在这期的洋海龟闯荡神州系列里主角是来自菲律宾的JelaxMM。她前两天刚来到上海，在浦东的一个Callcenter工作。

过去大部分的英语Callcenter都设在印度，现在似乎有向中国移动的趋势，而菲律宾等亚太地区讲英语的国家则成为其工作人员的主要来源。

Jelax 在最近的几篇网志里谈到她找工和初到上海时的感受：


Monday, August 02, 2004


the opportunity unfolds



Last April of this year, I went to Hong Kong for an interview for a Customer Support Officer position with a prospective employer. The company is based in California and have offices in Europe and Hong Kong but will soon be opening an office in Shanghai. I was interviewed by the CEO and the Managing Director of the company…over lunch…at a resturant at the airport. Unusually unusual, you could say that! Though they were really accomodating and so down-to-earth, still you can just imagine me being in my most uncomfortable meal ever! Anyway, to make the story short, they said they really liked me and would want to hire me. BUT [I wonder why there’s always a ‘but’ in everything]…… I’d rather not go further into that because of confidentiality reasons.

The company decided to partner with or, rather, be a client of an established callcenter company in Shanghai, which took quite a while to complete the business process. The Group Director of this company had come to Manila last May to interview other prospective applicants for this project. Since I was endorsed by the client to their company, he asked me to meet him up after his interview with the applicants. I could say my meeting wth him was interesting because it was more like an interview…over dinner…at a noisy restaurant. Yes, you got it! Unluckily, it was another very uncomfortable meal for me, but I really appreciate the Group Director’s honesty and frankness in explaining the job position as well as working abroad for a longer period of time. The conversation had somewhat enlightened me and made me even realize the risks, difficulties and challenges of working at a different country.

Last week, the callcenter company’s Group Director called to ask whether I am still interested to work in Shanghai, which I responded a quick “Of course, I am.” However, no matter how exciting an offer is, there’s always a negative or downside aspect to it, which in this case, was indeed very frustrating for me and for my family. So, no wonder when I said that piece of information [which I won’t tell by the way, even if you’d kill me for it], my parents freaked out and quick-as-a-lightning mouthed a big NO. As any good parent who only wants the best for their children, telling me to turn down this opportunity is a correct [and probably perfect] advice. This was probably the reason why I just shut up, listened to the angry words that came out of their mouths and nodded with my eyes closed.

The opportunity now unfolds in front of me. The question is, am I going to take it or not? Taking it could probably mean my parents disowning me as their daughter [which could be the worst case scenario], while rejecting it would not make me miss that opportunity (since another qualified person will eventually take it) but it would leave me with the worst feeling in the world - regret, and for the rest of my life bombard me with “what ifs.” Sure as hell the nastiest feeling, ugh! Simply put, the question could be rephrased as: Family or Regret? Well, I might have made this situation way too complicated…..whatevah! :S

 


Wednesday, August 04, 2004


the word is out



Tadaaaaa! After all the advices that I’ve received from my loved ones and all the careful thinking I’ve done about this, I’ve finally decided to GO for it. It’s been very difficult, I tell yah. But I have to accept this opportunity for several personal reasons. For one, I hate to imagine myself asking “What if?” or saying “I should’ve” for the rest of my life.

Regret, for me, is the most despicable emotion. When one feels regretful, s/he begins to question his/her self-esteem or even his/her sense of well-being, then when s/he realizes that it’s already too late to turn things around, helplessness or desperation settles in and that one thing that s/he truly regrets would haunt him/her for the rest of his/her life. 

Just to share my ingredients on how to make a drink called opportunity: 5 gallons of determination, 4 litres of confidence, 3 pints of divine intervention, 1 ½ mugs of experience, and most important of all, 10 ice-cold glasses of patience. Mix well. Drink moderately and have a fruitful journey. Cheers!


Friday, August 20, 2004


training


Product training last night with the company was very fun, since my colleagues are composed of cool people. We’re four in this group and two of them are my friends whom I’ve referred and got in for the job. Isn’t it such a funny coincidence that all of us came from the same call center company at one point in our lives?

Anyway, my perceptions about the product as interesting and cool were somewhat underrated. During the first part of the training, we were pretty speechless and totally amazed with the robust application. Then came the activity of making an event website, which was so intense, that all of us didn’t get to have lunch. How’s that? How’d you like that? At least, now I know how tedious a meeting planner’s job is. It’s not easy to be doing Samantha Jones’s job in Sex and the City.


Tuesday, September 21, 2004


the adventure begins


Today’s already the 4th day of my amazing adventure in Shanghai. If only every single day of my life here is documented through a reality TV show…aaah! Living in a foreign land with a strange and difficult language for a new exciting career. That should be a fairly interesting show, isn’t it?

I arrived in the “Paris of China” via Cathay Pacific (MNL-HK) and Dragon Air (HK-Shanghai)last Saturday afternoon with Joel and Ely. The city’s soooo vast, enormous, BIG! When it comes to people, I actually expected the Chinese in Mainland China to be as self-contained as the Tsinoys in Binondo. They’re not…they’re very warm and hospitable to foreigners here that they even watch you eat a spoonful of your big plate of fried rice and egg because they were just so amazed at you. That just happened to me this afternoon when we had lunch with Benjamin, one of our bosses, at the noodle shop. Honestly, I’m not used to that kind of attention but it felt good somehow. Strange! Anyway, one thing I noticed though is that people here just cross the streets without any care for the traffic signals. Bargasan dito sa trapik…drivers are as reckless as Pinoy drivers, with the exception of the taxi drivers. Most taxi drivers here are honest and helpful, and their service is systematic, they don’t immediately turn on the meter and they have to issue official transaction receipts to passengers after they pay the fare. Amazing…but not the 10 RMB flat-down rate (Note: 1 RMB = P6.75)!!!

Speaking of prices, the standard of living here is relatively cheap if you know the tricks of the trade. But learning the Mandarin language is one of those tricks. Toiletries are pretty expensive, no wonder most of them here have that despicable smell. In matters of the stomach, hmmm…I miss my food. People here are pork, beef and chicken lovers. Where’s my fish and tuna? Why can’t the world go lacto-pesco vegetarian? Fruits are very expensive as well except kiwi. I haven’t eaten my kind of “cai” (vegetables) since I came here. I hate eating noodles of any kind, I despise oily food and too spicy ones, Shanghainese dishes are very sweet, some are really salty —- different tastes but very typical of a Chinese meal. I don’t like their food that much…why am I here? I miss my family back home…that’s bearable but not the food. What a pity!

Nevertheless, a lot of beautiful things have happened to me here…so far, so good. My bosses have been so nice and so accommodating. Knowing an entirely different culture with an open mind and cool attitude really helps.

I’ve made a list of the names of new people I’ve met here: the lovely ladies of HR - Susan, Effie and Frances with her son, Bobby; the at-first-angry-then-who-became-our-nice-neighbor Arlene; cool bosses - Charles, Benjamin; new colleagues - Eddie and Nick; the friendly locals - Jonathan, the shop owners of our neigborhood and the helpful vendors along the very long Zhangyang Road, where we got lost and walked for two hours looking for the Bank of China just to exchange our peso to reminbi. Yes, getting lost in Shanghai is not funny but it was really fun. :-)


Wednesday, September 22, 2004


sleepless in shanghai



I hate it when I don’t get enough sleep in a day. I feel so groggy and tired - like a zombie…half-awake, half-asleep, half-dead, if there’s such a term. It’s hard to get a decent sleep here. For several days now, we always seem to receive phone calls at home every afternoon to early evening from people at work. If not calls, then visits from them. Just this afternoon, one of our bosses, Benjamin, came to the apartment to introduce Annie. She will be our Mandarin language tutor and “living guide” until next week. It’s so incredibly nice of Ben to help us learn the language and adapt to the new environment. I really appreciate my company’s efforts to make us feel welcome and adapt to their culture. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I know sooner or later as we become more comfortable with the culture and confident with the language, I doubt if they’ll still pay us a visit. Well, of course, they will but certainly not that often anymore.

Anyway, I’m currently in our office situated at the heart of Pudong. There’s no view of the city from my workstation or from the windows but I can hear the noise from the traffic down the streets. But later, everything will be as quiet as the night since the buses’ operations are only from 5am-11pm. You might think it’s strange but in this building of 23 floors, only 6 people are working at night in the office. A few others (maybe 2 or 3 people) are from the maintenance and security. Everyone else might be joining the festivities currently happening at Oriental Pearl Tower, just a 15-minute walk from our building. If not, everyone else might be asleep on this side of Shanghai. Haaay…sleep, don’t play hard to get with me, ok?