where art thou my dear soulmate?
• And last but not the least.... I've studied in 8 schools... and counting! I've lived all over the country and studied in 8 schools, namely: Learning Child Paranaque, Corpus Cristi School Cagayan de Oro, Lourdes College Cagayan de Oro, Ateneo de Davao University, St. Paul College- Pasig, St. Benedict Childhood Education Centre -Cebu, St. Theresa's College- Cebu, and UA&P. OA diba? I intend to add one more school in that roster... For an MBA perhaps? ;)

Wow, I enjoyed answering that :) And so, for the following people, now it's YOUR turn to spread the taggin'!! ---> Merky, Jackie G., Diane Flaviano, Yeni, Monique, and Darah! Well, I hope you read this ;)

SWOT Analysis

Having taken Marketing Management classes back in junior year made me think that maybe I could make my very own SWOT analysis of myself. Made me realize a lot about myself. Hehe.

SWOT Analysis: Angel

Strengths: Corny jokes, Bringing Smiles, Creating Music, & Stalking
Weaknesses: Sports, Matters of the heart, & Shutting-up
Opportunities: Have friends and family for love and support
Threats: Rice and Men that make life more complicated. Go figure.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Angel=)

First Day High

For the whole summer, I had nothing in mind but getting a job ASAP. I went all around Makati and Ortigas to drop resumes and try my luck in just about any company I get interested with. At the beginning, it was very disappointing because I got rejected by the media agency that I really wanted to get into (never even got an interview! must have failed the exam). It got more disappointing because I never get callbacks from most agencies that requested me for an interview (therefore realizing the fact that I'm not meant for the advertising industry). What's more, after passing the exam of a multinational company (thus giving me an opportunity to go on with the next step-- the interview), I receive an email from this company, saying that I am not fit for their company, that after reviewing my resume, I am not what they're looking for.

Little did I know that I would end up with "fish" and "tuna" written all over me. After a long period of waiting, I received a call from a company I didn't even remember giving a resume to. I decided to give it a shot (didn't even know the opening I applied for!) and show up for the interview and the exam a few days after. Eventually, I found out that the opening was for an International Sales Officer, and the first thing that came to my mind was, "Wow, makakatravel ako pag nakapasok ako dito!" True enough, I did. I guess I made a statement during the panel interview, or maybe I did well in the exams.... Or maybe, the job was just meant for me.

And so, today was my first day at work. Like most people would say, first day of work would be boring. You'd pretend to do something or keep yourself busy just because everybody's doing so. Actually, I was busy during my first day... busy interviewing everybody in the department. For my first day "high", I had to get to know everybody (All the ate's, kuya's, sir's, and tita's... shempre ako ang baby! hehe!) to give me a glimpse of the how everything works. This required me to bring out the Kris Aquino in me, and sure it was effective! I found out so many things about my officemates that it felt like I knew them for a long time already. I guess I was just lucky to work with people like them because it's rare to find people whom you can really relate and effectively communicate with. After a whole day of interviews (finished around 330), I did my favorite pastime..... surf the internet. But it wasn't just the usual surfing. I found myself surfing for tuna. =)

Can't wait for tomorrow!!!=)