work analysis

when i was working for an mnc, i used to complain because the work had gotten too boring. sure we had our stressful days but i used to do the same work everyday, which is translating and analyzing financial documents from latin america. it was fun at first since i was learning a lot. it was meant for business or accounting graduates, but i was fortunate to be hired. i had to master the four years of university experience of my co-trainees in two months. luckily i did fine. but after a year i got too stressed out. the usual line "there is not much room for growth" had been haunting me. there wasn't. really.

then came this hk job. being an ignorant yet adventurous girl, i didn't ask much about my job responsibilities. i was only asked to guarantee that i could speak and write excellent english and spanish. i didn't even know the name of the company. they were always quoting it as "mr chan's company" during my 3 interviews. i only found out when i got here. i was blinded by the fact that i could travel. i did not absorb anything else after that.

little did i know the responsibilities are too vague. it ranged from the most menial to the most intellectually challenging job one could ever have. my title is "marketing executive" but it could also be:

1. photographer and lay-out artist - i take photos of our products, download them and do magical modifications using photoshop. this is no easy task. one mug can take me 30 minutes to edit.

2. janitress - i wipe display stands, open and lock the showrooms, wash the wine glasses used during bullsh*t sessions, boil water for tea, make coffee, lift huge boxes of samples, pack samples

3. messenger - bring stuff from one place to another

4. barcode person - barcodes again??? haha, if there is one person who is effing tired of barcodes, that would have to be me. you have no idea how many barcodes i take care of. factories give their barcode. i remove their barcode and replace with ours. customer places order then send me their barcodes. i will then forward it to factory. then ill check all of these barcodes. freaking barcode lines.

5. shippping person - yeah, logistics. darn.

6. clerk - filing, filing, filing

7. ring binder - who would have thought that i will also do actual ring binding on a regular basis?

8. proofreader - yes, i am the human spellcheck of my team mates' emails. i always have to remind them that there is no such word as remainding and that they should use grateful not greatful when thanking somebody. oh and don't forget the difference between send and sent! i am not exaggerating when i say that they never learn. when i see their daily emails, they still interchange these two words.

9. sales lady - i take care of our booth during fairs. i wear heels and make up.i stand for at least 10 hours smiling and entertaining queries. i also have to endure bad body odor and bad breath of some nationalities.

10. customer service representative - yes, clients and factories contacts hunt me. receiving calls and emails in all caps, bold and at least ten exclamation marks are so common that i naturally miss them when i have a stress-less day. and i have to make all possible excuses. im an expert when it comes to inventing excuses now. i work for a reliable company but we just cannot please everybody.

11. secretary - enough said.

12. account manager - i have 1 irish, 4 south african, 1 american, 1 russian, 1 canadian and 1 german customer. all of them culturally diverse yet equally demanding. all of them requiring me to deal with at least two factories at a time. i take care of everything from sourcing to presentation to order follow up to customer evaluation. i also handle general merchandise apart from our major product which is ceramics. so i usually call or email queries to other suppliers. recently i was sourcing for a4 paper. holy sheesh, it's effing hard. i've been calling indonesian, malaysian and thai suppliers for months. i still could not get any good manufacturer. all of them do not have the capacity to export. everybody's running out of trees!

13. socialite - from kissing clients' asses during dinner meetings to fake drinking those branded drinks. haha, there was even a time when i threw bacardi and replaced it with water. i am rubbing elbows with the likes of mrs robina gokongwei and other owners of big retailer chains from other countries.

14. tour guide - we need to please clients as much as we can and touring them around hk is a constant. we also conduct occasional client visits to our factories in china. like this month, i need to go to china twice to accompany two of my clients.

15. singer/dancer - they always say that "filipinos are the best entertainers in the world", and yes i am always asked to do impromptu singing and dancing

16. project coordinator - my boss thinks i have a flair for writing (duh, i just stand out because the others are just plain lazy to do good presentations) and im good with techie stuff (when compared to my team mates)so she lets me do the big projects on a 3 day max notice.

17. translator - i dont have spanish accounts yet but some clients are too stubborn to reply in spanish when my colleagues write to them in english. the hardest translation i did while working here involves the chemical components of bath oils and body scrubs. those disodium, methylbenzopropalene, and other effing technical terms for 30 items! and to think that i hated chemistry in high school!

18. interpreter - yes, i never thought i could manage doing this. no time for my normal cognitive process at all! i was fed up once, i sarcastically said "yo no escuchaba" to my client from barcelona. darg. imagine being the center of everybody's attention and no excuse to screw up. i am left to amaze my boss, and i need to do well to close deals with clients. darg.


so you see, when you apply for a marketing executive position for a chinese company, expect to be doing a lot of some other stuff.


but overall, i am enjoying it yes despite the constant pressure and trauma. call me a masochist or hypocrite, but it's true. when i get tired of one responsibility, i still have 17 others to choose from. i never had so many choices in my life!

i can never get bored. just worn out.