Work Work Work!!!

All around the country today, we are observing a national holiday called "Labor Day". This is to celebrate all the people under the working class and to acknowledge their contribution to the society and to the economy.

It may be a holiday but there is nothing really going on for the day. Offices are just closed, and for the people who have to work that day, additional pay will be given to them. I think that the only busy parties with this holiday are the groups doing rallies on some of the main roads of the capital city. I doubt that they will be there doing the demonstration this year because of the present situation, but who knows?

Anyway, this day just reminded me the first time I was ever paid to do some work. I think I started earning a little money when I entered college. I took up Bachelor of Science in Information Techonology. And back then, when people heard that you're in IT you must be good with computers and could fix anything that was wrong with it. Fortunately most of the time, I can. And fixing computers became a part time gig.

I would go a customer's house and click away on their problems. If the problems are software application related, I could quickly fix them with the help of the internet. People don't realize but majority of the steps in fixing and troubleshooting a computer system is just "googling".

When it is hardware related, I don't solder, I don't fix parts, I just tell them what to buy and where. That's about it. I could earn 350-500 Php for a single job back then. It was not all the time but it's cool to have that gig. It helps with the allowance for school.

Freelancer

Aside from that part time endeavor, I also worked as a freelancer online. The platform I was using back then was Odesk, it's now known as UpWork. A friend of mine influenced me to try freelancing and I did like it. Doing work while in the comfort of my house, that's the dream.

I've done several online jobs there. I've written for blogs. I've written for ads and craigslist campaigns. I have also written for porn reviews. That's quite exciting. I also have an experience working as a virtual assistant doing some small jobs. My employer then was also a programmer so I thought I'd learn from him. But in the end all I did was write articles and research.

On a good week, I was earning around 5,000Php. That's quite a lot for a student like me and it is really good to have some money of your own. Although, I don't quite remember why I haven't saved a penny from back then. Maybe I was already loose with money from the start.

I have worked freelance until I got an office job before I graduated in college. It was an early offer because my classmates and I tried to get ahead among the graduating batch in terms of applying for jobs. For several days, we went to the Manila and Makati to submit our CV's and apply personally in several companies. We went from building to building submitting our resumes to every reception that would accept them. It was fun and quite tiring.

One of the companies we went to was interested and gave me a call to invite me for an exam and interview. I went back to that company with one of my classmates and we took the test and did the interviews. And as luck would have it, I passed the screening and I was offered a job. It was for a junior developer post and of course I accepted it.

Working there was just amazing. I learned a lot that I was not taught in school. That's where I first handled .Net projects using Visual Studio. I was amazed how they do things in corporate. I enjoyed programming and bonding with coworkers, hence I lost time freelancing. There's a part of me that's asking "what if I didn't let go of that opportunity?" Of course I can't help but wonder. But do I regret it? I'll say nah. I'm okay. There's a lot I learned from being exposed working in the physical and corporate settings.

Aside from improving my coding skills then, I was also trained in people skills and even management. In just a little over 6 months I was a candidate for promotion and eventually climbed up the managerial position. From entering as a junior programmer I was fortunate to have been given a chance to lead a team. Well, it's just a small team, 5 person team, but at least it was something and it was a step up.

You do what you can, you give your best and if you're in the right place at the right time you'll be rewarded.

Appreciation

With this celebration of our workers I would just like to express my deepest gratitude. My sincere respect and total admiration to all the workers out there who are risking their lives everyday just to make sure that there will be food on their tables every meal and to keep their families from the streets. From the frontliners to the workers playing supporting roles. Thank you.

I also admire those people who despite the situation and despite the hardships they are going through, they still keep an honest living and legally and morally right jobs. Those are the MVPs.

I think that everything good that I do when it comes to my work ethic, I can attribute to my father. He showed me how dedication and caring for your job could be rewarding in several aspects aside from monetary values. He told me that no matter who my boss is, or who my coworkers are, I should learn to do the best I can because I am working for myself not for them. Wise words indeed.

Hey there!

Thank you for reading this one I appreciate you taking time for visiting my humble collection. And so what about you? Are you working now? Are you loving your job? Well if not what's your dream job? Let me know below. I'm always thrilled to hear from you. Leave me a message on the comment section, let's chat.

It's really hard to type a whole article on phone right? My hands are hurting now. I don't know how other people do it.

Anyway, as always,

Cheers!!!

Sources :

Lead Image : https://ohsonline.com/articles/2021/03/16/three-tips-for-keeping-frontline-workers-safe-on-the-job.aspx?m=1

Image 1 : https://pin.it/3cIrHjn

Image 2 :

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels