Hemer Ante – Customer Service Representative

Hi! I’m Hemer Joy Ante but everybody calls me “Hem”. That’s the only way that I could get people to pronounce my name correctly. 🙂

So just a little snippet of my personal background, I’m the youngest in the family and I graduated as an academic scholar with a Bachelors’s degree in Management from Bicol University.

It’s really my dream to become a flight attendant. My love for traveling and inclination to hospitality are the factors that inspired me. Along with that, having exceptional customer service skills and my ability to interact with people is one of my best assets. After graduating, I was aiming to be part of an airline to pursue this dream but due to circumstances and the need to work asap, I had to apply to a different line of business that would give me an opportunity to work immediately.

I landed a career in an Architectural Firm where I was about to practice my degree working as an Assistant in the Accounting Department, but due to adverse business conditions, my services ended after a month. I was just about to go along with my friend for a job application at a BPO company when I got an offer for a job and finish up the final interview. I grabbed the opportunity in order to help provide for my family and that’s how I started my call center journey.

Although the call center career is very far from my dream job, my very first role as a Customer Service Representative is still linked to the travel industry. I worked with airlines and customers with flight schedule changes. I have experienced DOS-based tools for Worldspan wherein we reissue tickets for customers. After my probationary period, I decided to resign from my post because I wanted to learn more in this industry.

Together with my partner, we then applied for Customer Service/Technical Support/Sales that deals with inbound calls and much more complex issues to one of the largest TV providers in the United States. I was able to get a lot of new knowledge, learnings, and skills from that journey. I got ranked up and also got awards and recognitions due to the results that I produced.

But then, in life sometimes we’re given challenges that are too great to handle alone and that’s when my father passed away. It was also the same time I discovered that I was pregnant. Though my career was at its peak at that moment, I was still mourning due to my father’s death. My pregnancy was also very delicate at that time. However, despite the challenges that I’ve encountered, it all made me strong.

I had to give up my work since I cannot work on graveyard shifts and I had to focus on my baby considering she needed me more while she’s still an infant. My whole family helped me especially my mother. She almost raised my daughter Denaerys Skye. I’m so blessed by how everyone supported me in this new chapter of my life.

I then looked for a dayshift account that would allow me to have a normal life while building a family. I entered an insurance industry but still a call center arrangement. We also moved into a much nearer location to our work offices. God is so good and He gave us another blessing and that happens to be my youngest baby boy named Marion Harris.

It’s not always cupcakes and rainbows. When the pandemic came and all industries were affected. The account that I’m employed with pulled out their business in the Philippines. I needed to look for another job and got one which is a work-at-home setup. But then after a year, the company decided to put us on a skeletal arrangement and we’ve been instructed to report to the office.

Headline News is saying that the Delta variant is now spreading. It is known that people with comorbidity and children below 18 years old are prone to the virus. I can’t risk and expose my mother and babies to the virus. I had to leave the company and look for home-based jobs.

I’ve entered a part-time commission-based job and created my own Facebook page to gather more leads. That was the time when I established an online presence, build a following, and managed my own social media account. I learned that there are opportunities for this kind of employment. I dug deeper and discovered more from this line of work.

Currently, I’m venturing into a freelance profession. I’ve attended training, watched videos, and read a lot of topics about home-based careers. I have a lot more to offer knowing the massive tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a Virtual Assistant.

In spite of that, regardless of the career path, I decided to take, I always make sure that I follow my own philosophy in work. I strive to always get the job done efficiently at the best of my ability and full potential while keeping a high standard of my services and duties at all times. I believe that it is a similar motivation behind why I generally become successful in any career that has been set on my path.

And here’s how my story as a freelancer begins.

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