I just read an article today in the Sunday Inquirer about College 101. It was written by Cate De Leon. I agree with her 100% that as parents, we should not expect our kids to be copycats of ourselves. We were born in different times, dates, situations, et cetera. It's like forcing yourself to eat something you hate so much. Or doing something that is out of your league. Geez. I just don't understand why some parents still insist that their kids take up the course they took up that made them successful. That doesn't mean that those kids will also succeed in that endeavor, unless they really want that same thing, definitely for different reasons.
There was one time I had this liking to become part of the Cadette Officers Candidate Course, just like my sister. I told myself back then, "If she could do it, why couldn't I?" That stuck in my head for several years until my time came and it was in a totally different scenario.
I was not the top 10 in class nor was I one of the intelligent students. I was just an average kid living a simple life. My sister was more intelligent and she handled a whole battalion as the Battalion Adjutant in her haydays. I became the Delta 2 Platoon Leader during my time. There's really such a big difference.
In other words, I am not my sister. I AM ME. Not my DAD, not my Mom, nor my Brother. I AM ME. I will always be me. I will always think differently than my sister. And that's the way it will always be.
That's why I was lucky to have chosen my career path without people breathing down my neck. I listened to other people then. I wanted photography as a subject so I took up communication arts in De La Salle University Manila and got my wish. And part of the course was writing, which was one of my first loves. So, I knew I was in the right course.
After I graduated, I applied as an account executive, photographer, writer, translator, transcriber and got those jobs that I wanted and I am proud to say that in every job that I was in, I was happy and proud that it was something that I really wanted to do.
I hope you could do the same to your kids too. You want your kids to be happy, right? Make them do the choosing and deciding for themselves and that will make them proud of you as a parent. Believe me, I've been there.
Thank you for reading.
Showing posts with label writer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writer. Show all posts
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Two Days in the Life of an Applicant - Geez!
Well, good day, folks! Today, I went to another appointment in an office in Pasig. I was applying as a web content writer for this data solutions company. I actually didn't know what I was getting into but I tried my best to answer the exams.
The first exam was about writing an article spoiler for a television series which starred Kiefer Sutherland and the other one was to write a biography and something about the characters of a super hero in a television series. The first one took me almost an hour to finish because even if it was that famous on cable, I wasn't watching the series, not even a glimpse of it. The one about the super hero thingy, that, too, I didn't know anything about but thanks to technology, I was able to get information about them and was able to finish the exam. So, I thought the exam would cover just those topics but I was wrong.
I was handed another exam. It was about re-writing this article on Insurance for senior citizens. It was a long article that I had to re-write. It practically took me another hour to finish because I wasn't sure how I would attack the article. I don't know how I get to do it, but I get to finish these tough exams even if I wanted to give up right at the start, like I just want to hand over the exam to the girl assisting me and tell her, "Ma'am, I don't think I could do this. I give up. Thank you for your time anyway." But, no, I didn't. I went on with it and even got to do something about it. When I thought that it was hopeless, that I wouldn't be able to understand what the topic was about or something. The instructions were to rewrite the whole article and change the title to a slightly different slant from the original and make sure that no phrases are copied exactly the same way as in the article. But I couldn't not copy some phrases because these were quotations from the article's sources that's why I retained their thought.
Anyway, just hope and pray that I pass, which is somewhat 50-50. I am not that confident I would get this job. I certainly have reservations about it. But it would be okay if I get accepted though.
But that's not the only job I applied for. Yesterday, I went to this office in Makati where I took audio transcription exams. The first one was quite tough because of the quality of the material and the voices of the speakers weren't that clear. It took me quite some time to finish the task. Maybe it was around half an hour of transcription or so for a 2-minute worth of audio material. That's something, isn't it? When I thought I could do that in a jiffy since I could understand different English accents because of frequent watching of foreign films.
But the problem was I was quite disappointed with what the first interviewer told me. I was too slow for their line of work because the files of audio materials were mostly that kind of quality and the transcriber would have to transcribe the file in real time, if not in just a few minutes, not 20 nor 30, in 3 or 5 minutes only! Can you beat that? I was really so depressed when I found out that I couldn't transcribe that fast. And I was told I couldn't keep going back to the audio material leisurely because I was really time pressured. Or else the files would pile up and they would lose clients.
So I guess, that job isn't exactly for me. And the pay isn't really that much. There would be training and it's night shift and I would receive just 7,000 for the training period. It was something like, hey, I have kids to feed and look after, I can't simply take in that amount, it wouldn't be enough. I was asking for an amount more than twice that given but I don't think they're willing to do so because of the way I typed in the exam.
There were several short audio files then and I thought I did well with them. There was one that was worth 1 and a half minutes. But I finished it in 20 minutes, tops. Gosh, the audio was poor because of the generation loss of the tape because it was taken from an answering machine then passed on to the computer that's why it's not from an original source. Maybe it's not the job for me too, huh?
Wow, this is the first time I tried to write in a blog and this is what turned out. A novel. Well, it's sharing my experience to other people, if they get to read my blog. I hope they won't get bored. Til next time. I'll see you soon! I'll write another exciting snippet of my life here on the Cat in the Bag.
The first exam was about writing an article spoiler for a television series which starred Kiefer Sutherland and the other one was to write a biography and something about the characters of a super hero in a television series. The first one took me almost an hour to finish because even if it was that famous on cable, I wasn't watching the series, not even a glimpse of it. The one about the super hero thingy, that, too, I didn't know anything about but thanks to technology, I was able to get information about them and was able to finish the exam. So, I thought the exam would cover just those topics but I was wrong.
I was handed another exam. It was about re-writing this article on Insurance for senior citizens. It was a long article that I had to re-write. It practically took me another hour to finish because I wasn't sure how I would attack the article. I don't know how I get to do it, but I get to finish these tough exams even if I wanted to give up right at the start, like I just want to hand over the exam to the girl assisting me and tell her, "Ma'am, I don't think I could do this. I give up. Thank you for your time anyway." But, no, I didn't. I went on with it and even got to do something about it. When I thought that it was hopeless, that I wouldn't be able to understand what the topic was about or something. The instructions were to rewrite the whole article and change the title to a slightly different slant from the original and make sure that no phrases are copied exactly the same way as in the article. But I couldn't not copy some phrases because these were quotations from the article's sources that's why I retained their thought.
Anyway, just hope and pray that I pass, which is somewhat 50-50. I am not that confident I would get this job. I certainly have reservations about it. But it would be okay if I get accepted though.
But that's not the only job I applied for. Yesterday, I went to this office in Makati where I took audio transcription exams. The first one was quite tough because of the quality of the material and the voices of the speakers weren't that clear. It took me quite some time to finish the task. Maybe it was around half an hour of transcription or so for a 2-minute worth of audio material. That's something, isn't it? When I thought I could do that in a jiffy since I could understand different English accents because of frequent watching of foreign films.
But the problem was I was quite disappointed with what the first interviewer told me. I was too slow for their line of work because the files of audio materials were mostly that kind of quality and the transcriber would have to transcribe the file in real time, if not in just a few minutes, not 20 nor 30, in 3 or 5 minutes only! Can you beat that? I was really so depressed when I found out that I couldn't transcribe that fast. And I was told I couldn't keep going back to the audio material leisurely because I was really time pressured. Or else the files would pile up and they would lose clients.
So I guess, that job isn't exactly for me. And the pay isn't really that much. There would be training and it's night shift and I would receive just 7,000 for the training period. It was something like, hey, I have kids to feed and look after, I can't simply take in that amount, it wouldn't be enough. I was asking for an amount more than twice that given but I don't think they're willing to do so because of the way I typed in the exam.
There were several short audio files then and I thought I did well with them. There was one that was worth 1 and a half minutes. But I finished it in 20 minutes, tops. Gosh, the audio was poor because of the generation loss of the tape because it was taken from an answering machine then passed on to the computer that's why it's not from an original source. Maybe it's not the job for me too, huh?
Wow, this is the first time I tried to write in a blog and this is what turned out. A novel. Well, it's sharing my experience to other people, if they get to read my blog. I hope they won't get bored. Til next time. I'll see you soon! I'll write another exciting snippet of my life here on the Cat in the Bag.
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