VA Profile -- Sheila Edades
Writing Sample >>> The following is an unedited writing sample. This will help you to better understand Shiela's background, while also demonstrating her writing skills...
My first job was with BPI/MS Corporation, one of the largest non-life insurance companies in the Philippines. I was assigned to the Broker Sales Division where my task was to generate sales by closing deals from our partner brokers. One program I handled at that time was the Personal Lines, where part of the job was to submit quotations for the home and auto insurance needs of their retail clients. At the start, I found it very complicated since insurance vocabulary is so technical. The terms and conditions of insurance policies are very complex too. The company sent me to take the Basic Non-Life Insurance Course Insurance by Institute for Asia and the Pacific Inc, where I placed first in my class. That made me more competent. What I love most about that job was being of service to humanity. Something which I truly felt and experienced first hand after Typhoon Ondoy. There was immense work to be done due to the large volume of insurance claims, but knowing that you are an instrument for a lot of people to have a glimpse of hope and have something to help them start over was more than enough for me to know that all the hard work was worth it. My love affair with insurance started in that company, and I had a long way after that. Now, even if I no longer work in the insurance industry, I remained to be an advocate of how valuable it is.
After my Insurance stint, I started my BPO career in 2015. I was a customer service representative for a travel account in Teleperformance. As a CSR I took inbound calls to assist customers with their travel needs which include: booking, changing, canceling, general inquiries about the product, and billing concerns. In less than a year, I was promoted to be a trainer. I facilitated classes for Foundations Training, Product Specific Training, and Coaching for Success. I was appointed as POC or point of contact after less than a year, where I served as an assistant Training Manager. I represented the team to Management and Client meetings in the absence of the Training Manager. I assisted the Manager in the team and project management. I created and led training initiatives to support operation goals. What I enjoyed most when I was with the training team was facilitating classes. I get a sense of immeasurable fulfillment when my trainees tell me that I have this talent for making complicated things simple and that I made learning easy and effective. As a result, the classes I handled were the top nesting teams.
When the account I handled was centralized to our Manila site, I resigned and decided to venture into online freelancing. I was at one time a retention specialist for a keto product. For the said campaign, I took inbound calls to assist the customers with their inquiries about the product, pricing, shipment, and health questions. Also, the main goal every time is to sell the product and make sure it will reach the customers' hands and avoid cancelations. For a brief 2 weeks, I also was a cold caller for a merchant account campaign. We used Eyebeam as a softphone and MD dialer. We cold call businesses to set an appointment with the Rate Specialist. who will discuss the product in detail to make the sale. Before transferring to the Rate Specialist, the authorized person was asked qualifying questions which will be the basis on whether his/her business will benefit from the product or not. I also handled a campaign for a Lead Generation company that makes outbound calls on behalf of Real Estate Brokerages in the US. I called homeowners to ask if they will be interested in selling their property within 1 to 2 years. If they were interested, I asked qualifying questions and input the information in a google form. We used Ytel as a dialer. Currently, I am a lead generation specialist for a Real Estate Investor who specializes in Wholesaling. I call homeowners to ask if they are interested in a cash offer on their property. If they are interested I ask property condition questions and qualifying questions. We used Calltools as a dialer and Podio as CRM to input the collected information.
I enjoyed how competitive and challenging work was in the Corporate field. However, now that I experienced working from home, I feel that this is something that I need right now. It's convenient, economical and gives me more time to spend with my family. The setting just changed but the challenges never stopped which made working from home more appealing."
