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14 Call Center Interview Questions & Answers

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The call center industry is one of the fastest growing in the country these days. As recently as ten years ago, there were only a few call center agents and the word call center was hardly ever used in the country. Today, almost every family has at least one member working in the call center industry. The reason for this boom is partly economics. In the Philippines, low paying jobs are very notorious and while call centers set up shop here because of the low labor costs, Filipinos decide to work for the call center industry because it pays higher than average wages. Consider this: if you are an average worker with an entry level position, you probably are getting paid seven to ten thousand a month; meanwhile, an average employee in the call center industry with an entry level position will get around fifteen thousand pesos a month, plus free dental and health benefits (HMO). Call centers also will pay your SSS (Social Security), PAGIBIG (home building fund), and PhilHealth (health ins...
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Gold as an Inflation Hedge in the Philippines

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Gold is often seen as a hedge against inflation across different cultures and several millennia. Gold advocates would cite that the price of an italian suit in the early 1900s is the same today as it was back then. Today, I came across a post on Facebook that claims to be an ad for flights from the 1960s. Since gold was still money back then and had a fixed amount of dollars associated with it, this is a good data to compare the ability of gold to hold its value. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15YufUohLj/ During the Bretton Woods era, the price of gold was fixed at 35 USD per ounce. Meanwhile, 1 USD was worth 3.90 PHP. If a flight from IloIlo to Manila was 28 pesos, this would be equivalent to 7 USD. In terms of gold, 7 USD would have bought around 7 grams of gold (1 troy oz is equal to 31.1 grams). In today's peso, 7 grams of gold would be worth more than 30 thousand pesos. Far more than what Cebu Pacific actually charges today! The truth is I already knew that the cost of fligh...
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Tomler Personal Refrigerator Review

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Gone are the days when people would be apprehensive about buying electronics online. For me, I started becoming comfortable buying gadgets as well as small appliances like blenders and coffee makers online during the pandemic. A month ago, I decided to buy a personal refrigerator online.  At first, I had a lot of trepidations because I have heard of stories of refrigerators that suddenly stop working from people moving to a new place. After checking out refrigerators in the mall and seeing the price difference, I decided to take the risk and buy my first personal refrigerator online. I went with a fridge with an unknown brand name and it was also the cheapest one I found online.  The Tomler personal refrigerator arrived well-packed. There was one review that said that the fridge had dents when it arrived but seeing how it was packed in a bubble-wrapped box with styrofoam, I don't know how it was possible for the fridge to be delivered with dents. Online, there seems to be a ...
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Breathing life into a dead book

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In September of 2018, the Chavacano version of The Little Prince was launched. How the book came into existence was nothing short of a miracle. In 2013, one of the people reading my blog about Chavacano sent me a message about the idea of translating The Little Prince into Chavacano. He introduced me to a publisher which publishes the same book in different languages. I was disappointed to learn that the project did not involve any compensation so I shelved the idea. I think in the academe sector (where most translators come from), most people do things with the purpose of adding feathers to their cap as oppose to monetary compensation. In 2017, I no longer had a job and met a linguist (through my blog about Chavacano) who again, presented to me the idea of translating The Little Prince into Chavacano. Since I already had a lot of time on my hands, I tried doing the translation slowly, one sentence at a time.  After a few months, the translation was complete. We toyed with the ide...
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Smart's Magic Call Promo Review

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A few days ago, I needed to call an office and the only phone number available was a landline. Since I only had a mobile phone, I did a quick search online for rates when calling a landline from a mobile phone and I was surprised at the exorbitant rates! Fortunately, I stumbled upon Smart's promo offer called Magic Call. Magic Call allows Smart users to call any mobile phone (all networks) as well as landlines in the Philippines. Smart Magic Call is perfect for me because the promo does not expire. I mean I hardly call anyone using the cellphone so having to call a landline is a very rare occurrence for me. When calling toll free numbers, your Magic Call minutes will not be deducted. You will instead be charged a flat rate of 8 pesos. This is useful when calling banks and you anticipate being on hold for a very long time. Otherwise, it's better to call the regular landline phone number. Magic Call is available at 99 pesos and 199 pesos. You get 50 minutes at 99 pesos which is a...
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Looking at All the Wrong Places

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A month ago, I moved to a new city and during the process of unpacking my things, I realized that I was missing a bag of toiletries. I searched for it everywhere for several weeks but couldn't find it. Yesterday, I called up somebody who works at the building where I used to live but she said that I did not leave any bags of toiletries behind. Feeling desperate, I finally checked one bag which I thought only had clothes in it and of course, the missing bag of toiletries was there. It was a very Little Prince moment and I felt like the universe was sending me a message. Often, we look for things like love and validation in all the wrong places not realizing that what we have been searching for has been right in front of our faces all along.  "People where you live," the little prince said, "grow five thousand roses in one garden..." yet they don't find what they're looking for..."  "They don't find it," I answered.  "And yet what t...
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History through the Eyes of BPI

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I did not expect the BPI Museum in Cebu to be open but the guard said that it was. The BPI Museum in Cebu is not to be missed if ever you find yourself in the downtown area of Cebu. The museum has a comprehensive collection of artifacts related to banking and currency. The Bank of Philippine Islands or BPI predates the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Established in 1851 as El Banco Español Filipino, it acted as our first central bank. It is also the first bank in South East Asia. This is an exhibit of how banks used to look like inside as well as the first ATM in the Philippines. The BPI Museum also had an impressive collection of old maps. If you love history, the BPI Museum will give you a chance to appreciate our country's history through a glimpse of the various currencies being circulated at different periods of time. How BPI survived the second world war is also a very interesting story.
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What you need to know if it's your first time visiting Cebu City

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I was feeling restless at the start of the year so when I found a cheap flight to Cebu, I immediately booked one for myself even if I had no concrete plans on what exactly to do in Cebu. Since I did not do any research and I did not know anything about Cebu, I was surprised to learn that the beaches and other tourist attractions I commonly hear of in vlogs were pretty far away from the downtown area.  My friend said that the beaches near the downtown area were dirty. Where I grew up, you can stay in a downtown hotel and still get to some rocky but clean beaches just by riding a jeepney.  If it is your first time travelling to Cebu, it's best to limit your stay in the downtown area to just one or two days. Tourist attractions like Moalboal and Oslob will require you to stay at a hotel in those locations.  Since we often hear that Cebu is an island, we tend to have a false impression that it is small. That was one of the things that shocked me when I arrived here. You will ...
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