Aya Tolentino – Customer Service, Administrative Assistant

Hi! I’m Aya from the Philippines.

12 years ago, I obtained my Bachelor’s Degree in Office Administration from De La Salle University-Dasmarinas. Just after graduation, I was diagnosed with a hearing problem. The doctor said that I’m not deaf, it’s just that I have difficulty in understanding the words that I hear if spoken very quickly, but this disability did not hinder me from establishing my career.

And so my first job was as an Accounting Clerk in a Private Non-Sectarian school. My main tasks were to provide bookkeeping assistance on the school’s accountant such as preparation of Journal, Ledger, and Cash Receipts Book and so on. I enjoyed working on this job since everything was new to me. All of my co-workers were rooting for me to be regularised after my probationary period, however, due to a tight budget they decided to end my contract for the reason that their priority is the salaries of teachers.

With a heavy heart, it was my time to look for another job. After 3 months I got hired for my 2nd job as an Administrative Assistant for a Japanese manufacturing company, Hoya Glass Disk Philippines Inc. (Plant 3). I was one of the pioneer members of this Company. I have witnessed the company be built from scratch.

I was first assigned to the Warehouse Section where my tasks were: Preparation of Receiving Report of all incoming local and imported deliveries, receiving deliveries and counter checking items, participating in the monthly inventory of stocks, and so on.

Since the company was a start-up, we were told by Human Resources to be flexible as they might move us to other sections if deemed necessary. That’s where I became assigned to the General Affairs section, wherein my main tasks were to prepare for RFP (Request for Payment) for Billings, Online PR (Purchase Requisition) and MRIS (Material Requisition/Issuance Slip), Maintenance of Security and Attendance Report and so on.

I thought this would be the last time that they would re-assign us on another section, but I was wrong. They had me transferred again and this time it was on the Import & Export section. My main tasks were to arrange the outgoing shipments of our finished goods to clients’ overseas, such as sending Shipping Instructions to Forwarders for the arrangement of export bookings, preparation of constructive export documents of Air and Sea Shipments, coordinates to customers’ inquiries overseas, Coordinates to PPC (Production Planning Control) for the schedule of shipments, coordinates with Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) & Bureau of Customs (BOC) regarding all incoming and outgoing deliveries and so on.

Of all my jobs, I discovered that handling shipments are my passion as I do not feel tired of doing the job even if I used to work overtime, during weekends and during holidays. After 4 years of being with this company, my hard work paid off. I was about to get promoted until an unexpected announcement that the company will be permanently shut down due to tight competition in China.

Hence, it was time again to look for another job. I got the same position in the next company, Tomen Electronics Singapore (Manila Representative Office).

After more than a year, I left the company for the reason that I will be hired by my parents to manage their small business and this is where I became a branch manager. Most of my jobs were Customer Service and Booking of flights. After 4 years of managing the business, my parents decided to just close it due to bankruptcy caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

This is where I began to start looking for a job as a virtual assistant. Having 11 years of experience in the corporate world, I have decided to pursue a different career for the main reason that I like the flexibility in hours that a stay at home position offers. I tend to do my best work in the afternoon or at night. Ultimately, I am more productive when working from home than commuting to an office and wasting time stuck in traffic. By the way, traffic is your worst nightmare in the Philippines.

I know I’m a newbie with this remote work set up but I am very much willing to learn and adapt. Some of the tools that Virtual Assistants use nowadays that I am aware of are: Zoom and RingCentral for conferences/meetings, Calendly for calendar scheduling, Skype for Video Call and Chat, and other Google Software. These tools may be few but I can’t wait to learn more as time goes by.

So here I am taking the chance to become a successful work-from-home mum, geared up with my skills and experience from the corporate world and ready to help an organisation succeed. I’m keeping in mind to never settle and always learn, be self-confident, passionate, and dedicated like I was with my previous jobs. If you would give me a chance to be a part of your company, I will do my best to prove I am worthy of that position. Try me!

For a copy of Aya’s resume please click here.