Category: Careers

I’ve always been good at programming, modesty aside. So good that I would almost always top our programming exams in high school and compete with our (then running for) Summa Cum Laude in college. I know it has been more than a decade the last time I did codes and designed algorithms but language, concepts and syntax may have changed, I believe that logic stays the same. I am not saying that IOS application development will be a piece of cake, but I am just confident that I can finish the course obtaining my objective of learning the how-to’s. I even asked the person in charge and made sure that I will be starting from scratch because I have zero knowledge of these things, else I wouldn’t have enrolled myself despite my husband’s protest.

So there, starting Nov 7, I’ll be attending iOS Application Development for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch – for 2 hours, 3 times a week at MINT College. Hopefully I’ll do less of our company’s Admin and Acctg work (though I still don’t have anybody to delegate it to, not to mention my difficulty in delegating tasks because of control issues) so that I can not only develop mobile applications but also become a Project Lead.

My husband also made sure I won’t have ANY reason to lose my motivation, so he bought me this new toy, I mean tool. Sweet!

I have to admit I’ve never been loyal to my chosen degree, i.e. Industrial Engineering. Well, I guess I just lived up to what IEs are known for (or what other engineering majors would teasingly call us), that we are ‘Jack-of-all-trade, Expert of nothing.’ I don’t agree though on the ‘expert of nothing’ part because IEs have proven over the years how they can implement significant changes in the company, not to mention lead it and be part of the top management.

In my case, in a span of 9 years I’ve been into Warehouse Management, Systems Analysis and Implementation, Risk Management and Internal Audit. I must say that each requires totally different set of skills and knowledge. But among all these, Financial Audit has been my waterloo. Whenever I hear the words chart of accounts, journal entry, general ledger and so on, my mind would literally shut down. Surprisingly though, it didn’t stop me from getting a Financial Audit engagement and an Internal Audit Certification.

This time, after 3 years of much thinking, I finally accepted the fact that I have to say goodbye to all those previously acquired knowledge, skills and experience and start learning about internet marketing. Although I’ve always been into Information Technology, I realized that internet marketing is really something else. It’s nosebleed for me every time I hear or read about Search Engine Optimization and all those stuff. I practically do SEO without understanding it. BUT… just like financial audit, I am hopeful that I’ll be able to turn this liability into an asset. (See, I am even using accounting words this time) And I hope I can be confident with SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) in no time.

When I resigned and left the corporate world last year, I actually started a new career (if you might call it that). Aside from becoming a full time wife and mom, I was actually earning online. Thanks to my husband, I was given the opportunity to write paid reviews and do some SEO stuff. I may have stopped getting continuous professional education as an engineer and a certified internal auditor but I was gaining knowledge on the online marketing side. Not so much though, but just enough to earn more than I did when I was still working.

People would actually ask me if I am not yet bored being at home. Why would I be? Aside from having 3 children to attend to, food and grocery to think about, bills to pay, errands to do, I was also busy working. My daily routine would start at 5:30am to wake up Marcus and be sure he’s ready when his school bus picks him up. By 7:30am I would bring Zach to school and fetch him by 10:30. In between I would either take few more hours of sleep, think about what to serve for breakfast, play with Lia and/or start working. By 11am I should have given Lia a bath, massage and her daily dose of vitamins. If Gary chose to work at home, I would think about what to serve for lunch, else I would tell my housemaids to cook whatever’s available in the fridge as I would be content eating wheat bread with either peanut butter or cream cheese on it.

With no appointment or errand to do, usually from 11am to 5pm you can just find me sitting in front of the computer busy working. Once in a while I would take a break and would take Lia from her yaya while we watch tv or just play together. I also would take the time to help Zach practice his reading and writing.

By 5pm, Marcus will be home and I would check his Diary for assignments, things to bring (which I hate because it would mean I would have to go to the mall looking for those stuff) or bad remarks (which Thank God he seldom gets now, whew!) By this time I should also be preparing for dinner. If I have exhausted all my efforts thinking about what to cook but cannot think of anything, that’s the time I would text our ever dependable club house.

When the kids are asleep, that’s the time I would go back to the computer and continue working. If I don’t have anything to do anymore, I would read a book or sleep early. (Sleeping early means being in bed by 11). If my husband is not so busy, we would have coffee at Bonifacio Highstreet, else I would make him brewed coffee.

This is definitely far from my home-office-home (sometimes with gimmick in between) schedule that I used to have. Others might find it surprising but I am enjoying what I have and what I am now. The only thing that bugs me though is having to choose between forever giving up my profession and embrace online marketing as my new field of expertise or go back to my comfort zone and continue working as a certified internal auditor. Well, I give myself until the end of 2009 to decide.