Deosyl R. Bumatay – Store Supervisor

A hardworking, competitive and goal-oriented person, this is Deosyl Bumatay and I’m 26 years old. I have two brothers and two sisters and among them, I’m the youngest one.

I am a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Literature and now I’m currently employed as an assistant store manager in one of the international retail brands.

Before I began this journey, I went through a lot of up and down experiences in life. My dad passed away when I was 11 years old and I was in 4th grade in elementary at that time.

We were in grief as we missed him and knew that we could no longer see him again. To add to the burden, our family also suffered a financial crisis. Though my two sisters worked abroad, it still was not enough to sustain the needs in our household, especially as my brother and I were still studying at that time. From riches to rags perfectly described our life situation. I witnessed and felt how hard our situation was – my mum decided to sell some of our things just to sustain our daily needs and to pay some obligations.

We accumulated a lot of debt with lenders due to tuition fees and our allowances. When I was in 1st year high school, our house had sold and we moved into a rental home. I was so disappointed at that time as our house as our school was nearby and my friends were our neighbours. A lot of adjustments were made after we moved, and at my young age, I matured – driven by our poverty-stricken situation. I went to school with only 15 pennies on hand even to the point without allowance.

I felt pity for myself during that time. However, I did not let our difficulties affect my studies. I focused on my studies thinking that after these hardships, there would be good opportunities awaiting me. It was the only thing that I could use to inspire me, so I romanticised my studies. In fact, all of the hardships and trials I went through, these became my motivation to study hard and to pursue my dreams. It helped me to become a strong person and awakened my maturity for my responsibilities in the future.

I was so happy that I finished my journey in high school holding my diploma. I had succeeded and passed my studies despite the heavy load I carried during my school journey. However this is not the end of the quest… but it’s a beginning of my chapter in my life.

There were still struggles and obstacles blocking my way at this time. I knew that my mum couldn’t afford me to send to university as she had no money for enrolment or for the tuition fees. But I begged my mum that I wanted to study and I promised her that I would study hard. Fortunately, she found a way to enrol me at the University. I knew she loaned money from a money lender just for my study.

I took up Information Technology, as it was my first choice of course and I loved computer works.

At first, all was good. I had new friends and classmates. Uni required a little bit of adjustment as it was different from high school and it was challenging. The saddest part I encountered during this time was, in every examination I did not have permits since my mum had no money to pay for the tuition fee, even though we submitted a promissory note for exemption, but we still failed to pay the tuition fee.

That’s why, I decided to stop my studying and I began to believe it was impossible for me to continue to pursue my dreams, since I couldn’t send myself to school and finish my study. I used to cry myself to sleep at night, wondering if we could ever be free from poverty. I even got to the point that I lost all hope for continuing what I started. I thought to myself, life is unfair. At that time, I decided to work so I applied for jobs in the malls, in offices, etc.

I was hired as service crew in one of the food chains in the food industry. It was a good experience since it was my first job. I learned housekeeping, particularly dining area, interacting with customers, etc. While i was working, I also looked for scholarship programs since I really wanted to finish my studies and pursue my dreams.

I found that the university school that I inquired about had offered scholarships program so I complied with all the requirements and applied for the scholarship. Fortunately, I passed their entrance examination and also got a slot in the scholarship program. 🙂

But as I began enrolling I discovered the Information Technology course was fully loaded. So I took up Bachelor of Arts in Literature instead. I resigned from my work I could focus on my study. I really strived hard to finish my college degree and maintain my high grades for scholarship. Thankfully, scholarship helped me receive an award, and I was a dean lister consecutively from first year to fourth year in college.

After all the sacrifices I went through, those were considered opportunities and lessons. Through these obstacles, I’ve learned to fight to survive in life despite difficulties, I’ve learned to be resilient in every trial that came my way and tried to pull me down, and to become wise as it helps me reach my potential and became productive in life.

At last, I walked along the aisle wearing a black gown and received my diploma. After all, I wander often in life but God never leaves me and He leads me in the path where my dreams dwell. That’s why, I finished my college with pride and valor.

After I graduated in college, I looked at commencing a career that suited to my certification, however I was not able to. Though I applied at different school as an English teacher, they would only accept applicant teachers with a license. I also applied for office work but they needed an applicant with office work experience. Sometimes, I thought to myself, though I am a graduate in college it’s still worthless without work experience. I have good academic grades, I have awards in school, etc. yet it comes to nothing.

Despite being jobless, I never stopped applying – even for the lowest position. Thankfully, regardless how exhausted I was in job hunting, I was finally hired by one of the international retail brands. I started to work as part of the sales staff. In my work experience in sales, I’ve learned how to deal with customers. As there are a lot of customers with different attitudes, observation is required. I learned how to dress our customers well since I worked not just in sales, but also as a fashion stylist and of course, customer service. Then my sales manager promoted me to store supervisor. In my new position, I’ve learned people management, housekeeping rules and regulations, Sales Performance of staff or of the store through KPI (Key Point Indicator), inventory movement, Visual Merchandise Display in the store, store reports through email, and mentoring or coaching people about company tools so they would become efficient sales people.

I have been working in the retail industry for four years and 7 months now, but in different retail brands as assistant store manager.

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