When I was younger, and dreams were many, a part of me wanted to experience working overseas. I had the desire to explore the world and witness the magic of it all. I tried my luck applying for then, the world’s no. 1 airline company as a flight attendant. That was in 1995. The application process was far from easy. I competed with thousands of applicants that only left 19 of us to sign a job contract. However, as fate would have it, I did not leave. I met my husband and that chance meeting had changed the course of my life. In exchange, a promise had been made which was a pledge for us to see the world together. The only reminder left of that experience now is a large Manila envelope containing my signed contract and welcome documents neatly tucked in my wooden chest together with mementos from my past.
More than a decade later, we’ve had the good fortune of being given the opportunity to go to Australia. My husband was to take his general staff college course. With my one year old hyper-active son in tow, I had my hands full with the responsibilities of a wife and a mother. What came with that though was a heart filled with desire to yet again experience working and dealing with a different kind of culture. I wasted no time and started looking for job opportunities by submitting my resume online to head hunters and possible employers. But they were not too keen on hiring anyone with no previous work experience in their country and someone who they know will only stay there for a short period of time. Those responses did not dishearten and stop me. With the help of the Filipino Community there, I ended up working for a famous chicken fast-food chain. Not as a manager, but as a crew member. I did not know what to expect in the beginning. It was a totally new experience for me. My job responsibilities included the following; taking orders from customers, manning the till, preparing the orders, cooking, serving, refilling of stocks, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. The usual joke around the place would promote me to floor manager. That meant being in charge of getting all the floors spotless by using a heavy bucket of cleaning solution applied with a huge floor mop. Instead of my usual trendy work attires, killer shoes, well applied make-up and neatly fashioned hair-dos, coming to work meant, wearing a loose-fitting pair of black pants, a very unflattering shirt, a cap to hide my long tresses and a pair of manly-looking safety shoes. That also meant saying goodbye to my long and well-kept nails. On the other hand, being the sport that I am, I embraced all of that including freezing during winter while manning the drive-through window or cleaning outside of the restaurant. What gave me the satisfaction was seeing our customers happy and pleased with the food and the service. My years of exposure to customer service have helped me immensely. Tipping a fast-food crew is not a custom in Australia but on several occasions, I was offered tips that I politely refused. Receiving compliments from my happy customers were my source of inspiration. A couple of months later, I have been accepted to do what I loved best and that was a job in sales and marketing. I worked for a big jewelry chain until we left the country in 2009. As for my fast food chain job, I kept it. Even if it meant doing two jobs at a time, working 50 hours a week or more. The nature of that job had kept my feet firmly planted on the ground. To this day I still proudly tell people about it.
At the end of the day, it does not matter what kind of jobs we have. Everyone has to fill a role. For this reason, we all have to love what we do no matter what they entail. That experience was a very humbling one for me. Every time I go to a fast food chain, instead of getting impatient, I just put a big smile to my face and warmly greet the crew even if they commit errors. And every time anyone notices my big arms? I just draw a big sigh and remember those huge-handled mops.
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