CALLWORK COMICS

CALLWORK COMICS
Callwork Comics by Hazel Manzano is the Philippines' Premier Call Center-Themed Comics! FREE DELIVERY NATIONWIDE! ORDER NOW!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Free SMS Through Your E-mail

Out of load? Hey, share-a-load or pasaload may not be the only solution for you to SMS someone when your prepaid load is at zero balance. Now just an e-mail away, and there's no need to download and install any application with Mail2Mobile, the newest free SMS messaging service. This service is made possible by MegaMobile, the wireless services subsidiary of publicly-listed IPVG Corp.

Cool enough, I was able to send 4 free SMS for the day. There should be a daily limit on this… I will try to send some SMS again tomorrow. hehe. Here’s how: to send an SMS, just type-in @m2m.ph (ie., 09204658532@m2m.ph) in the email recipient box ("To:"), write the message and send; just like any regular email. You may need to wait for the confirmation message in your e-mail and click on a confirmation link to complete the process. The message is then forwarded as an SMS to the recipient's mobile phone. Recipients can respond by simply replying as they would to any SMS. Their messages are then forwarded to the originating email address. Initially available to Smart and Globe Networks, I think messaging to Sun Cellular subscribers will soon be made available.

With M2M, mobile subscribers can also now send SMS messages to any email address. Mobile users simply text in M2M (ie., M2M whoever@yahoo.com Hi. Wazzup?) and send to 2948 for Smart, Globe, and Sun networks. M2M messaging from emails is free while messages from mobile phones are charged P2.50 per SMS.

I can’t wait to try this out in the office, while on ACW. hehe.


Monday, December 15, 2008

BPO's Moving Forward in 2009

Despite the global economic slowdown, I still believe that business process outsourcing (BPO) companies in the Philippines will come out strong for the incoming year 2009. Recently, NCO announced with the ongoing construction of a 4,000-seat call center facility in Taytay, Rizal, becoming the biggest call center facility in Rizal. StarTek, a US-based business process outsourcing (BPO) company, will be hiring an estimated 1,000 employees for its newly-opened Makati City facility.

In a survey done, approximately 98 percent of BPO companies said that revenues and workers will keep growing for 2009, the Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines and Outsource2Philippines said. For me it’s quite simple: companies in the U.S. will further utilize outsourcing to minimize costs, and is evidently working well for them, bringing good businesses to BPO’s.

Attracting highly-skilled workers—and not the effects of the global credit crunch—remain the number one concern of Philippine BPO’s. Now that’s the real problem and the government should extend more free call center trainings, to help and encourage qualified workforce. As a contribution, I also provide free tips to call center applicants on how to pass interviews and exams.

Let's all move forward to a more prosperous 2009 for the BPO's!


Monday, November 24, 2008

My Top 10! Call Center Interview Questions

Aha! Looking for a new call center job? Well, obvious reasons are higher salary packages, promotion, living near your work place, etc… I can suggest that job hunting is at best when the current year is about to end, because you get to have 13th month pay and the coming January is the first month of the year and it’s a new year- new opportunities, new job, new hope… am I making any sense here? hehe.

Now the inevitable: common call center interview questions that you need to hurdle in a typical call center interview. Looking around the net, here's my top 10 questions and I want to share some tips to you. It might come in handy... 'coz there's lotsa new call center opportunities out there... hehe. Read on!

1.) Tell me about yourself? – please don’t say: 'I am a hardworking and patient person' but tell why you are well qualified for the position that you are applying for.

2.) What are your greatest strengths? - you should have a list and mentally prepared your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements.

3.) What are your greatest weaknesses? Assure the interviewer that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing in this position with excellence. Then, quickly review you strongest qualifications.

4.) Why are you leaving (or did you leave) this position? - If you’re not yet 100% committed to leaving your present post, don’t be afraid to say so. Since you have a job, you are in a stronger position than someone who does not. Never lie about having been fired. It’s unethical – and too easily checked. But do try to deflect the reason from you personally.

5.) Describe your ideal company, location and job. - The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific reasons, stated with sincerity, why each quality represented by this opportunity is attractive to you.

6.) Why should I hire you? - If you know the employer’s greatest needs and desires, this question will give you a big advantage over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else.

7.) Where do you see yourself five years from now? - Reassure your interviewer that you’re looking to make a long-term commitment. As for your future, you believe that if you perform each job at hand with excellence, future opportunities will take care of themselves.

8.) Why do you want to work at our company? - Best sources for researching your target company: search online for corporate newsletters, advertisements, articles about the company, contacts you know at the company or its suppliers.

9.) Why have you had so many jobs ? - First, before you even get to the interview stage, you should try to minimize your image as job hopper. If there are several entries on your resume of less than one year, consider eliminating the less important ones. Perhaps you can specify the time you spent at previous positions in rounded years not in months and years.

10.) “The Salary Question” – How much money do you want ? - Never bring up salary. Let the interviewer do it first. Good salespeople sell their products thoroughly before talking price. So should you. Make the interviewer want you first, and your bargaining position will be much stronger.


Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Pacquiao - De La Hoya HBO 24/7 Video, Episode 1

The fight we are all been waiting for: Pacquiao versus De la Hoya. Let’s see a glimpse of their everyday training, all for one purpose- to be the best man on top of the ring. Got this video from macuha.com and lets watch it. Mabuhay ka Manny!


Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The Group Interview

In a group interview of three call center agent applicants, the interviewer started to ask questions on the first applicant. A guy on his middle 20's, clearly a call center veteran by just looking on his resume, just breezed thru the common questions of the interviewer with less effort and much confidence. Having mastered his pronunciation and voice modulation, the first applicant even sounded much "american" than the robotic interviewer who may be asking these questions everyday to her applicants.

Now the turn of the second applicant, almost feeble, a man on his late 50's tried to speak but his voice lacked enthusiasm. He was applying for a technical support position, and his credentials were decades of working as an engineer for a big television station and claimed that he was a pioneer crew of the now defunct Bataan nuclear power plant. The old man also mentioned he once owned a small automobile shop back in 1987, but the hard times hit and he was forced to close it down and the have the space rented to have a monthly income. The interviewer then asked if he know anything about CISCO; the poor old man was so puzzled that it’s like the first time he heard the word.

The third applicant was a lady on her early 30's and she boldly told the group that she was a former OFW, an entertainer in Japan. Now forced to go home because of restrictions in Japanese laws for foreign entertainers, she is now in need of a job to help support her family. In halting english, she tried to explain why she was qualified for the job in a truly courageous fashion, but for the interviewer, it was almost certain that her eagerness is not good enough for her, to qualify for the job.

This story left a lot of questions on my head. I hope that I'll find the answers as I go along, working, in a call center.


Sunday, October 26, 2008

Callwork: Something We Can Finally Call Our Own

Our everyday life in the call centers working as agents are laden with different scenarios and experiences that we can describe to be as weird, sad, happy, outrageous, and the list goes on. As a result, people from the outside may find us acting strangely; but as this call center industry continuously grows, I can say that call centers are now eventually beginning to be a part of the Filipino culture and society.

In a perfectly candid, untowardly funny, and creative manner, Hazel Manzano started to conceptualize the “pinoy call center culture” into drawings two years ago and made Callwork comics. Being part of the call center industry herself for more than six years, she started out as a call center agent but then climbed the stairs to succeed, being a call center manager currently in a top BPO company down south.

Callwork comics can be read every Sundays in the Manila Bulletin, and it will surely make your day, or night, hehe. Now released as a book, “Callwork, A Call Center Life”, this is something we can finally call our own. Truly reflective of our unique lifestyle as call center agents, the comic book “Callwork, A Call Center Life” is something that we can be proud of as part of the bustling pinoy call center industry.

It’s hot!!! Get your own copy now!

(Initially available in Comic Odyssey Robinsons Galleria or you can e-mail Hazel Manzano at hazelmanzano@yahoo.com or me at aftercallblogs@gmail.com to get a copy.)


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