Jean Antiquina – Account Manager, Customer Service

First and foremost, let me tell you about my background. Born an Islander from Siquijor Province, I am the youngest among four siblings with an 11-year age gap from my elder sister. I was raised by a truly kind and selfless mother and a strict father who believes discipline is an especially important value in life. Our family’s income mostly comes from the meagre salary of my father, which makes us belong to the low-income level families. This economic status of our family drives me and my siblings to work hard to earn a better income. Basically because of that, I give so much value to my work.

I am a graduate of Bachelor of Business Administration from a State College that has a reputation for implementing strict discipline. Being a product of disciplinarian advocates, I have become a disciplined person as well. It leads to becoming a target and goal-oriented, problem-solver or solution-maker kind of individual.

I tend to be overly meticulous at times because I want to do things right, in order, and in a prim and proper way.

My 8-month short meaningful work experience in a National Government Office (National Food Authority) branch was more on administrative and operation with a mixture of basic accounting tasks. Right there and then, even with a very young mind, I knew I loved administrative tasks.

That put me on the path to my first long employment where I applied in the Queen City of the South here in the Philippines called Cebu City, as an office clerk. I was amazed that instead of the role I applied for, I was offered a higher position and was accepted as an Area Sales Officer in a National Company in the Appliance Industry here in the Philippines.

From there my career has gradually and fully developed. I was facing and dealing with different types of people, being the first contact person in my area of responsibility of B2B clients, while also attending to end consumers’ aftersales concerns down to training and mentoring sales promoters who are the frontlines of the company up to dealing partnered service centres. I was trained to multi-task while managing a branch office as well. I learned to hurdle different challenges in my work life.

The challenges and experiences in my first long employment became the training ground for my next two employment position. They are much related to each other with a few tweaks and I eventually gained more experience in that field.

In my previous work, I helped companies achieve goals and objectives in my area of responsibility.

For growth and career advancement agenda, sometime in 2019, I left and tried a different path aiming to work abroad but for some reasons that plan did not come to fruition. I also tried to venture into a small servicing business related to appliance repairs but due to the pandemic among other factors, had no chance of success and accepted that it was not for me.

You might wonder, why I choose to pursue another career pathing specifically to this Virtual Assistance role.

It is like this…

Way back in 2011, I had an associate who had been working from home as a VA and I met a few more acquaintances who had been working as freelancers, but mostly IT or computer graduates. At that time, my curiosity and interest had grown but I lacked the luxury of time to pursue it.

When the pandemic struck in March 2020, being home quarantined, I was confused and uncertain as to what I could do with my life. That time allowed me to gain knowledge about online skills especially Bookkeeping and Virtual Assistance. At first, I felt less confident to apply because I was not ready and equipped to be a newbie in this field. Gradually I built up my courage to try, and keep on trying to land work from home. I am taking this as the first step of the ladder in working online from home.

Now while on my job hunt journey, I am self-studying and researching e-commerce courses to be equipped in this field too and I want to pursue more in the long run.

I had submitted a bunch of applications out there already and had received interviews and had been rejected because hiring companies prefer to hire applicants with experience in the field. Others simply regarded me as not the most suited applicant for the vacancy. Despite that, I am no longer deeply heart heartbroken if I am rejected in my application because I believe my time will come. I trust that a client or employer will give me a chance to prove my worth and value. Even though my pocket is hurting because I currently have no stable income, I am looking up to Someone Greater Above with my faith in Him that with my skills I will be given a chance to get a work from home jobs.

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