People You Work With

Going out of the university where I came from can be difficult because you have to adjust to the different environment outside. I'm not saying my school is that different from everybody else's background but there's that "twang" or mentality that if i'm not conscious about, can turn people off.

I realized that 200 pesos can really mean a lot to someone. It's their lunch, merienda, transpo back and forth. To someone, that's just his gas fee for the day. We are only two Ateneans in the company so it's a good thing that I can share these observations to her. Life can be very difficult for some people.

I was also able to see how graduates from UP and La Salle think. I'll try to explain this part with as much candor and truth based from what I saw out there. Graduates from UP are very aggressive and energetic. They like people who think like themselves. People from La Salle are relaxed and unfortunately a bit slow. One of my trainers is a La Sallian and I had fun asking him difficult questions like industry growth, market share and corporate social responsibility, just for the hang of it:))

I was also able to work with a Bangladeshi who came from the royal strata. His salary before joining our company ranges from 200-300k pesos a month as head of sales in LG Electronics but he's with us because he wants to learn the marketing that we do. We started on the same day in the company and he became one of my first friends there. Can you believe it? I'm friends with a royalty!

There's also Raine (not sure how her name is spelled) who used to own a magazine similar to that of Status. She was the one who started with a concept of an alternative indie magazine before the Hererras but she told me that during the height of the magazine's career, she stopped it:| Don't know why. And she told me I'm one of the very few Ateneans that she liked!:D

Smiling is the key to building rapport with these people. Smile is a universal language that anyone from any background can understand. It's something that I had to learn because I'm usually cold and choosy with people. So do the world a little favor and smile some more!