Winnie Joy Domingo Zabala – Customer Service

Hi, I’m Winnie Joy Domingo Zabala, forty years of age. I’m a BS Education Graduate. I was born and raised in Caloocan City, Manila, Philippines. I’m the eldest among five siblings. As the first daughter, I needed to be a role model for my three sisters and one brother. I also needed to look after them if my parents were out for work.

At the early age of 21, I got pregnant to my childhood sweetheart. He was my friend since we were seven years old, then he became my schoolmate in secondary school, and eventually became my boyfriend for five years. I was working back then as a Customer Service Rep for the oldest telephone company here in the Philippines. That was my first job too. One day we found out that I was two months pregnant – both of us were working that time so we had savings – and we decided to get married before I gave birth.

Now we are nineteen years married and we also have four wonderful kids. They are the reason why I need to work. I have been working in the BPO Industry for fourteen years now and I have one year of experience working in a home-based set up.

Working in BPO is not that easy. The time difference and going out at night for work is risky. Not to mention toxic accounts and clients that I need to please and help with their concerns, even if they are already irate and they keep on yelling at me. But still, I need to listen and help them with a big smile.

And we’re getting paid enough! Yes! Absolutely – we’re paid higher than those employees who work regular hours, and we have benefits that others don’t. We have incentives for perfect attendance, we have bonuses, life insurance and my family is covered with my HMO. Great benefits, right?

But I need to choose between taking care of my family or working. At first I decided to continue working in BPO – but it makes me feel sad every time I’m about to leave at night and one of my loved ones are sick. It feels so hard to step out of our house. It is like you’ve missed all the important happenings in your family.

Last year after giving birth to my youngest son, I decided to focus on my kids. But bills were coming in like pouring rain, and it never stops. I needed to look for another source of income to help my husband. I started looking at the social media and fortunately, I met a guy who’s looking for an Account Manager for his campaign and he gave me a chance to work with him and handle fifteen agents for a Telco account.

I worked in this company for less than a year, but I gained a lot of knowledge as a home-based agent. He taught me to become an effective leader and he showed me what VA’s are doing.

Now I would say that I’m perfectly fit to work as VA or Appointment setter, etc.

I’m hoping that my story will inspire other applicants to continue to believe that they can do better if they focus and have a goal in life.

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