Kimberly Ilanan – CSR and Transcriptionist

Hi, I’m Kimberly Ilanan but my friends call me Kim.

I grew up with my grandmother because my parents became separated when I was still a little kid. My sister and I were also separated because my grandmother could only afford to support one child, and she chose me. Fortunately, after a while my great aunt took my sister in and put her through school as well.

Living with them was not always easy. I had to do all the chores – simultaneously! I learned multi-tasking and time-management to fit all the schedules into my day. I learned to wake up at 5:00 in the morning to get ready for school as well as cook for their breakfast and clean the dishes before I left. After school, I had to babysit my cousins and help them with their homework before I could begin mine. On non-school days, I did the laundry in the morning, cleaned the house in the afternoon, and ironed all of the clothes in the evening. But I accepted all of this because they were sending me to school.

I believe that to be an effective VA, one should have time-management skills and be able to multi-task so you can meet deadlines and be effective in the entirety of your job.

I went to Bulacan State University and took up Business Administration Major in Management. But unfortunately life I wasn’t able to finish my course because my grandmother passed away during my second year. After that, my world turned upside down. My aunt said that she did not have the capability to send me to school either.

I had a boyfriend at that time and he was the one who gave me the strength to continue my studies. That’s when I learned a lifelong lesson: no one can stop me from achieving what I want to do. I continued going to school even though my boyfriend was the only one supporting my transportation expenses. I struggled finishing my third year in college – but I made it through!

With the financial pressures I decided to pause my studies and work first. I worked as a cashier in a gasoline station and in a grocery store. I interacted with a lot of people every day and learned to provide an excellent customer service experience to every person I met. I also improved my interpersonal communication as I engaged and dealt with customer’s needs.

I fell pregnant at the age of 22 and have a 3 year old son now. I must say, being a mum is one of the greatest gifts God had granted me. Even though there are a lot of times I wonder if I am actually ready to be a mum, when I look at my child, all the worries and fears fade away. Being a good mum is not that simple – but I think this is the one thing that I am really good at. I learned to prioritise things and to be more responsible.

A year after giving birth, my husband and I decided that I needed to find a job because our income didn’t cover all of the needs of our son. I landed a job in a BPO company as a Customer Service Representative handling both customers from the USA and Canada. As an Amazon Customer Representative, I play a critical role in the customer experience – and ultimately repeat business sales funnel. My job requires me to provide a timely, accurate and professional service to all Amazon customers. This vital position requires an action-oriented, flexible problem-solver who will assist customers in expediting orders and correcting post-sales problems. I really enjoyed my job and I planned to stay longer but sadly I had to give it up because no one could look after my son. As my son is more important than anything else in the world to me, I eventually needed to quit my job and attend to his needs.

After months of being a housewife I realised that even though being a housewife is a very tough job, I had so much more to give – and should never settle on being less than I can be. So I set out, determined to look for a home-based job. I am currently performing transcriptions and translations as a part-time job in different companies and hoping to land a permanent job as a Virtual Assistant.

I believe that I’m perfect for the job and if given the chance to be part of your company I’ll make sure to not just put all the effort and skills that I have in… I will also put love and passion into every task that I am assigned.

If you’re reading this, thank you so much – you made it this far! I admit that I’m not a professional writer, but I do believe that everything can be acquired with experience and training.

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