Vega Atienza – Operations and Business Development Specialist

I was bestowed with the unusual first name “Vega” by my father, who said it would stand out compared to all the typical Anne’s and Jenny’s of the world. This may seem to be a lot of pressure to place on a (then not yet known) introverted middle child, but it did create some interesting talking points when introducing myself as I grew older. Until today, though, I could count on one hand the number of people that recognised the name as the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It is more likely to be associated with a Street Fighter character, but either way, it makes for interesting conversation when I meet new people.

As to who I am now, I had to take some time to think back on my life experiences and how they affected me as a person.

One of the things that came to mind was when a former colleague asked me at work if I ever got bored doing what I did. At the time, I was a regional training manager for several markets in South East Asia and was responsible for delivering various training programs, from entry-level staff on-boarding up to management level training. From an external perspective, it could be perceived that all I was doing was repeating the same material over and over to different employees, which probably led to the impression that the work could get boring. But I found that I was never bored, since I was dealing with different people, each of whom brought a different dynamic to each training session.

Which brings me to the main factor that I believe makes me the most effective at my job – I take the time to understand my audience/customer to make sure that I am able to provide them with the best possible outcome – something memorable (like my name) and never boring (like me). If this means I need to do some research or figure out how to do something new, I take the time to do so since this is not only good for the outcome but for my own growth as well.

I have always enjoyed the learning experience, from my days in the University of the Philippines taking up my bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration and then later my Masters in Business Administration. I have over 15 years’ experience in retail operations and training and have furthered my skills as a trainer by taking the Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment in Singapore while I was there in 2016.

Having entered the workforce during the time when cellphones were not even in wide use yet (pagers were the “in” thing when I started), I am grateful for my love of learning, since I have been able to easily adjust as each new technological innovation was introduced. Most of what I know has been self-taught, but part of the fun was in discovering how things worked and being able to actualise it.

I have had a wide array of opportunities to learn from, such as developing facilitation and training modules, to working on Learning Management Systems, database management, scheduling and labour management, social media management and e-commerce.

I am looking forward to new challenges and learning opportunities that working as a Virtual Assistant could bring, especially the chance to be able to meet and work with new people. Like my name, I do hope to be able to make a unique and memorable experience with them.

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