Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
New Work - God's Gift to Me
Today was my third day in my new work. So far, so good. Though I don't have a PC yet. I should expect my PC to arrive either tomorrow or Friday. They bought new PCs for the whole company. The brand that they chose was DELL because DELL has an ongoing promotion for office PCs.
Anyway, that's beside the main point for my blog entry today. Let me share to you how God has blessed me with this new job. First and foremost, I have complaining countless number of times about my old job. Thank you for those people who have listened to my rants and complaints. There are 4 major things why I didn't like my job.
1. I don't learn much.
Yes. I really don't learn much. I want to learn how to start my own business, so that is why I'm currently working in a small company rather than a large company. I have experienced working in a large company already, and it didn't teach me much about starting my own business. Working in a large company won't help you to learn much things on starting my own business because all the processes are already fixed. You do a certain aspect of the business, and you don't get to see the big picture. Also, in my old company, what I do is do maintenance work for card printers, help customers with their problems, and create a company website. These things are too easy and I don't get to learn much.
2. Low pay
In my old job, the pay is considerable low. I talked with my dad about it and he said that it's okay. This is just a stepping stone for me to go to Hong Kong to work. Well, that is true. It was only a stepping stone for me to go to Hong Kong to work because the experience that I will get working in Hong Kong will be much, much different from the experience that I will get by working in the Philippines.
3. Too far from my home
Yes. Sha tin is really far from my home (I live in North Point, Hong Kong Island). It takes me 30 minutes to get to work by bus and it costs me 31 HKD per day just for transportation! It is that expensive.
4. Smart card program
My dad and I are planning to start a business that concerns programming stuff in smart cards. Sad to say, in my old company, they didn't teach me how to do it. They hardly taught me anything because the guy there was lazy and afraid that I would be the one who would replace him someday since jobs in Hong Kong are very competitive.
I prayed to God that He would bless me with another job. A better job than the job I had. He did answer my prayer! Actually, it was prayers. My parents and grandma prayed for me too. In my new job:
1. I think I will learn much.
This company that I'm in is a technical company. It offers business solutions to restaurants and hotels. They have the loyalty card promo for Ruby Tuesday Kuwait and Intercontinental Hotels Group in Kuwait. I'm currently learning how to program in ASP and use MS SQL for the database.
2. Higher pay.
This company offered me a higher pay than my old one. In addition to that, I would receive a raise when I finish my regularization period (3 months).
3. Near
This new company is quite near to my home. I now work in Central, the business district in Hong Kong. I always wanted to work in Central. But I don't want to have lunch in Central because there are a lot of people during lunch time! And I mean, A LOT!
4. Smart card business
Our main business plan is starting a loyalty program for restaurants and hotels. Actually, this is a great opportunity because this company offers this kind of service! How ironic! :)
5. Travel
I didn't mention travel in my other company because I was not given the chance. I always wanted to travel! My current boss talked to me awhile ago and told me that I will accompany him going to Kuwait for a business trip! Imagine! I can go to another country for free! Well, I can take a look around during the weekends there. Such a great opportunity because I love traveling to different places in the world.
Overall, I really regard this new company as a great blessing from God. Actually, to be honest, even before I interviewed for this position, I have already felt that everything is part of God's plan and His plan is for me to join this new company. Ever felt something so certain even before it was given to you? Well, I thought and felt this while I was washing dishes (what a time to be reflecting!:P) and preparing myself for the interview.
This is really a great blessing from God. Just want to offer up my thanksgiving to the Lord! :) :)
Anyway, that's beside the main point for my blog entry today. Let me share to you how God has blessed me with this new job. First and foremost, I have complaining countless number of times about my old job. Thank you for those people who have listened to my rants and complaints. There are 4 major things why I didn't like my job.
1. I don't learn much.
Yes. I really don't learn much. I want to learn how to start my own business, so that is why I'm currently working in a small company rather than a large company. I have experienced working in a large company already, and it didn't teach me much about starting my own business. Working in a large company won't help you to learn much things on starting my own business because all the processes are already fixed. You do a certain aspect of the business, and you don't get to see the big picture. Also, in my old company, what I do is do maintenance work for card printers, help customers with their problems, and create a company website. These things are too easy and I don't get to learn much.
2. Low pay
In my old job, the pay is considerable low. I talked with my dad about it and he said that it's okay. This is just a stepping stone for me to go to Hong Kong to work. Well, that is true. It was only a stepping stone for me to go to Hong Kong to work because the experience that I will get working in Hong Kong will be much, much different from the experience that I will get by working in the Philippines.
3. Too far from my home
Yes. Sha tin is really far from my home (I live in North Point, Hong Kong Island). It takes me 30 minutes to get to work by bus and it costs me 31 HKD per day just for transportation! It is that expensive.
4. Smart card program
My dad and I are planning to start a business that concerns programming stuff in smart cards. Sad to say, in my old company, they didn't teach me how to do it. They hardly taught me anything because the guy there was lazy and afraid that I would be the one who would replace him someday since jobs in Hong Kong are very competitive.
I prayed to God that He would bless me with another job. A better job than the job I had. He did answer my prayer! Actually, it was prayers. My parents and grandma prayed for me too. In my new job:
1. I think I will learn much.
This company that I'm in is a technical company. It offers business solutions to restaurants and hotels. They have the loyalty card promo for Ruby Tuesday Kuwait and Intercontinental Hotels Group in Kuwait. I'm currently learning how to program in ASP and use MS SQL for the database.
2. Higher pay.
This company offered me a higher pay than my old one. In addition to that, I would receive a raise when I finish my regularization period (3 months).
3. Near
This new company is quite near to my home. I now work in Central, the business district in Hong Kong. I always wanted to work in Central. But I don't want to have lunch in Central because there are a lot of people during lunch time! And I mean, A LOT!
4. Smart card business
Our main business plan is starting a loyalty program for restaurants and hotels. Actually, this is a great opportunity because this company offers this kind of service! How ironic! :)
5. Travel
I didn't mention travel in my other company because I was not given the chance. I always wanted to travel! My current boss talked to me awhile ago and told me that I will accompany him going to Kuwait for a business trip! Imagine! I can go to another country for free! Well, I can take a look around during the weekends there. Such a great opportunity because I love traveling to different places in the world.
Overall, I really regard this new company as a great blessing from God. Actually, to be honest, even before I interviewed for this position, I have already felt that everything is part of God's plan and His plan is for me to join this new company. Ever felt something so certain even before it was given to you? Well, I thought and felt this while I was washing dishes (what a time to be reflecting!:P) and preparing myself for the interview.
This is really a great blessing from God. Just want to offer up my thanksgiving to the Lord! :) :)
Monday, June 16, 2008
Reflection on Work (Both Past and Present)
The other day, I was talking to Joyce about support work. I was telling her a lot of stuff that I did not like about support work and how America is controlling poor countries like the Philippines. Here are some of my reflections on the two subjects: Support Work and America.
- Support Work
After working for HP as service management (SM) for 14 months, here are some of my insights regarding service management work. To be honest, when I entered HP, I did not know what service management meant. I just thought, "Wow! I'm going to work in HP and it's my dream company! I'm really excited!" Though my dad did not really approve that I work in HP, he still gave me his approval to work in HP because he knew that I wanted to work in HP. To be real honest, I did not really like support work. Firstly, it was because of the weird times that we were required to work. Since WOM is a global application, we work on shifts (Asia shift, EMEA shift, and NA shift). It ruins your body clock, especially NA shift. I really, really hate NA shift. You can't really have a good decent sleep if your on NA shift. Because the whole Philippines is awake and you're the only one sleeping. (Poor people working in call centers.) Even though the compensation for working on shifts is good, but your health would still deteriorate. Would you give up your health just to work on shifts? Well, that the question is really up to you to answer. Secondly, if you're working as SM and a page comes along, you would have to cut short your lunch. That really sucks! You really deserve a break time to sit down and eat dinner. But you couldn't because you got work to do. Yeah, people would tell me, you can still have your break later on. But what if you're eating out with your friends and you're the Duty Manager (DM) for that shift? You would have to tell your friends that you have to go because you have work to do. And the incident depends on the impact or level of the incident. Lastly, service management seldomly offers opportunities for travel. One of the main reasons that I chose HP to work to is because of the opportunity to travel. Sadly, for WOM, there was only one travel for the year 2007. Just imagine, only 1! I really envy my other batchmates in other teams that they got the opportunity to go to other countries for work. I really love travelling, and it really sucks that I did not get the chance to travel to another country. Well, that's life.. :)
- America
My point of view on America is really on the negative side. I don't know if I became anti-American nowadays or what. But these are just the things that I noticed about them. During meetings, they would often schedule a meeting that is convenient for them. Let's say, they would schedule it 8 am or 9 am in the morning. For them, they're already sacrificing because they have to come to office one hour earlier just for the meeting. But come to think of it, what about people in Asia? It's night time already here in Asia! Didn't they think that some people have been working since 9 am in the morning and they would still schedule the meeting 8 pm or 9 pm Asia time? That's really inconsiderate of them. Just like what Joyce told me that other day. She was in the office since 9 am and she has to stay until 3 am in the morning just for a conference call. Wow! Talk about being considerate! More or less, you stayed in the office already for 24 hours! That's tripled that work time required for people right? Shouldn't work be 8 hours a day only? In addition to that, those people in America are just there sitting pretty. When it comes to conference calls, they just talk and talk. They don't really do the work. Poor countries do the work for them (outsourcing). They just talk and tell people what they want to be done or want to achieve. They don't really do any work. Well, there are really many factors behind that. Such as colonial mentality, low labour costs, etc. Back in grade school and high school, you would really read in books that America is a great country. Especially in the Philippine history area which talks about the Spaniards, Americans, and Japanese. Guess who among the three, according to the book, gave so much contribution to the Philippines. Yup! You are right! The Americans. Also, the cost of living in the Philippines is relatively low. Just imagine, the salary of a CEO in the Philippines is just equivalent to a white collared or a blue collared regular employee in the Philippines. That's how low the salary of a non-American in a poor country is. Talk about discrimination!
Finally, when I was interviewing for a job here in Hong Kong, when asked, "What work did you do in HP?" I could find the words to describe my work. When I tell them service management work. They would ask me, what is service management work? I told them I do support work, meaning post-production work, and we have clients all over the world. They would tell me, so it's like a call center. I told them, something like that. To be honest, there are only a few differences between service management work and a call center work. In service management, you don't really get to talk to clients directly. That's the main diffence. Otherwise, its almost basically the same. Also, I remember what my cousin told me. What your work is right now would really impact on what you do in the future. For example, if you're currently a security guard, the next job that you will find would still be a security guard because that has been your experience, and you already know the ropes, the not-to's, etc. of being a security guard. In other words, no matter what kind of job you do, you'll basically do the same kind of job again in the future. Unless, you would choose another career path, which would basically mean starting again from scratch.
- Support Work
After working for HP as service management (SM) for 14 months, here are some of my insights regarding service management work. To be honest, when I entered HP, I did not know what service management meant. I just thought, "Wow! I'm going to work in HP and it's my dream company! I'm really excited!" Though my dad did not really approve that I work in HP, he still gave me his approval to work in HP because he knew that I wanted to work in HP. To be real honest, I did not really like support work. Firstly, it was because of the weird times that we were required to work. Since WOM is a global application, we work on shifts (Asia shift, EMEA shift, and NA shift). It ruins your body clock, especially NA shift. I really, really hate NA shift. You can't really have a good decent sleep if your on NA shift. Because the whole Philippines is awake and you're the only one sleeping. (Poor people working in call centers.) Even though the compensation for working on shifts is good, but your health would still deteriorate. Would you give up your health just to work on shifts? Well, that the question is really up to you to answer. Secondly, if you're working as SM and a page comes along, you would have to cut short your lunch. That really sucks! You really deserve a break time to sit down and eat dinner. But you couldn't because you got work to do. Yeah, people would tell me, you can still have your break later on. But what if you're eating out with your friends and you're the Duty Manager (DM) for that shift? You would have to tell your friends that you have to go because you have work to do. And the incident depends on the impact or level of the incident. Lastly, service management seldomly offers opportunities for travel. One of the main reasons that I chose HP to work to is because of the opportunity to travel. Sadly, for WOM, there was only one travel for the year 2007. Just imagine, only 1! I really envy my other batchmates in other teams that they got the opportunity to go to other countries for work. I really love travelling, and it really sucks that I did not get the chance to travel to another country. Well, that's life.. :)
- America
My point of view on America is really on the negative side. I don't know if I became anti-American nowadays or what. But these are just the things that I noticed about them. During meetings, they would often schedule a meeting that is convenient for them. Let's say, they would schedule it 8 am or 9 am in the morning. For them, they're already sacrificing because they have to come to office one hour earlier just for the meeting. But come to think of it, what about people in Asia? It's night time already here in Asia! Didn't they think that some people have been working since 9 am in the morning and they would still schedule the meeting 8 pm or 9 pm Asia time? That's really inconsiderate of them. Just like what Joyce told me that other day. She was in the office since 9 am and she has to stay until 3 am in the morning just for a conference call. Wow! Talk about being considerate! More or less, you stayed in the office already for 24 hours! That's tripled that work time required for people right? Shouldn't work be 8 hours a day only? In addition to that, those people in America are just there sitting pretty. When it comes to conference calls, they just talk and talk. They don't really do the work. Poor countries do the work for them (outsourcing). They just talk and tell people what they want to be done or want to achieve. They don't really do any work. Well, there are really many factors behind that. Such as colonial mentality, low labour costs, etc. Back in grade school and high school, you would really read in books that America is a great country. Especially in the Philippine history area which talks about the Spaniards, Americans, and Japanese. Guess who among the three, according to the book, gave so much contribution to the Philippines. Yup! You are right! The Americans. Also, the cost of living in the Philippines is relatively low. Just imagine, the salary of a CEO in the Philippines is just equivalent to a white collared or a blue collared regular employee in the Philippines. That's how low the salary of a non-American in a poor country is. Talk about discrimination!
Finally, when I was interviewing for a job here in Hong Kong, when asked, "What work did you do in HP?" I could find the words to describe my work. When I tell them service management work. They would ask me, what is service management work? I told them I do support work, meaning post-production work, and we have clients all over the world. They would tell me, so it's like a call center. I told them, something like that. To be honest, there are only a few differences between service management work and a call center work. In service management, you don't really get to talk to clients directly. That's the main diffence. Otherwise, its almost basically the same. Also, I remember what my cousin told me. What your work is right now would really impact on what you do in the future. For example, if you're currently a security guard, the next job that you will find would still be a security guard because that has been your experience, and you already know the ropes, the not-to's, etc. of being a security guard. In other words, no matter what kind of job you do, you'll basically do the same kind of job again in the future. Unless, you would choose another career path, which would basically mean starting again from scratch.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
My Friends 朋友 - Dedicated to My HS Barkada
Lately, I've been playing and playing this song again and again and again... Currently, I think this is one of my favorite songs. Below are the lyrics of the songs:
這些年一個人
All these years, alone
風也過雨也走
The wind has passed, the rain has gone
有過淚有過錯
There were tears, there were wrongs
還記得堅持什麼
Things we hold dear I still recall
真愛過才會懂
If you've had true love, then you would know
會寂寞會回首
There is loneliness, there are goodbyes
終有夢終有你在心中
There are dreams, always there is you in my heart
朋友一生一起走那些日子不再有
Friends walk this life together
一句話一輩子
One word, one life
一生情一杯酒
A lifetime relationship, a cup of wine
朋友不曾孤單過
With friends you won't be lonely
一聲朋友你會懂
Lifelong friends, you'd understand
還有傷還有痛
There are wounds, there is pain
還要走
Must go our separate ways
還有我
Always there is me
This is a great song about friendship. Chinese words really have deep meanings. I did not translate this. I just lifted it from a website. Haha! Also, I really, really hate it when they translate the words, especially to Tagalog. It really loses the essence of the meaning of the words or songs. In short, nagiging skwater pakinggan! Especially the Kim Chiu and MYMP song. Yuck! Don't mix two languages together in one song please! Anyways, this song is dedicated to my whole barkada: Joyce, Sheena, Lawrence, Louise, Kesmin, Jumie, Mary, Tim, and Andrew. :) Miss you guys! :)
這些年一個人
All these years, alone
風也過雨也走
The wind has passed, the rain has gone
有過淚有過錯
There were tears, there were wrongs
還記得堅持什麼
Things we hold dear I still recall
真愛過才會懂
If you've had true love, then you would know
會寂寞會回首
There is loneliness, there are goodbyes
終有夢終有你在心中
There are dreams, always there is you in my heart
朋友一生一起走那些日子不再有
Friends walk this life together
一句話一輩子
One word, one life
一生情一杯酒
A lifetime relationship, a cup of wine
朋友不曾孤單過
With friends you won't be lonely
一聲朋友你會懂
Lifelong friends, you'd understand
還有傷還有痛
There are wounds, there is pain
還要走
Must go our separate ways
還有我
Always there is me
This is a great song about friendship. Chinese words really have deep meanings. I did not translate this. I just lifted it from a website. Haha! Also, I really, really hate it when they translate the words, especially to Tagalog. It really loses the essence of the meaning of the words or songs. In short, nagiging skwater pakinggan! Especially the Kim Chiu and MYMP song. Yuck! Don't mix two languages together in one song please! Anyways, this song is dedicated to my whole barkada: Joyce, Sheena, Lawrence, Louise, Kesmin, Jumie, Mary, Tim, and Andrew. :) Miss you guys! :)
Monday, June 09, 2008
No Work Today - One Day After Tuen Ng Festival
It's great that there's no work today! Got to rest for one more since considering that I have five and a half days work. I really like this day because I get to really enjoy the holiday. Unlike when I was working in HP, even during holidays, we have work (which really sucks, but you can't do anything about it.) Woke up at around 9:30 am today, watched game 2 of the NBA finals. Referees in the game are so stupid! Ticky tac fouls are being called against the Lakers, but the obvious fouls against the Celtics aren't being called! It's like the Lakers were up against two opponents (Refs and the Celtics)! Anyway, the Lakers made an amazing comeback, but fell short (which is too bad). Had lunch with my cousin, Lloyd, grandma, and grandma's church friends at a Chinese dimsum restaurant near our place. In the afternoon, I just slept and woke up at around 5 pm. Got work tom. I'm want an extended vacation, and did I mention that I hate Saturday work???
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Black Rain in Hong Kong
This is the first time that I experienced black rain in Hong Kong. Rain was falling non-stop and some of the streets in Hong Kong are already flooded. It seems that they separate the signals for rain and wind. For rain, it's yellow rain, red rain, and black rain. Yellow, I think, classes are suspended for the kindergarten level and primary level. Red, for high school and college. Black, for all of Hong Kong, meaning people who are working. For the hurricane signals, I'm not quite sure of the number. But the worst that I've experienced was signal number 8. My umbrella was being blown away. Wind was very strong, and I mean very strong. Offices were suspended and people were asked to go home. It was very crowded in the MTR. People kept pushing each other. Made me reminisce my experience with the MRT in Manila. Actually, people in Manila who are riding the MRT always push each other around. It made me think if people here are more disciplined than the people in Manila. But according to my dad, Hong Kong people are scary which is why people don't push each other around. Well, I got home that day safe, but I won't forget that day. That was the only time that someone pushed me inside the MTR (other than the MRT in Manila). Well, I get to rest today. No half day work on Saturdays! :) Yehey! Monday is a holiday too. So, I get more or less 3 days vacation. Which is great! :)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
My Hong Kong Life
Been here in Hong Kong for 2 weeks already. So far, so good. I'm enjoying myself. If only we didn't have the school in Manila, we would have migrated here in Hong Kong. Everything is so convenient. Transportation is awesome! No stupid bus drivers, like in Manila, causing all the traffic waiting for customers. There's hardly any traffic at all here in Hong Kong! The bus that I take is Bus 168. It normally takes me 30 minutes to go to my office is Sha Tin. Imagine, from North Point (Hong Kong Island) to Sha Tin (New Territories), it only takes me 30 minutes! And Sha Tin is very far from North Point. In addition to that, Sha Tin is where Cecilia lives. I can crash at here place when she's here in Hong Kong! (I hope!) After a long time of no blogging, here I am, blogging again. Here are a few updates with my life so far:
- Life
- Life is great right now! New country! New language to learn and new culture. To be honest, a better country than the Philippines because this is a first world country. Everything is so high tech! You can purchase movie tickets online, pay for them using your mobile phone! (I saw this is a Japanese show that they have this in Japan) You don't have to line up. So far, I'm definitely enjoying. Oh, did I mention that the food here is awesome! Haha!
- Work
- Work so far is okay. The company I'm working for is Smartcard Systems Limited here in Hong Kong. So far, work has been boring. They asked me to update their website. I've finished updating the site and is now uploading them to the internet. I used a free web hosting (Zymic, I think is that name) to store the site temporarily. My cousin (the one who referred me to the company) is in Taiwan, so he can't really approve if the website can be posted already. The office is so far away, I spend $30.4 HKD per day just for the bus ride! The food, on the other hand, costs around $30 HKD! So, in a day, I spend more or less $60 HKD! That's P300+! Haha! It's too expensive. Got to save money!
- Friends
- Friends so far have been great. Met a few of them already when I was here last March. We went out last Saturday and watched Indiana Jones. Movie was okay. I'm not really an Indiana Jones fan. The movie that I'm waiting for is Batman the Dark Knight which comes out this July 2008! Can't wait for it!
- Church
- Went to ECC (Evangelical Community Church) for Sunday worship last Sunday. This church is a one of a kind church, I tell you! This is the only church that I know who offers unlimited Starbucks while having the message! You offer $10 HKD as donation! Imagine! $10 HKD only and you get unlimited Starbucks! Wow! That's incredible! Most people going to this church are Americans. (Well, the message is in English, that's why! Haha!)
- Love Life
- Just one word to sum it up: ZERO. Haha! Even highlighted it just to emphasize the point. Will give an update if there is. Haha!
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