Minerva L. De Gracia – Customer Relations

Hi, I’m Minerva L. de Gracia. At home they call me Neng,at work I used Mynes but for my previous customers I’m using my full name instead because they are having a hard time pronouncing the name Mynes.

I have a happy childhood even though we don’t have enough food to eat then. There’s no toys and there’s no money to buy candies and we don’t have our own house because we’re living with our grandparents but we’re happy and filled with love from our parents for they’re doing their best to support us. I finished a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management.

Now I’m 39 years old and I got married when I was 30 yrs old because I became the breadwinner of the family. It’s my choice because I love my family. I started working since 2002 in Manila. I became a Sales Associate, Cashier, Telephone Operator but the most recent like almost 7 years of my work experience was as a Customer Service from a BPO Company.The first BPO is an healthcare account so we’re catering providers about patient’s benefits and coverage and the second BPO was as Autoparts company; we’re selling aftermarket parts. I’m at the returns department which I handled all the complains about the damaged, defective or lost parts they bought from us or simply changed of mind. My job is to help customers how to return the parts they bought without losing their trust with the company. I really appreciate if customers looking for my name whenever they will do a call or just simply to let me know that they received the replacement already or they found the lost item; it’s really worth it and sometimes there’s a call to my supervisor from my previous customer just to inform my superior on what I did; there’s no any increase on the salary but that’s really fulfilling on my end; simple but a different happiness.

For almost 15 years I’d stayed in Manila to work and I didn’t notice that I’m getting old and my husband is not with me in Manila for he needs to stay in Pampanga with his mother because of her heart condition so we’re seeing each other every weekends or four times a month only because it’s my day-off. We’re now almost 10 years married and we’re not yet blessed with baby. I’d taken a lot of medicines and consulted to different OB’s, I have polycystic ovaries that’s why it’s hard for me to conceived so I decided to stay in Pampanga with my husband for good. It’s really a tough decision to make but I’ve realized that I’m already turning 40 this November so I need to focus more to my self to have a baby and my parents were not getting any younger for they are both in the 70’s and needs more attention. I felt that they need me more physically with them than anything material.

I quit to my job last December of 2017. I’m helping my husband with his small online business which is making Chilli Paste. It’s not enough to provide all the needs with our business since I’m still supporting my parents and most of the time I’m having a second thought if I did the correct decision? When I’m confused and I don’t know what to do..I just pray and think all the people that loved and always behind me no matter what so I need to moved on and strive hard so I tried to apply as an ESL teacher but they required higher specs and an headset with noise cancellation which I don’t have. I want to work again that I don’t need to go out that’s why I chose home based so I tried to search almost everyday and it’s always for VA’s hiring and I don’t have any background as VA but I believe anything is possible if you will work for it with passion and as long as your open for learnings and criticisms everything will be easy. There’s no easy path but if we will start to believe in ourselves and look back all the difficulties we had before and the people who is always behind us whenever we fail..everything will comes naturally and you can achieve it effortlessly.

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