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Showing posts from August, 2023

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...

Turning Canned Coconut Cream or Gata into Oil

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I'm not sure if there is a proper term in Tagalog for this state of coconut cream but one of the popular brands of coconut cream in a pouch claims this: “nagmamantika” when cooked. What I did not know and what they don't tell you is that there is an additional process to turning coconut cream or gata into oil. I accidentally found out the secret to this when I watched a video that was not at all related to cooking but where the vlogger said that he asked his mom how to turn canned coconut cream into oil and apparently, the secret is not stirring the coconut cream and boiling it until it turns into oil . This reminded me of another cooking trick that I learned as an adult here in Manila. At home, vinegar in Adobo is just for flavor but when you search for Adobo recipes online, they use copious amounts of vinegar. What they don't tell you in these recipes is that you are not supposed to stir the adobo upon adding the vinegar. You have to boil it until it is cooked. Apparently...

How to Change Your Smart Privacy Settings

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Today, I received a text message from Smart asking me to visit a link to be able to receive special offers.  Upon checking the link out, it turned out to be a page where users can tweak their privacy settings. It wasn't presented clearly so a lot of users would probably ignore the text and unknowingly have their privacy compromised.  Create a Personal Profile about you  Consent to analyze data about you, such as the websites and apps that you may visit and use and your location information (historical and real-time location), to get a deeper understanding of your personal needs and interests.  The following options were enabled by default (very sneaky). If you are a Smart user, I recommend visiting the link to understand what your options are in relation to your privacy. For digital natives like myself with a lot of transactions being done online such as banking and shopping, perhaps a VPN would be in order.