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Showing posts from September, 2025

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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The Smoke Machine is in Full Swing

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Never let a crisis go to waste. We are frogs slowly being boiled in water. As usual, the frogs do not notice it until it's too late. For several nights now, I have been having visions of a QR code and once a vision of a QR code, a calendar, and a signature (which I interpreted as a memorandum of a circular).  I don't know if you have noticed but recently, there has been an accelerated push towards a cashless society. I'm not talking about what has been happening since Covid (which was another case of never letting a crisis go to waste). I'm referring to the free train rides using the national ID (https://rssoncr.psa.gov.ph/content/NCRII/psa-dotr-move-free-mrt-3-and-lrt-rides-every-wednesday-national-id-holders), intensified pressure on banks to accept the national ID (https://philsys.gov.ph/psa-joins-bsp-forum-on-national-id-calls-anew-to-financial-institutions-to-integrate-with-the-national-id-system/) and digital senior IDs among others. I'm not sure if the vision...
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The Real Meaning of “Don” in 19th Century Spanish Philippines

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Today, I learned that Don was an actual hereditary royal title during the 1800s in Spanish Philippines. In popular media, the title of Don was associated with a rich person. I'm not sure if this practice extended or even came from Latin America, but I always had this impression that it did because in Tagalog-dubbed telenovelas, the servants would always call the head of the household as Don and Doña . Much later (when my Spanish proficiency allowed it), I was able to confirm that even in the original Spanish, they were using Don and Doña . I can’t remember which book it was, but I remember reading that it was actually the Americans who popularized calling the hacienda owners as Dons. When I was working with Spanish-speaking clients in Latin America, I noticed that in certain countries, some people called their customers as Don . When I did some research on the usage of Don and Doña in Latin America, it appeared that this was the equivalent of calling someone ‘Miss’ or ‘Mister’...
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