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angeltriestoblog · 5 years ago

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I went from reluctant leader to ACTM officer!

Kind of a late update but after what seemed like an endless discernment period and an unforgivably rigorous application process (on my part), I’m officially the Ateneo Association for Communications Technology Management’s Associate Vice President for Documentations! And yes, I’m aware that’s a mouthful so from this point on, I am referring to myself as ACTM’s AVP for Docs.

I honestly did not see this coming though: Freshman Angel stuck out like a sore thumb in her home org. In addition to finding all upperclassmen intimidating as I do with anyone born at least a day before me, I felt like I was just… not feeling it most of the time. All I lacked was a button that read “I really wish I weren’t here right now!” pinned to my shirt. It was only when I was a sophomore, familiar with the organization’s events and able to see them up close that I realized that I didn’t remember going through most of them myself. Although I’m pretty sure I was present because it was mandatory for all new members, I don’t recall going to a general assembly, being briefed on the different departments within the org, and especially being taught what our core competency was. I was very content with doing the bare minimum as a Docs Head: going to meetings to take minutes and do registration, nagging at the project heads and point people to submit the necessary requirements for post-documentations, and smiling shyly and saying “I’m ok!” when people asked me how I was.

Although I was much more active in my second year, I never realized I wanted to increase my level of involvement until I went to LEAP, the three-day leadership training seminar in Zambales I raved about in my first semester recap blog post. It was there when I noticed the home aspect that ACTM prides itself on: everybody—regardless of batch and predetermined social circle—bonding in more ways than one, both with and without the influence of alcohol, just having a great time and joking around like they’ve been friends forever. I saw just how much ACTM was investing in me to help me realize that maybe I could be an officer too. Maybe I could contribute to the great culture that makes us so much of a family. But of course, that thought quickly found its way to the backburner the minute we boarded the bus back to Manila.

I never really saw myself as leader material after several failed stints in my old school: I was the secretary who forgot to ask the teacher to sign the attendance sheet, or the vice president that ran out of the classroom first during earthquake drills when I was supposed to be last in line to check if all appliances were off. (In my defense, it was an act of self-preservation.) I didn’t realize it then while I was busy wreaking havoc in every homeroom class I found myself in but when I finally grew up, for the lack of a better term, I came to the conclusion that being put in charge of a group of people would only bring disastrous consequences and I didn’t want anyone involved in that.

Fast forward to several months later: I had an individual consultation with my boss Chelsea, the previous holder of my current position, to help with her plans in running for vice president of our department. Somewhere along the way, she tapped me to fill her shoes—a request that was met with a high-pitched “WEH?” that probably shocked everyone on the third floor of MVP that day. I had been diligently doing my work for two years, she said, just as long as she has so I knew enough about the processes. Back then, I was very preoccupied with two other extracurricular commitments and had plans of joining three more the next school year. My goals and ambitions were all over the place and I guess it reflected in the way I skirted around the topic because she just patted my knee (throwback to the time when physical contact was still acceptable) and told me to think about it. Real hard.

I guess this lockdown period also served as the time for discernment I needed: I weighed the pros and cons, made the necessary trade-offs, and got the insights of those I trusted, mostly by pestering them with uppercase keyboard smashes. I’d think I had a final decision one day then wake up the next, completely changing my stance. It’s not like I didn’t want to serve—I guess I just wasn’t giving myself permission to believe I could. I can’t really pinpoint when it happened but one day, my brain went: “What the heck. What could possibly go wrong?”

—

After making the decision to run, I felt at peace, no longer overthinking about every single thinking that could possibly go wrong, just eager for the day application season would formally start. Well, that is until I received the actual notification from the Ateneo ACTM page that said a Facebook group for all AVP aspirants had been made. I tossed my laptop aside and started yelling, much to the dismay of my mother who was on the receiving end of all this panic. Over the next few days, I would watch the electoral talk that followed, a webinar of sorts that basically gave a rundown of the process we would have to go through should we want to take on the challenge.

One of my requirements was a long-ass form complete with questions about myself, my leadership skills, the department, and the organization. I remember looking through the platforms of the Executive Board applicants during the first wave of elections and saying to myself, “Wow, I hope I don’t have to fill up something that long. I would cry my ass off!” only to find out that I would have to submit almost an exact replica of that and truly enough, cry my ass off. While Noelle, our EVP, was glossing over everything, I took these pictures on my laptop’s photo booth to express my frustration and sent them to my friend Julia, who was also watching via Zoom. I was actually very paranoid that I had my video on during the call and would end up exposing my contorted facial expressions to all 70 people watching the livestream. Thankfully, the universe was merciful enough to be on my side at the time.

Believe me, I wanted to get started with the work the minute the virtual meeting ended: I felt like I needed to so everything wouldn’t pile up and paralyze me on the day of the deadline. But even early on, I was already pretty overwhelmed and I couldn’t bring myself to do anything. So I lay down on my bed for the rest of the night and played Ribs by Lorde on repeat. It was an effective coping mechanism then but I instantly regret it the next day once I realized just how much time I had wasted doing nothing when there was so much to be accomplished.

I answered the introspective questions pretty quickly: thanks to my sense of self-awareness, I was able to identify my strengths and weaknesses well. What I really struggled with was the platform. I couldn’t generate any original ideas that I felt could solve the problems I spotted—I had wondered if I could just copy paste Chelsea’s platform and add comments such as “Same” or “RT” on the side and call it a day. Thankfully, this is what individual consultations were for. I contacted Elise, a co-Docs Head from the previous school year, and Gella, my boss back in freshman year and both were kind enough to bounce ideas off me and give me reassurance that the working drafts I had in my mind were actually worth executing. With their insight (and a lot of ice cream), I was able to finish my application form days before I expected to.

I also wrapped up shooting my platform presentation ahead of schedule. I couldn’t find any decent background at home besides this one cabinet but I failed to notice that part of its door was actually faded until I was already done filming. In an attempt to hide it in a way that still appeared on-brand, I slapped some star and cloud stickers on the video and claimed that it matched my own name. The only obstacle I had to overcome was practicing for my panels.

The fact that my question and answer session with the Executive Board was to held be online instead of in-person given our circumstances was supposed to comfort me somehow. But either way, not knowing which answers were going to be expected of me gave me a great deal of anxiety. To stave off this irrational fear, I prepared a Quizlet with 27 potential questions or points for clarification on one side, and my response on the other, which I rehearsed with just the right amount of uh’s and um’s interspersed to make it look as spontaneous as possible. Maybe my greatest sacrifice though was boycotting any TV shows or movies until I was done presenting because even the most mindless programming could take away precious brain cells needed to retain more important information.

On the day of my actual interview, I was feeling pretty confident. I had gone the extra mile by preparing an hour early and recording videos of myself answering my imaginary questions on my laptop camera. This way, I felt like I was simulating the actual experience. But not even this form of planning could have prepared me for the real deal. I wish I could tell you more about how it went but I was so nervous that I blacked out. I vaguely remember puckering my lips and flashing a peace sign every time I didn’t know the answer to something and had to respond with, “I will look into that if I ever get the position.” I also remember that not a single one out of the 27 questions I had committed to memory was asked.

As expected, I was the most relieved when it was over, I didn’t even feel embarrassed until much later on. I got out of my smart casual attire, slipped into some pajamas, watched a movie, and finished the tub of Coffee Crumble waiting in the freezer as a reward. Two days later, I had received a message from Chelsea asking if she could call me. My friend Iverson had said that results are announced to all applicants via phone call before being released to the public at night. It’s not a clear indicator that I was the one they chose, which was horrifying because who wants to be rejected over the phone? My younger self hated Joe Jonas and what he did to Taylor Swift for precisely this reason!

Thankfully, I was only met with good news. Chelsea had told me that I had been chosen by the Executive Board and I was ACTM’s new AVP for Docs. I hadn’t eaten breakfast at the time despite the fact that it was 10 minutes to noon at the time so it took a while for my nutrient-deprived brain to generate the appropriate reaction. The joy kicked in eventually: I jumped up and down and yelled I’M SO HAPPY so many times once the call ended that the words have started to lose meaning.

Since then, I’ve spent my time familiarizing myself with my roles and responsibilities while getting to know everyone else on the team. I’ve had a video call via Google Meets with the people in my department where we leveled off, got to know one another better, and set our goals for the year as we watched Chelsea eat pasta. Very wholesome! EC Wars was also pretty fun: all eight departments of the organization were head-to-head in different challenges. It kinda reminded me of high school intramurals but with less broken friendships. We had to auction one another a la Unsubtle Syota Searching, make a Tiktok introducing our department, its relevance and the roles of each member (which officially launched my career as the org’s official Kris Aquino impersonator), and had a chaotic game of Bring Me through Facebook Messenger. Yes, it’s possible but not if you’re a PLDT subscriber! I also got put in a group with other members of the EC for an activity where we had to make an IMC campaign for a chosen advocacy. As the Mind Readers (named as such because of the multiple instances we sent the exact same message at the same time), we were assigned to tackle sustainable fashion and I have to say that our finished product was, as Dani Rosales herself would call it, “hot”.

This week, we’re on to the more serious stuff: revising internal procedures, refining platform points, etc etc. The fear caused by my self-doubt is further compounded by our current situation, which is keeping us from performing our tasks the way we envisioned we would. But I am a hundred percent confident that since I’m with the right people and we’re all doing the very best we can, it’s going to be one crazy fulfilling year ahead for all of us. I’m endlessly grateful to ACTM for taking a chance on me! Shoutout, of course, to: (1) Chelsea for serving as the final push I needed to decide that serving this organization is what I wanted to do; (2) all my friends who told me I had nothing to worry about while I was being neurotic and who were the first to congratulate me and say that they told me so; and (3) my parents who listened to my rants even if they were 90% org-related jargon.

Wishing you all love and light,

Angel

#quarantingz #personal?? actually ewan #angeltriestoblog #life dump #angel tries to be a leader #hopefully angel succeeds

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inkedskinpaperwings-blog · 8 years ago

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An incomplete list (but already way too long) of stalker/obsession films for... no reason at all. Keep in mind I got all these from online lists, so if some of them aren’t actually stalker films, I cannot be held accountable for it.

The Roommate (2011) - “When college freshman Sara arrives on campus for the first time, she befriends her roommate, Rebecca, unaware that the girl is becoming dangerously obsessed with her.”

One Hour Photo (2002) - “An employee of a one-hour photo lab becomes obsessed with a young suburban family.”

Play Misty For Me (1971) - “A brief fling between a male disc jockey and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening, and perhaps even deadly turn when another woman enters the picture.”

The Fan (1996) - “Three-times MVP baseball player Bobby Rayburn joins San Fransisco Giants, and obsessive fan, whose profession is selling hunting knives, Gil Renard is excited over that. But Rayburn plays the worst season of his career and Renard tries to do everything to help him, but goes too far.”

Dear Zachary (2008) - “On November 5, 2001, Dr. Andrew Bagby was murdered in a parking lot in western Pennsylvania. The prime suspect: his girlfriend. As the saga unfolded, Andrew’s oldest friend began making a film…”

Hidden (2005) (might be in French?) - “An upper-middle class Parisian family starts receiving anonymous video tapes of their house. There’s no commentary, no threats, but the message is clear: You’re being watched. Slowly, dark revelations come to light…”

Enduring Love (2004) - “On a beautiful cloudless day a young couple celebrate their reunion with a picnic. Joe has planned a postcard-perfect afternoon in the English countryside with his partner, Claire. But their idyll comes suddenly to an abrupt end.”

The Loved Ones (2009) - “When Brent turns down his classmate Lola’s invitation to the prom, she concocts a wildly violent plan for revenge.”

Body Double (1984) - “A young B movie actor’s obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences.”

The Gift (2015) - “When married couple Simon and Robyn unexpectedly encounter Gordo, an acquaintance from Simon's past, little do they know that their perfect lives will be thrown into a terrifying tailspin.”

The Good Son (1993) - “Mark, a young boy who loses his mother, must stay with his extended family while his father is away on business. Mark becomes acquainted with his cousin Henry. However, the extent of Henry's depravity soon becomes clear.”

Remember My Name (1978) - “Neil Curry is living a happy life with his second wife Barbara in California after abandoning his first wife, Emily, in New York. Their life of domestic bliss is interrupted when Emily comes back from prison, where she served a 12-year sentence for murdering Neil's former lover.”

The Resident (2011) - “A landlord becomes obsessed with a doctor who moves into his building.”

Reviving Ophelia (2010) - “No one listens when a teenager suspects that her cousin is in an abusive relationship.”

Hear No Evil (1993) - “An Oregon woman's new friend helps her elude a corrupt policeman who wants an item she unknowingly holds.”

Hell Hath No Fury (1991) - “The wife of a slain man is framed by the killer, a warped woman whose identity she knows.”

Creep (2014) - “Aaron answers an online ad and drives to a stranger's house to film him for the day. The man wants to make a movie for his unborn child, but his requests become more bizarre as the day goes along.”

Sleeping With The Enemy (1991) - “After faking her death in order to flee from her violent husband, Martin, Laura Burney leaves Cape Cod and moves to Iowa, where she adopts a new identity and starts dating a local teacher, Ben Woodward. Martin, meanwhile, unearths evidence suggesting that she isn't dead, and when her mother confirms this, he tracks her to Iowa.”

Stalked at 17 (2012) - “An abusive man promises to kill his girlfriend when she threatens to end the relationship and take their baby.”

Stalker (2010) - “A troubled writer retreats to a country house to work on a new project, but her new assistant may be hiding a sinister agenda.”

The Strangers (2008) - “Kristen and James are expecting a relaxing weekend at a family vacation home, but their stay turns out to be anything but peaceful. First, a mysterious and dangerous woman arrives at the door while James is out on an errand. After a time, the real danger does show up - in the form of three masked torturers, leaving Kristen and James struggling for survival.”

Lady Beware (1987) - “A Pittsburgh window dresser gets tough with a deranged lab technician who stalks her.”

Dark Summer (2015) - “Alone under house arrest for stalking, a teenager experiences a terrifying brush with the supernatural.”

Eye Of The Stalker (1995) - “A wily legal consultant maneuvers within the letter of the law to be near the object of his obsession, a judge's daughter.”

Fear (1996) - “When 16-year-old Nicole Walker meets 23-year-old David McCall at a Seattle nightclub, she falls in love. David is exciting and charming, and despite the wide age gap, he wins over Nicole's family -- except for her workaholic father, Steven, who's suspicious of David from the start. His concerns are realized when David turns out to be a violent sociopath who sees Nicole as his possession.”

Fear Stalk (1989) - “A producer from Beverly Hills is shocked when someone steals all of her belongings out of her purse. The thief begins to make threatening phone calls and withdraws money from her accounts. The stalker becomes more and more dangerous until he finally tries to kill the producer.”

The Paperboy (1994) - “Small-town deaths are the result of a 12-year-old boy's obsession with a divorced mother.”

The Perfect Guy (2015) - “With a fulfilling career and a loving relationship, lobbyist Leah Vaughn seems to have it all. Then Dave, her long-term boyfriend, questions her future plans for marriage and a family. The resulting breakup leaves Leah heartbroken, until she meets Carter Duncan. Soon, the budding romance turns dangerous as Carter reveals his volatile nature, forcing Leah to turn the tables on the man she thought was Mr. Right.”

P2 (2007) - “Angela is working late on Christmas Eve. When she finally decides to leave, she goes down to the parking garage to get her car, but it won't start. Thomas, the garage's security guard, offers to help. He also invites Angela to dinner, but she refuses. Thomas, crazed, knocks her out. She wakes up in Thomas' office, chained to a chair and in different clothes. Now Angela must fight for her life in order the escape from the garage.”

Obsessed (2009) - “Things couldn't be better for Derek Charles. He's just received a big promotion at work, and has a wonderful marriage. However, into this idyllic world steps Lisa, a temporary worker at Derek's office. Lisa begins to stalk Derek, jeopardizing all he holds dear.”

Unforgettable (2017) - “Barely coping with the end of her marriage, Tessa Connover learns that her ex-husband, David, is now happily engaged to Julia. Soon, Tessa's jealousy starts to consume her, and she will stop at nothing to turn Julia's paradise into the ultimate nightmare.”

Unlawful Entry (1992) - “Michael and Karen Carr call the police after a failed robbery. Officer Pete Davis arrives and helps arrange the installation of a new security system. The grateful Carrs have Pete to dinner and strike up a friendship. Pete invites Michael to ride with him during a night's patrol and gives him the chance to beat up the burglar. Michael refuses and tells the disturbed cop to stay away, but Pete begins stalking the terrified couple.”

Alone With Her (2006) - “A stalker named Doug uses hidden cameras to spy on Amy, the beautiful object of his obsession. With knowledge gleaned from his secret surveillance, the young man manipulates her, first into friendship, then pushes for a romantic relationship.”

The Crush (1993) - “Writer Nick Eliot moves to a new city for a magazine job and rents a room in the house of Cliff and Liv Forrester, whose 14-year-old daughter, Adrian, instantly makes her attraction to Nick clear. Nick has trouble fending off Adrian's advances and as her obsession with Nick grows, Adrian becomes angry at being rejected and starts attacking his property and friends.”

Split (2016) - “Three girls are kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities. They must try to escape before the apparent emergence of a frightful new 24th.”

Gone (2012) - “A woman is convinced her kidnapper has returned when her sister goes missing.”

My Soul To Take (2010) - “A serial killer returns to his hometown to stalk seven children who share the same birthday as the date he was allegedly put to rest.”

Cyberbully (2015) - “A British teenager is forced by a computer hacker to do his bidding. If she refuses, the hacker will leak compromising photos of her to the public.”

Stalked By My Neighbour (2015) - “A mother and her 18-year-old daughter move to suburbia to help recover from a traumatic home invasion, but a sinister shadow seems to be stalking them.”

Ratter (2015) - “A young graduate student is tormented by a stalker who hacks into her electronic devices and monitors her every move.”

The Perfect Teacher (2010) - “A spoiled, selfish teenager becomes infatuated with her teacher. She befriends his daughter as a way of worming her way into the family, and sets about manipulating every aspect of his life.”

Cyberstalker (2012) - “Thirteen years ago, Aiden Ashley's world was torn apart after an online stalker followed her into the real world and broke into the Ashley family home to claim the object of his desire.”

Valentine (2001) - “Five women are stalked by an unknown assailant while preparing for Valentine's Day.”

The Wrong Girl (2015) - “A budding friendship with a new student takes a sinister turn when the girl starts to disrupt the lives of her family.”

Disturbia (2007) - “A teen living under house arrest becomes convinced his neighbor is a serial killer.”

Kristy (2014) - “When a college girl who is alone on campus over the Thanksgiving break is targeted by a group of outcasts, she must conquer her deepest fears to outwit them and fight back.”

Open Windows (2014) - “A jilted fan soon finds himself pulled into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse after he accepts the opportunity to spy on his favorite actress via his laptop.”

Cry_Wolf (2005) - “Eight unsuspecting high school seniors at a posh boarding school, who delight themselves on playing games of lies, come face-to-face with terror and learn that nobody believes a liar - even when they're telling the truth.”

Blackway (2015) - “An ex-logger comes to the aid of a woman who returns to her hometown in the Pacific Northwest and finds herself harassed and stalked by a former cop turned crime lord.”

Choose (2011) - “A journalism student tracks a killer with the help of her detective father and a therapist.”

Amusement (2008) - “Three women are stalked by a killer with a grudge that extends back to the girls' childhoods.”

Truth & Lies (2015) - “Teens band together to investigate the source of anonymous messages that threaten to expose their secrets.”

Night Rain (2017) - “An actress is unwittingly hired by her stalker to make an independent movie about a famous unsolved Hollywood murder, but she and her group of young indie filmmakers soon find themselves the subject of their own terror.”

Voidfinder (2017) - “A supernatural stalker pursues a super model to steal her soul with his demonic camera.”

#FollowFriday (2016) - “Students and Faculty on a college campus are targeted by a killer using social media.”

Urban Legend (1998) - “A college student suspects a series of bizarre deaths are connected to certain urban legends.”

The Good Neighbour (2016) - “A pair of mischievous high school kids create the illusion of a haunting on an unsuspecting neighbor. While keeping his every reaction under surveillance, they see much more than they bargained for.”

When The Bough Breaks (2016) - John and Laura Taylor are a young, professional couple who desperately want a baby. After exhausting all other options, they finally hire Anna, the perfect woman to be their surrogate - but as she gets further along in her pregnancy, so too does her psychotic and dangerous fixation on the husband.

#Misc: keeping to the shadows (ooc)#long post #long post tw #gabriel makes movie lists

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tinamaetales · 8 years ago

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A ridiculously good experience

But first, play HSM’s “Gotta go my own way” cause this post be emotional (for me though) af

Also, this post is long af so please bear with me.

I’ve landed my first job sometime in December 2016. Yay! However, it is not something related to the Degree I have but nonetheless, I liked it.

I was just randomly scrolling some job postings online when I came upon this post that says that this certain company is hiring and it says that fresh graduates are welcome; also, it is located somewhere in Imus so I’ve decided to send my resume. Less than 2 days (if I’m not mistaken), I’ve received a call from them, inviting me to take an exam. And so I did. Actually, I really have no idea what the company is all about, I just wanted a job that’s it. When I entered the lobby, I felt at ease. It was nothing like those I’ve been into. Their lobby has a zen cafe theme and would make one feel so at home and so I told myself, ‘That’s it! I’m in!’

While waiting for the examination, I’ve found out that it is a BPO company (I’m not going to mention the company’s name and the department I was in for privacy purposes and I also don’t want to violate anything in the contract that I signed) which immediately sent chills to my body. You might ask, don’t you like to work at a BPO company? Actually, I’ve considered it before and I really do have high respect for those who work at BPOs however, given my nature, I feel like I won’t be able to fit in, especially with the night shift schedule. But since I’m already there, I would do my best in the exam. Two hours later, I was informed that I passed the exam and I’m on my way back inside for the initial interview (my heart was actually beating fast because the interviewer is really handsome, he looks like Coco Martin pero chinito! Mah heart mah soul, bruh). The interview lasted for about 45 minutes? And then I was invited to take another exam on the next day since he said that I might be perfect for the M campaign (told ya, I’m not gonna mention specifics here) - which is basically about Hollywood movies, TV shows and celebrities. And so I took the exam. I passed. Few days later, I was scheduled for the final interview, in their other branch (which will later be my work place because they are the ones holding that said campaign). I gotta admit, seeing the actual work place scared me. IDK. Few days later I was informed that I passed the final interview and I should dropped by their office for the list of reqs and other stuff. Then, medical examination, submission of reqs, signing of contract......orientation, training, nesting and live.

Orientation

I was actually shocked when I found out that I’m the only one in the orientation. IDK bruh, I feel like it will be awkward. But I’m really thankful to Sir E for making it light, fun and interactive. I’ve learned a lot about the company and I was convinced that this company is perfect for me and I just gotta prove that I deserve the opportunity they’ve given. The orientation ended with me having a smile on my face as I go home.

Training

Now, this is an amazing part of the journey. In here, I have a ‘classmate’ and she’s amazing and became one of my great friends now. W have been with the company for 2 years already and she just switched campaign after her former decided to scale down. She made the training week fun and memorable for me. She’s very generous both in knowledge and in material things. She gave me advices and told me stories about her experiences in the company. Also, she’s an artist. I’ve seen her artworks on IG and gosh they are all amazing! Anyways, our trainer is Sir R and he’s the best! He guided us every step of the way. He always make sure that we will learn a lot in every session that we have. He made us well prepared for the nesting. I will always be thankful for all the knowledge and skills he shared with us. You da real mvp, sir!

Nesting

Here, we got to experience what the actual work is like. We were given a lot of activities. Mam N gave us a lot of files to process and make summary. Our work is involve with writing summary about articles that mention Hollywood movies, tv shows and celebrities so my interest with the Hollywood life was very much alive in here. I’ve experienced how to process the files and write summaries. Although there are some errors here and there, we passed this period.

Live

This is something that I could’ve experienced if I didn’t get sick but anyways....on my 3rd week, I was still on nesting and during that time I’ve met the new trainee and we became friends. B is a great person to be with too. She’s fun and she’s genuine. We clicked in an instant. Also, I’ve met two other employees here who assisted me in processing of files (to make sure that I will be well prepared once I go live) they are Mam K and Sir C. They are also awesome :) After two days, my tl (Mam C, who’s also very awesome and supportive) informed me that I will go on live the next day however, the inevitable happened.

Turn of events

I wasn’t feeling well during the 2nd day of my 3rd week at the company. My stomach was aching way too bad every time I eat and it scared me because the last time this happened (which was in 2012), I was hospitalized for more than a week and have to undergo endoscopy. While I was processing files, the pain was already unbearable so I stayed at the clinic for hot compress. I thought I was already okay after 30 mins so I came back to my work area. Few minutes later (and I’m processing files during this moment), I felt the pain again so I ran towards the rest room and there, I vomitted. At that moment, I really wanna go home but I’ve decided to stay. I finished my shift but I was feeling so dizzy already. I went home expecting that by having some time to rest, I will be fine but things don’t really work out the way we want them to, right? As soon as I wake up, I sent my trainer a message saying I won’t be able to come to work because I’m sick. That night, I was debating with my family whether I would go to the hospital or I will just drink meds and rest. The next day, I saw myself being brought to the hospital because the pain is unbearable anymore. I was admitted. For days, the dosage of painkillers they are giving me are increasing each time they will sedate me but the pain’s still there. It seems like there’s no improvement. I felt hopeless. I want the pain to end. I want to rest. I’m tired of fighting for my life. I wanted to die.

While in the hospital, I have some realizations. Night shift does not fit me. And, it is unfair if I will keep the company waiting for me to recover when they can just hire someone who’s more fitting for the job. And so I’ve decided that the moment I’ll be released from the hospital, I will resign. It would be for the best of us.

It was the night before my birthday that I was seriously considering about dignitas (and I know we can’t afford to travel there) because I felt like it was the only option left. I feel so hopeless. My life became a painful routine of me trying to eat food and then I will just vomit it after a few minutes then I will vomit acid then they will give me pain killers then the pain will stop for hours then repeat and I was so tired of it. I just want it to end. I don’t want to live my life that way. I want to end the pain. I want to die.

My birthday came. I was advised to try again. Try eating again and try my best not to vomit. I did, although deep inside I already know that this will just turn out like any other day. But I was wrong.

I ate light breakfast. I felt the pain. I felt like vomitting but I didn’t. I tried eating again and this time, there was no pain. I felt some energy. I felt better.

To make it short, I was miraculously healed on my birthday and the doctor allowed me to be discharged.

Went home. I rested. But my decision’s still my final. I will resign.

I felt empty while writing the resignation letter (that later I asked my friend to write the remaining parts because I wasn’t in the mood to write). While on my way to the company, together with B who will also resign for personal reasons, I suddenly felt sad. The moment I stepped inside our work area, I felt like crying. I wanted to back out. In that short moment, I felt like I wanted to reconsider. I felt like, I just wanna talk to my supervisors to tell them to give me some more rest days so I can recover then I’ll go back to work. But, I still ended up handing my resignation letter. It was accepted.

I went home feeling sad but relieved. I was sad because I gotta leave the company who has been so nice to me but also felt relieved that they now have the chance to find someone better than me.

One would say that I might be overreacting since I only spent less than 3 weeks in that company and I already have all these emotions but to me, I’m not. You see, it was less than 3 weeks but in those weeks, I was able to grow as a person. In those weeks I’ve spent with them, I’ve done things that I thought I can never accomplished before. In those weeks, I’ve realized that BPO companies really do help the Philippine economy. In those weeks, I’ve realized that those who work for BPO companies, especially the ones in the night shift deserves more credit and respect than they are given. In those weeks, I’ve realized that one’s endurance is determined by the amount of effort and dedication that one would give. In those weeks, I’ve realized that as long as you’re trying, as long as you’re willing to work hard and as long as you stay dedicated then you can do things you thought were impossible before. In those weeks, I’ve realized that hard work is the key to success.

I am going to miss reading those articles about good Hollywood films. I am going to miss the songs we used to listen to while working. I am going to miss the employees who are always willing to help us whenever we find difficulties in our tasks. I am going to miss the TLs, trainer and everyone else in there who were always supportive and kind to us. I am going to miss my co-trainees, W and B, for the short period of time that we spent together, I’ve gained new friends that I know I can always count on. I am going to miss the environment. I am going to miss everything about that work.

But yeah, I got to move on and be who I am. First, I gotta recover since having acute gastritis is no joke. I gotta take good care of my body first and you know, health is wealth. Second, I gotta find a day shift work that I guess is more fitting for me, given my health situation. Maybe I just don’t belong there, and I hope they’ll understand. WE might find our place in this world someday but at least for now, I gotta go my own way. (No copyright infringement intended though; I’m just quoting the song cause I feel like it fits well with the topic at hand)

Thank you, TU for the opportunity! You have instilled in me values that will definitely help me in my journey, not just in pursuing another career but also in life. You made me become a better person. (And I also know how to use Adobe Acrobat now and my computer skills improved! I’m actually faster in doing stuff on the computer now, thanks to the training you’ve given me). Also, I am very sorry that it has to end this way.

Goodbye.

It was a ridiculously lit experience that I will never forget!

#personal #first work #goodbye #thank you

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topicprinter · 5 years ago

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Hey, you might remember this post I made over a week ago about making my first sale on www.workshoptactics.com.What is your product?With endless, lengthy and complicated design and team workshop exercises out there, and tonnes of terrible ineffective meetings: Workshop Tactics is a simple, curated set of Agile workshop exercises to help your team get stuff done effectively.What motivated you to start?As a digital designer, I wanted to create a physical product that solved a problem I kept seeing. People who know how effective a good workshop is, don't know which one to run, or when. I wanted to leverage all of my design, website, marketing and research skills and go out and do it for myself.How long have you been working on it for?I've been working on Workshop Tactics since December last year. It started out as a website, which I scrapped. I believed having something physical would reflect the offline nature of a workshop. Writing the content has been the most time consuming aspect.What's your one year and five year plan?In 6 months, I hope to either have created a successful Kickstarter - and sold 1000 copies. In 5 years, I hope to be in the back pocket of every great digital product team in the world.What have been your most memorable positive and negative experiences?The most memorable experience was unboxing the prototypes. I was physically shaking with excitement. This thing that existed on a screen for so long was about to become real! Seeing the delight on people's faces as they looked at them was a great feeling too. The worst experience has been the long slog its taken to get here. Looking at online competition and other great resources and constantly battling the doubtful feeling of "why bother, this has already been done really well". - but it's not been done by me!Advice I would give myself if I was starting out againSeek feedback earlier and more often. Don't be afraid of the telephone. Speak to people! You'll learn more than you could ever dream.The following is a fairly in-depth story of how I got to where I am now, which is now planning my kickstarter campaign, with 70 dedicated customers with a mailing list of only 240.So how do you grow a mailing list from 0?You grow it to 1, then you grow it to 2, then 3.This is clearly garbage advice, but there is some truth to it. So what am I getting at? One of the most important things I learned was from reading Seth Godin’s “This is Marketing”. He talks about finding your smallest viable market. Sell to one person, and grow from there. You need to treat your mailing list in the same way.So how did I sell £1400 of product in a week from a mailing list of 200?1. Do you know what specific problem you are solving?This product solves a very niche problem in a niche sector of the software development industry. Being niche means you can laser focus on a problem. Chances are if you are solving a problem for one person, you are solving it for many. The problem I was trying to solve was there is too many workshop resources out there to choose from, and it’s not clear which you should do or when. So my product curates the best workshops, and tells you why and when to use them. Problem? Too many over complicated workshops. Solution? A curated set of simple workshops.2. How do you find out if people would buy it?The solution is simple. Make it so people can actually buy it. I created a landing page with a mock up of the product (a set of cards). The name and brand were also a part of this test. It needed to feel like it was real. I spent most of my time honing the content to make sure the proposition was as clear as possible. I spent in total £400 on LinkedIn ads. This allowed me to test which marketing message was most effective, as well as what landing page copy was most effective. But how did I know if it was effective or not? I didn’t enable people to buy the product. So what did I do instead?3. How do you know if the idea is “validated?”I got a staggering 20% conversion rate. The thing I measured? Email sign ups with the sole intent of being notified when the product would be available. An email sign up told me two things:There is intent to purchase.They are willing to wait to find out when they can buy it.This gave me confidence I had an idea that would sell. How did I know this really telling me my product idea was validated? Anything above 5% is extremely good. But it’s not an exact science, this data only gives you a steer. There were other things I had yet to learn. How much would people pay for it? Would people actually find the product useful in reality?4. How did you go from 20 to 200 subscribers?During this time I also tweeted to my peer group (500 followers) and LinkedIn connections (900). This grew my list to nearly 100 subscribers! Why didn’t I do this in the first place? Because I wanted to validate my idea with strangers. Based on all this data, I knuckled down and made version one of the product. I knew the time I invest now wouldn’t be wasted. But how would I find out if what I was making was any good?5. Learning is the name of the game, but how do you learn without a product to test?I was already aware of my target audience, as I work with them every day as a consultant. It would take some time before I could get a physical version of the deck out, but I wanted to make sure I was starting off on the right foot. I created a short survey that asked my subscribers and peers what their expectations of the product was. What they were already using, and what their biggest problems are.The responses I got gave me valuable insight into my target customer. Those that filled the survey also expressed interest in trying a free prototype of the product in exchange for more feedback. Creating this early connection with my audience was key. They will later become my advocates, ambassadors and evangelists of the product. Word of mouth is king.6. What has product development got to do with growing an email list?I wanted to make sure I had enough people interested to send something to. With an MVP, it’s entire purpose is to answer high risk assumptions about your product. What’s the biggest assumption I have? That people would actually use it, and find it useful. The other big assumption? That I had an audience for my product. Instagram was a longer test of finding my audience. So there are two tracks of development. Product, and audience.How much did I spend on making the prototype? For the price of learning, it cost £300 to send 30 decks to my subscribers. I skimped on quality, because all I was concerned about was the physicality and the content. I had to create something that functioned to that level.Why didn’t I just send out a PDF? I could’ve done, but the other thing I wanted to learn is if people valued having it as a physical object. That was another assumption I was testing.What happened next? I saw people were tweeting about it, which felt really good. I really started to believe I was on to something. But the nature of the product meant it was hard to get immediate feedback. I had to wait a little while for people to have the opportunity to use it.It would be a few weeks before I started to hear feedback. I had to chase a lot of people. 10 of those 30 I never heard from. However, those that sent me feedback, and those who I spoke to over the phone gave me such ground breaking feedback that I had a clear plan of how to improve the product.Pro-tip: The purpose of an MVP: Minimal effort for maximum learning. If you aren’t learning from an MVP, you’re doing it wrong. Treat your instagram like an MVP.7. How did my email list magically double?When I wasn’t working my job, or working on the product itself, I was working trying to grow my audience. Can I tell you a secret? There is no such thing as magic. It took a lot of work. A friend introduced me to using Instagram for marketing, but I dismissed it. The whole hashtag chasing, selfie taking culture wasn’t for me. But as I dipped my toe into it, I found out where my niche audience was hanging out. Hashtags are kind of a miracle when you find the right ones.I created a tonne of content, experimenting with different hashtags until I found what worked. Making all the content and scheduling it was a life saver, it also gave credibility to the brand I was growing, to be active on social media. I created content that I believed would give value to my audience. Not random arty photos of any old bollocks. Actual tangible advice, step by step exercises, quotes that genuinely tried to change perspectives.Were my posts performing? In the first couple of weeks, no. But as I zoned in on the right hash tags, and learned what content was resonating - I started to find my people. Those people lead to even more wonderful things. Because of Instagram, I was invited onto a podcast about my products niche, which gave me another marketing platform.8. Where are you at now?By now, I had 140 Instagram followers, 100 twitter followers and 240 email subscribers and 30 alpha product users. Whilst the numbers are small, I knew that every single one of these people had some interest in the product. That’s why when I put the beta product for sale, I got 44 sales in a week. I sold 44 of something that didn’t exist yet. Why did I do that? Firstly, I wanted to test the price. It turns out, the price was just about on point. Secondly, I wanted to test if people would ACTUALLY buy the product. And because they did, they funded the second print run of the deck, which meant I could print it at a higher quality, and also spend money on the unboxing experience. The revenue from the pre-orders versus the expense of 44 decks (boxed and shipped!) meant the beta trial cost me £120. That’s pretty good value for learning! I also now have another 44 future advocates of the product (if it does what it promises).9. What’s next?Now I’m working on finalising the product before it’s delivered to my first paying customers. Learning is still the name of the game. I’m still honing how I market the product, who my core user is and what their needs are. The more I learn, the better I can make the product. My goal now is to have an interview with every beta purchaser and listen to them as intently as possible. To learn what their hesitations were, what value they got the most from the product, how they'd improve it, etc. The next move is to the leverage my growing email list, my personal contact list and create a kickstarter to hopefully send my product into the stratosphere of my niche industry. I'm at a crossroads now where Kickstarter seems like an obvious route, but it might not be necessary if I carry on with my current trajectory of building, measuring and learning.Thanks for reading!

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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sheminecrafts · 6 years ago

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Muzmatch adds $7M to swipe right on Muslim majority markets

Muzmatch, a matchmaking app for Muslims, has just swiped a $7 million Series A on the back of continued momentum for its community sensitive approach to soulmate searching for people of the Islamic faith.

It now has more than 1.5M users of its apps, across 210 countries, swiping, matching and chatting online as they try to find ‘the one’.

The funding, which Muzmatch says will help fuel growth in key international markets, is jointly led by US hedge fund Luxor Capital, and Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator — the latter having previously selected Muzmatch for its summer 2017 batch of startups.

Last year the team also took in a $1.75M seed, led by Fabrice Grinda’s FJ Labs, YC and others.

We first covered the startup two years ago when its founders were just graduating from YC. At that time there were two of them building the business: Shahzad Younas and Ryan Brodie — a perhaps unlikely pairing in this context, given Brodie’s lack of a Muslim background. He joined after meeting Younas, who had earlier quit his job as an investment banker to launch Muzmatch. Brodie got excited by the idea and early traction for the MVP. The pair went on to ship a relaunch of the app in mid 2016 which helped snag them a place at YC.

So why did Younas and Brodie unmatch? All the remaining founder can say publicly is that its investors are buying Brodie’s stake. (While, in a note on LinkedIn — celebrating what he dubs the “bittersweet” news of Muzmatch’s Series A — Brodie writes: “Separate to this raise I decided to sell my stake in the company. This is not from a lack of faith — on the contrary — it’s simply the right time for me to move on to startup number 4 now with the capital to take big risks.”)

Asked what’s harder, finding a steady co-founder or finding a life partner, Younas responds with a laugh. “With myself and Ryan, full credit, when we first joined together we did commit to each other, I guess, a period of time of really going for it,” he ventures, reaching for the phrase “conscious uncoupling” to sum up how things went down. “We both literally put blood sweat and tears into the app, into growing what it is. And for sure without him we wouldn’t be as far as we are now, that’s definitely true.”

“For me it’s a fantastic outcome for him. I’m genuinely super happy for him. For someone of his age and at that time of his life — now he’s got the ability to start another startup and back himself, which is amazing. Not many people have that opportunity,” he adds.

Younas says he isn’t looking for another co-founder at this stage of the business. Though he notes they have just hired a CTO — “purely because there’s so much to do that I want to make sure I’ve got a few people in certain areas”.

The team has grown from just four people seven months ago to 17 now. With the Series A the plan is to further expand headcount to almost 30.

“In terms of a co-founder, I don’t think, necessarily, at this point it’s needed,” Younas tells TechCrunch. “I obviously understand this community a lot. I’ve equally grown in terms of my role in the company and understanding various parts of the company. You get this experience by doing — so now I think definitely it helps having the simplicity of a single founder and really guiding it along.”

Despite the co-founders parting ways that’s no doubting Muzmatch’s momentum. Aside from solid growth of its user base (it was reporting ~200k two years ago), its press release touts 30,000+ “successes” worldwide — which Younas says translates to people who have left the app and told it they did so because they met someone on Muzmatch.

He reckons at least half of those left in order to get married — and for a matchmaking app that is the ultimate measure of success.

“Everywhere I go I’m meeting people who have met on Muzmatch. It has been really transformative for the Muslim community where we’ve taken off — and it is amazing to see, genuinely,” he says, suggesting the real success metric is “much higher because so many people don’t tell us”.

Nor is he worried about being too successful, despite 100 people a day leaving because they met someone on the app. “For us that’s literally the best thing that can happen because we’ve grown mostly by word of mouth — people telling their friends I met someone on your app. Muslim weddings are quite big, a lot of people attend and word does spread,” he says.

Muzmatch was already profitable two years ago (and still is, for “some” months, though that’s not been a focus), which has given it leverage to focus on growing at a pace it’s comfortable with as a young startup. But the plan with the Series A cash is to accelerate growth by focusing attention internationally on Muslim majority markets vs an early focus on markets, including the UK and the US, with Muslim minority populations.

This suggests potential pitfalls lie ahead for the team to manage growth in a sustainable way — ensuring scaling usage doesn’t outstrip their ability to maintain the ‘safe space’ feel the target users need, while at the same time catering to the needs of an increasingly diverse community of Muslim singles.

“We’re going to be focusing on Muslim majority countries where we feel that they would be more receptive to technology. There’s slightly less of a taboo around finding someone online. There’s culture changes already happening, etc.,” he says, declining to name the specific markets they’ll be fixing on. “That’s definitely what we’re looking for initially. That will obviously allow us to scale in a big way going forward.

“We’ve always done [marketing] in a very data-driven way,” he adds, discussing his approach to growth. “Up til now I’ve led on that. Pretty much everything in this company I’ve self taught. So I learnt, essentially, how to build a growth engine, how to scale an optimize campaigns, digital spend, and these big guys have seen our data and they’re impressed with the progress we’ve made, and the customer acquisition costs that we’ve achieved — considering we really are targeting quite a niche market… Up til now we closed our Series A with more than half our seed round in our accounts.”

Muzmatch has also laid the groundwork for the planned international push, having already fully localized the app — which is live in 14 languages, including right to left languages like Arabic.

“We’re localized and we get a lot of organic users everywhere but obviously once you focus on a particular area — in terms of content, in terms of your brand etc — then it really does start to take off,” adds Younas.

The team’s careful catering to the needs of its target community — via things like manual moderation of every profile and offering an optional chaperoning feature for in-app chats — i.e. rather than just ripping out a ‘Tinder for Muslims’ clone, can surely take some credit for helping to grow the market for Muslim matchmaking apps overall.

“Shahzad has clearly made something that people want. He is a resourceful founder who has been listening to his users and in the process has developed an invaluable service for the Muslim community, in a way that mainstream companies have failed to do,” says YC partner Tim Brady in a supporting statement.

But the flip side of attracting attention and spotlighting a commercial opportunity means Muzmatch now faces increased competition — such as from the likes of Dubai-based Veil: A rival matchmaking app which has recently turned heads with a ‘digital veil’ feature that applies an opaque filter to all profile photos, male and female, until a mutual match is made.

Muzmatch also lets users hide their photos, if they choose. But it has resisted imposing a one-size-fits-all template on the user experience — exactly in order that it can appeal more broadly, regardless of the user’s level of religious adherence (it has even attracted non-Muslim users with a genuine interest in meeting a life partner).

Younas says he’s not worried about fresh faces entering the same matchmaking app space — couching it as a validation of the market.

He’s also dismissive of gimmicky startups that can often pass through the dating space, usually on a fast burn to nowhere. Though he is expecting more competition from major players, such as Tinder-owner Match, which he notes has been eyeing up some of the same geographical markets.

“We know there’s going to be attention in this area,” he says. “Our goal is to basically continue to be the dominant player but for us to race ahead in terms of the quality of our product offering and obviously our size. That’s the goal. Having this investment definitely gives us that ammo to really go for it. But by the same token I’d never want us to be that silly startup that just burns a tonne of money and ends up nowhere.”

“It’s a very complex population, it’s very diverse in terms of culture, in terms of tradition,” he adds of the target market. “We so far have successfully been able to navigate that — of creating a product that does, to the user, marries technology with respecting the faith.”

Feature development is now front of mind for Muzmatch as it moves into the next phase of growth, and as — Younas hopes — it has more time to focus on finessing what its product offers, having bagged investment by proving product market fit and showing traction.

“The first thing that we’re going to be doing is an actual refreshing of our brand,” he says. “A bit of a rebrand, keeping the same name, a bit of a refresh of our brand, tidying that up. Actually refreshing the app, top to bottom. Part of that is looking at changes that have happened in the — call it — ‘dating space’. Because what we’ve always tried to do is look at the good that’s happening, get rid of the bad stuff, and try and package it and make it applicable to a Muslim audience.

“I think that’s what we’ve done really well. And I always wanted to innovate on that — so we’ve got a bunch of ideas around a complete refresh of the app.”

Video is one area they’re experimenting with for future features. TechCrunch’s interview with Younas takes place via a video chat using what looks to be its own videoconferencing platform, though there’s not currently a feature in Muzmatch that lets users chat remotely via video.

Its challenge on this front will be implementing richer comms features in a way that a diverse community of religious users can accept.

“I want to — and we have this firmly on our roadmap, and I hope that it’s within six months — be introducing or bringing ways to connect people on our platform that they’ve never been able to do before. That’s going to be key. Elements of video is going to be really interesting,” says Younas teasing their thinking around video.

“The key for us is how do we do [videochat] in a way that is sensible and equally gives both sides control. That’s the key.”

Nor will it just be “simple video”. He says they’re also looking at how they can use profile data more creatively, especially for helping more private users connect around shared personality traits.

“There’s a lot of things we want to do within the app of really showing the richness of our profiles. One thing that we have that other apps don’t have are profiles that are really rich. So we have about 22 different data points on the profile. There’s a lot that people do and want to share. So the goal for us is how do we really try and show that off?

“We have a segment of profiles where the photos are private, right, people want that anonymity… so the goal for us is then saying how can we really show your personality, what you’re about in a really good way. And right now I would argue we don’t quite do it well enough. We’ve got a tonne of ideas and part of the rebrand and the refresh will be really emphasizing and helping that segment of society who do want to be private but equally want people to understand what they’re about.”

Where does he want the business to be in 12 months’ time? With a more polished product and “a lot of key features in the way of connecting the community around marriage — or just community in general”.

In terms of growth the aim is at least 4x where they are now.

“These are ambitious targets. Especially given the amount that we want to re-engineer and rebuild but now is the time,” he adds. “Now we have the fortune of having a big team, of having the investment. And really focusing and finessing our product… Really give it a lot of love and really give it a lot of the things we’ve always wanted to do and never quite had the time to do. That’s the key.

“I’m personally super excited about some of the stuff coming up because it’s a big enabler — growing the team and having the ability to really execute on this a lot faster.”

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endenogatai · 6 years ago