For all who had trained (we included) at ExcelAsia Training and Development Center, the reason for being there and training there was practically the same: to have a job. Not any job to be exact, but to have a job in the call center industry. For those who are training now, and would be training in the future, what is your reason…really? What is your goal?
Let’s face the truth, not everyone that goes into ExcelAsia wants to have a job, or even lands a job, in the call center industry. Moreover, some of them leave even before the training is completed. One factor or reason after another, but that’s the truth. And there’s more. However, this is not why I’m writing this short thought work.
For those who sincerely and seriously wished to work in the call center industry through the help of ExcelAsia, I sincerely believe that the trainers had never failed to remind us to set our goal, and keep looking at it. I, for my part, always remember even up to this point what our trainer (Roanna) constantly reminded us of…and it goes this way:
“What is your goal? To have a job!”
“Job where? Job in the call center!”
As of this moment, I’m taking my chances in communicating with my co-trainees, and I am pleased to know that some of them already landed their jobs in their respective call centers, and they would be starting sometime soon. I’m continuously praying and hoping for the rest, as they find their own ways, whether it is a life as a call center employee, or something else.
With regards to goal-setting, the trainers never failed in helping us do that. I remember one of them said: “What they can do is to help us find our paths and give us a bird’s eye view and a head-start…the rest of the journey rests on us”.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Post CC Training Thoughts (Part 2): On Confidence and Pursuit of Excellence
How is confidence defined? I’ve browsed over the thesaurus, only to find a lot of words matching the word confidence. With all of its alternate words and different meanings, it spells one thing for me: it is something that someone has to have in order to survive the difficult thing called life.
I could honestly say that prior to my training that I really lacked confidence. There had been a lot of times that I demonstrated this fact and I also honestly believe that most of them, if not all, are not pleasant or even worthy of remembering. My lack of confidence are caused by a lot of factors, most notable among them are some certain failures and mistakes that I’ve done in the past. A certain mistake that I did in the past totally marred my personality, and for three years I’ve been trying to correct that mistake. And in doing so, a lot of things happened made me, but still…most of them broke me.
At this point, I would like to concentrate on the etymological meaning of confidence, inspired by the fruits of my labor at ExcelAsia. At first look, the word itself can be traced to two Latin words: “con” and “fide”, meaning “with” and “faith”, respectively. With these words in minds, I can say that the word confidence primarily means that which having “faith with”. Considering that confidence is something that cannot be given, I believe confidence is something that is all the more gained by the self. Placing these two thoughts together, confidence for me means “having faith with the self”.
Now faith can be something of a surrealistic term, so it may be better to simplify it. Thus, in simple terms: confidence means “believing with one’s own self”.
As I’ve said somewhere in the beginning of this thought work, I lacked confidence in the past. I did not say that I do not have confidence; rather, I lacked confidence. I prefer being behind the shadows rather than be in the limelight, I prefer working with groups rather than stand out and be the best that I can be. I easily succumb to pressure from friends and criticisms of the crowd. And there’s still a lot more. Having the experience of being born to an environment where comparisons between siblings have been a major issue did not help in boosting my confidence even by a bit. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I left home at an early age. But the place where I had hoped to boost my confidence became the total opposite of it.
With my experiences in the past, I can somehow relate my lack of confidence to mediocrity…of just being “in the middle” of everything. But my sense of safety in the arms of mediocrity changed, all thanks to the training that I had in ExcelAsia.
Who would have thought that two simple instructions could help me begin the change from mediocrity to excellence? Roanna (our trainer) reminded us constantly to 1) SPEAK ENGLISH, and to speak 2) LOUDER. And from there, she related a lot of things from how she started just like any one of us, to the person that she is now. Honestly, on a personal note (and I believe my co-trainees would agree to me as well), I’ve never met someone with so much joy and passion with what she’s doing. Her simple encouragements and positive criticisms during the training had always been a breath of fresh air for all of us. I know she never gave us the confidence that she has. Rather, she is instrumental for each and every one of us finding our own confidence. With her stories and instructions that she enthusiastically shared with us, we found the strength to find our own stories to tell, and our own knowledge and insights to keep.
The other trainers who had been with us for the duration of our training had also been instrumental in helping us finding our way for excellence. Going back on a personal note, Noel for example unconsciously encouraged me (by his character and attitude), to speak up and always put my best foot forward. Camille, on the other hand, exuded simplicity and style by means of her words and actions. Al and Wene inspired me to deal with contradictions in my personality and attitude. Kat, for her part (as she was with us for one session), reminded me that there is so much more than what meets the eye.
My co-trainees also had their share of help with me finding me in me. As every person is bound for confidence and excellence, my daily encounters with them helped me to realize that people don’t actually desire for the pretender in me, but for the real me. And if I’m going to survive the crazy world of work, I have to believe in myself, put my best foot forward, and always remind myself that even if others would expect things about me, as long as I do my best in the best way that I can (another thing that I learned from the training…reserved for another time), I would succeed.
All I can say now, I’m more confident than before to face the world of work, and life itself.
I could honestly say that prior to my training that I really lacked confidence. There had been a lot of times that I demonstrated this fact and I also honestly believe that most of them, if not all, are not pleasant or even worthy of remembering. My lack of confidence are caused by a lot of factors, most notable among them are some certain failures and mistakes that I’ve done in the past. A certain mistake that I did in the past totally marred my personality, and for three years I’ve been trying to correct that mistake. And in doing so, a lot of things happened made me, but still…most of them broke me.
At this point, I would like to concentrate on the etymological meaning of confidence, inspired by the fruits of my labor at ExcelAsia. At first look, the word itself can be traced to two Latin words: “con” and “fide”, meaning “with” and “faith”, respectively. With these words in minds, I can say that the word confidence primarily means that which having “faith with”. Considering that confidence is something that cannot be given, I believe confidence is something that is all the more gained by the self. Placing these two thoughts together, confidence for me means “having faith with the self”.
Now faith can be something of a surrealistic term, so it may be better to simplify it. Thus, in simple terms: confidence means “believing with one’s own self”.
As I’ve said somewhere in the beginning of this thought work, I lacked confidence in the past. I did not say that I do not have confidence; rather, I lacked confidence. I prefer being behind the shadows rather than be in the limelight, I prefer working with groups rather than stand out and be the best that I can be. I easily succumb to pressure from friends and criticisms of the crowd. And there’s still a lot more. Having the experience of being born to an environment where comparisons between siblings have been a major issue did not help in boosting my confidence even by a bit. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I left home at an early age. But the place where I had hoped to boost my confidence became the total opposite of it.
With my experiences in the past, I can somehow relate my lack of confidence to mediocrity…of just being “in the middle” of everything. But my sense of safety in the arms of mediocrity changed, all thanks to the training that I had in ExcelAsia.
Who would have thought that two simple instructions could help me begin the change from mediocrity to excellence? Roanna (our trainer) reminded us constantly to 1) SPEAK ENGLISH, and to speak 2) LOUDER. And from there, she related a lot of things from how she started just like any one of us, to the person that she is now. Honestly, on a personal note (and I believe my co-trainees would agree to me as well), I’ve never met someone with so much joy and passion with what she’s doing. Her simple encouragements and positive criticisms during the training had always been a breath of fresh air for all of us. I know she never gave us the confidence that she has. Rather, she is instrumental for each and every one of us finding our own confidence. With her stories and instructions that she enthusiastically shared with us, we found the strength to find our own stories to tell, and our own knowledge and insights to keep.
The other trainers who had been with us for the duration of our training had also been instrumental in helping us finding our way for excellence. Going back on a personal note, Noel for example unconsciously encouraged me (by his character and attitude), to speak up and always put my best foot forward. Camille, on the other hand, exuded simplicity and style by means of her words and actions. Al and Wene inspired me to deal with contradictions in my personality and attitude. Kat, for her part (as she was with us for one session), reminded me that there is so much more than what meets the eye.
My co-trainees also had their share of help with me finding me in me. As every person is bound for confidence and excellence, my daily encounters with them helped me to realize that people don’t actually desire for the pretender in me, but for the real me. And if I’m going to survive the crazy world of work, I have to believe in myself, put my best foot forward, and always remind myself that even if others would expect things about me, as long as I do my best in the best way that I can (another thing that I learned from the training…reserved for another time), I would succeed.
All I can say now, I’m more confident than before to face the world of work, and life itself.
Post CC Training Thoughts (Part 1)
“Great people…great memories…”
A few days back (Thursday, June 25, 2008), my call center training ended with the endorsement that transpired at Ascott Makati. I started the training last June 8, and until now, I cannot help but be thankful for those who had been instrumental to the accomplishment of this preparation for work.
I first encountered ExcelAsia Training and Development Center from Jobstreet, back to the time when I decided to work, and to work in the call center, to be exact. Honestly, I never saw myself having a job that corresponds to my college degree, so I thought, “If I cannot bank on my degree for work, I believe I could rely on my skills and knowledge of other things”. I’m not saying that I know everything there is to know about the call center industry prior to the training. If that had been the case, I should not have undergone the training in the first place. I sent my application, and was scheduled for an interview last July 5, which was a Friday, at their Pasong Tamo branch. That day came, and it was my first time to go to that certain part in Makati; and though it was sort of a pain for the first time that I went there, it paid off…I was accepted for training. With this, I thank Ms. Lauren Reyes for accepting me as one of the trainees.
First day came (June 8), and with a stroke of luck, I ended up with one of the craziest bunch that I’ve been with. Of course, there were the usual first-day jitters running throughout the room, but that was quickly dissolved thanks to a super-enthusiastic and lively communications trainer (Roanna Ruiz) and 20 trainees (with me included). After the GTKO’s and ice-breakers, we finally had the comfortable feeling to start the training. We were then joined by other trainees the next day, thus we became 26 trainees all in all under the guidance of Roanna. Though some of us left prior to finishing the training, we still had a blast!
Hours and days passed through our training and there was not a single day wasted…each day was given to us as a chance to learn and grow, not only as future call center agents but as persons, first and foremost. It was just kind of sad because a few days before the end of our training, most of us got sick (and I believe it started with me). I was out of training for two days, and somehow, I felt that those days were lost beyond recovery.
And now, the training is finally over. I haven’t heard much from the people who I used to be with back at ExcelAsia, considering that this is the period of job-hunting and endorsements for most of them. I am sincerely hoping for the best for them. To the “Pioneers” (though I prefer calling our group “Sickos and Psychos”), good luck and my prayers are with you as you go on starting anew in the call center industry. To the other trainees that I’ve been with, still, good luck and I hope you would get what you long for. On the side, I just feel sad that I was not able to know some of the people who I went with during the training…I just had the chance to talk to some during the endorsement day, which was kind of late already. But anyway, my prayers and high hopes for all of you.
As for the afternoon shift trainers (Noel, Al, Camille, Wene, Kat and most especially Roanna), I sincerely thank all of you for being a part of me and every trainees’ growth and learning. Let me speak for the others as I say this: We can assure you that no matter where we’ll end up working (May it be in the call center industry or elsewhere), we will be the best that we can be, thanks to all of you.
To end this little write-up (others will follow soon), I just want to quote something that Roanna shared to us…I’m hoping that everyone else can see its worth:
“Do not concern yourself with the feeling of fear and nervousness in doing something. Rather, concentrate on the feeling of satisfaction after doing what needs to be done”.
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