Inspirational Talk at Century Plaza Hotel

I was invited by Green Earth Travel and Tours to do an Inspirational Talk to the AMA Computer College of Bacolod and Tacloban ECE, CompE, IT, and CompSci Students. And below is my Inspiration Talk…

Hello Everyone,

Good morning!!!

It is my pleasure to be here in front of you to share my experiences and achievements as an IT and Web Specialist.

I am a graduate of BS in Technical Education major in Industrial Electronics in Don Bosco Technology Center. And I want to tell you that I am very happy, contented and very blessed of what I have now.

Let me tell you a short story of my past jobs. Before I graduated college I went to work with Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) as a service crew and was happily getting 2k a month, together with the small “baon (money)” from my parents. I can then buy my own clothes, stuffs, and drink a lot of beer together with my college “barkadas (friends)”.

In my senior year in College, I had two OJT’s, my first was in CTS-C as an Electronics Instructor and my second was in Celestica Philippines (formerly NEC) as a CAD Draftsman. With all the efforts I exerted towards work, I was absorbed as an employee of the Company and became a Design Engineering Support. Months after I became a regular employee, I was transferred to the Component Engineering group but still ranked as a “Support”. More than a year passed and I thought it would be time to venture another kind of electronics-related job. I applied in CEMS a subcontractor of Coca Cola and was luckily given a job offer. So I passed my resignation letter and was surprised that my boss did not accept it. In the afternoon of that day, I was given a promotion and I was first to become a Procurement Engineer even though I did not graduate from an engineering course.

The Procurement Engineering Group is a section of High Caliber ECE’s who are graduates from Class A schools. All of them have distinctions – Magna, Suma, name it…. For me, the Procurement Engineering Team is the best in the company so I tried to be the best in the group; and I did it! I was then the “jack of all trades“, the “go to guy“, and the “mr know it all“. I was able to help a lot of designers, buyers, planners, customers and managers. From a bunch of High Caliber Engineers, I stood out.

Last year when I noticed that the electronics industry was going down, I applied to a lot of different industries. In Fairchild as a Machine Technician, in Keppel Shipyard as a Ship Designer, in General Milling as a Production Engineer, and several others – more than half of them gave me a job offer.

Since I got a lot of job offers, I was very confused where to go. So I stopped working and gave myself a break. Sabi pa ni Robin Padilla sa kanyang commercial (According to Robin Padilla in his commercial), “Lahat tayo, kailangan lang nang break (All of us needs a break)”….

When I was jobless, I thought to myself, why not venture the world of computers. So I went to TESDA to study computer troubleshooting for a month. Then I applied in Informatics Computer School even with doubts whether I could make it or not. With all my achievements and perseverance in my previous work, I was accepted as a Management Trainee of the school. Simply because of the fact that I am a results-oriented person.

Since I was an education graduate, they gave me subjects to handle. I was the instructor of MS Access, HTML, and some Business related subjects. I was not “equipped” when they gave me the subjects, it’s like saying “una lang ko ug isa ka page sa mga students (I’m one page ahead of my students)”. But based on the student feedback and reports, I scored the 3rd best among all teachers and slowly got the #1 rank later on; I stood out!

In Informatics, I was tasked to do a lot of things and was able to cope with it because I know I can.

Friends were always there for me whenever I need them – I got a free one hour lesson in Photoshop from another teacher, a two hour lesson in Flash Animation from a student in exchange for an hour lesson in PC troubleshooting and a lot more. I love talking to a lot of people because their ideas are things that helped me achieve a lot of things and become a better person.

One person from Siquijor noticed the banner in Informatics that I’m giving free training on Photoshop, Flash and Web Design at school, so she asked me if I could edit princesabulakna.com and was happy to do it for 1000 pesos. I did it in 5hours! The next month, she asked me to edit siquijor.gov.ph website and got 6k for my flash animation, photoshop edits, and some HTML.

Another person went to Informatics to look for a computer technician to maintain their Internet Cafe and I was happy to do it for 2k per month. I will only visit the Cafe when there’s a damaged PC.

And I said to myself “all of this is big money, in a very easy job”. All you need is study and learn… And of course, persevere.

I looked for a Web Design-related job at cebuclassifieds.com and found it! It was a Project Manager position in a French E-commerce Website Company.

With all my previous achievements and as a results-oriented person, I got the job. My 5-digit salary in informatics was doubled.

The Programming language they’re using is PHP and integrates Paypal to the site. In less than two weeks, I was able to make my first PHP site. The next time I made another E-commerce site, it took me 3 days, until it came to a point that it only took 5 hours to make a 7 page e-commerce site which still looks professional.

After 3 months working with them, I was pirated and given a higher offer by TheRightClickDesign.com a sister company of MTC Academy and MT-STAT.com as a Website Manager. This is my current stable job and I’m very happy with it.

While working with TRCD, I was asked by Informatics to be a part-time teacher. I handled Computer Hardware Servicing and Web Development subjects, getting close to $4 an hour.

I was also referred by a friend to an Irish Web Development company and I work for them as a Freelance Web Developer getting projects as high as P120K which can be finished in a months’ time.

And I currently have 4 self-owned websites which is gaining a decent income from Advertisements. (pacific-cebu.com, w3downloads.com, onsavingtips.com, cotto-vs-pacquiao.com)

With everything I have now, I would say “I could not ask for more”, I’m really blessed and thanked my creator for everything everyday.

With the booming ICT industry, I’m close to getting a 6-digit monthly income right now. If I’d be given a chance to change something from my past, I would study a computer-related course and sure enough before I graduate from that course, I’ll be earning a lot.

Try to read about the Forbes 400 Richest Americans, and most of them are from the ICT industry. Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Google, Ebay, Facebook, etc. These people have the common characteristics in most of them….. And that is “Passion and Perseverance”. When you have the both P’s in your work, you’ll become a results-oriented person. Always think “what’s best is good enough”. With ICT, you’ll be making a lot of friends not only in the physical world but also online. And trust me; you’ll be earning a lot, buying your own gadgets, house, car, etc. without the pain of earning your money in 10-20 years time.

At first I thought that earning more than what you need only exist in dreams. Right now, I realized my dream came true. I’m very happy and contented with what I have years ago, but now everything seems to be a blessing… I have a complete and happy family, healthy life, and successful career and getting married soon.

I always thanked the people who have helped me in my achievements. Plus I gave them pizza, Starbucks, etc… These people are my free advertisements and gave me referrals. Because they know I’m a nice guy and can do it.

I know there are a lot of people out there who are very silent about their success and I still want to insist that most of those who are rich are in the ICT field… Before the day ends, think about your career, your family, your life…. Think about what you are going to achieve 2,5,10 years from now…. I’m 25 years old, only about 1 year in the ICT field, I’m earning a lot, have a lot of friends and very much happy with my life….

I hope you’ll make this point as your “break”. Think about it. “Study, go out there, persevere, soar high and reach forth…” -markmaranga

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.