Kariza Gay Balitos – Customer/Technical Support

I am a single mum with three lovely children. They’re 11, 8 and 6 years old. They inspire me so much to always do great at work and be a better person. They are my motivation in life!

I have been working in BPO industry since 2012, handling mostly American and Australian companies. I did customer service most of the time and other times I was a Technical Support Representative.

I am always open to new ideas and new kinds of job. I am always willing to learn. Experience is the best lesson in life! I don’t know why but I’ve also wanted to experience working as a cashier, a dishwasher, a waitress. It makes me laugh but those are decent jobs. I like talking to people when I am at work.

Other than working in BPO, I have also experienced working as a saleslady at a department store in my hometown, it’s at minimum wage but I enjoyed it for a couple of months, just standing by the dish-washing products of the supermarket and assisting customers. I always have a little chit chat with the customers. I guess because I’m just really talkative hahaha! I did not work there for long because the typhoon Haiyan struck our city. It was really sad, devastating and terrible! We were all horrified by what it caused us. Thousands of people died and you would just see dead bodies on the streets. We did not have relief goods or assistance until a week later. So there was ransacking in malls, convenient stores and drugstores. We did not have electricity for about 6 months! That was the worst thing I have ever experienced! We lost everything including our house. A lot of our neighbours died and they were very close to us. Heavy rains have become a trauma to everybody, we now evacuate to the church right away when it rains because we are scared. I was 2 months pregnant at the time with my daughter.

After the typhoon Haiyan, LGUs and NGO’s from all over the country and all over the world came to our city. One of my friends helped me get a job from USaid (an american NGO), so I worked temporarily as a field enumerator where me and my friend travel outside our city and go to remote areas. We did some surveys with schools and we did house to house surveys as well. These people were also affected by the typhoon Haiyan. It was a great experience! We did long walks going from one village to another, we got tired because there weren’t a lot of transportation services at that time.

There’s a lot to do in life. It’s tiring but it’s fun! As for me, since I have three kids to take care of, usually when I come home after work, I will have to help them prepare for school, and cook their food. When they’re off, that’s when I rest. I really don’t get much sleep but I guess my body got the hang of it as well. Even on my days off, I would do the house chores all at the same time! I would wash dishes while cooking and do the laundry then clean the entire house! Maybe it’s because I have OCD, I want everything neat. It hurts my eyes to see cluttered stuff. I just want everything neat and organised, it makes me happy!

Sometimes I would go out to chill, with beers or wine, alone or with friends, it doesn’t matter. I am sort of a loner but I have so many friends too that sometimes I get so lazy going out because of many invites.

I am the type of person who’s very flexible. I do not complain a lot as long as I know what I’m doing. I tend to make friends right away, intentionally or not, in restaurants or at a bar, at the supermarket, on the streets and in the office. I’m the kind who doesn’t get depressed easily because I really don’t want to stress myself. I don’t want wrinkles hahaha! I love to laugh, out loud and exaggerated! I easily laugh even with not so funny things or people, but it cures my heart, and it cures me when I’m sad. I have a lot of reasons to laugh. My friends love me because I am genuine and honest, and I always care about the people around me, like I would catch a bullet for them. I even care about my customers on the phone, even if I do not know them personally. I always treat them as somebody I used to know, it’s the reason why I always get a customer’s satisfaction survey. They would always say that I really sound helpful and willing to help them. My voice says it all!

So what I really want in life is to have a stable job for my kids, so that I can send them all to college. I have high hopes for a living. I want my children to do greater, manifest destiny and make a legacy! I got to help them. Someday I will get tired working and what I want is somebody to work for me instead, like owning a company, any form of business. I don’t have specifics. As long as I have a decent job, I will make sure to be an achiever to climb up the ladder ^_^

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