RAC PUP’s TP and VP emcee

“DEGREE”

Fellow Rotaractors, Toastmasters, friends, good afternoon. I’m Gia Ciriaco from the Rotaract Club of Pasay Cyber City. I’ll be talking about DEGREES.

DEGREE. My topic has various definitions, different perspectives and can be used in multiple disciplines. A degree, the first definition my simple Google search brought to me, is the amount, level, or extent to which something happens or is present. The other common definitions include a unit of measurement of angles and various scales of temperature, intensity, or hardness. When we talk about law, it’s the legal grade of crime or offense, especially murder. When it’s used in the medical field, it is used to classify burns according to their severity. Lastly, when we talk about achievements, degree is an academic rank conferred by a college or university after examination or after completion of a course of study, or as an honor on a distinguished person.

It’s my 10th year in the corporate world and you’d be surprised to know that I made it this far without a college degree. Most people would probably have the same story since most progressive thinking companies now highlight the capabilities and experience, wellroundedness of an individual versus what school they graduated in or what Latin honors they got. Don’t get me wrong, these are outstanding things to have and hard work should always be recognized. However, it takes a lot of perseverance to be at par with academic achievers and the circumstances I put myself into were no easy feat either.

On my 3rd year of college at an online university, I decided to drop out. I wasn’t happy with myself and I felt that I could do more. Most stories about quitting school you’d probably heard about would have angles on financial challenges, difficulty coping up with academics, family issues or relocation. Mine was probably just a seemingly lazy excuse to quit school. So I decided to go to one of those mall job fairs to give it a shot and fortunately, I got accepted at this lesser known but strong, the best, not the biggest, call center company in Makati City.

Initially, I thought I’d last a maximum of 6 months. I was one of those so-called Call Center Virgins innocently making it through each day, adjusting to time zones, serving customers, solving problems. It wasn’t a walk in the park, regardless of experience level. Everyday there’s a challenge and some might see it as a perpetual struggle but when I look at it differently, slowly moving, slowly going from 45 degrees, to 90 degrees, each movement means taking action, each movement comes with something new to learn every day. Going through each step, each valuable degree, I became stronger, I began to see purpose in what I was doing and I’ve felt varying degrees of fulfillment in every way whether it’s getting certified or getting picked to present in front of a client at an agent level or hearing customers say great things about you. The 6 month time bomb I set on myself became non-existent. Each year leveled up my experience and made me realize how much I’ve done, how much I learned just by taking action, learning to view things from different perspectives.

Throughout these 10 years, I progressed from a trainee, agent, team leader, engagement leader for an account, engagement leader for the entire company and now, human resources officer. I’ve also expanded my network by joining organizations such as Rotaract. I can see the world through the perspectives of communities I help and people I meet. Each role with varying degrees of difficulty that would require a lot of my patience, how coolly I can keep up with the demands and how fiery my passion can take me. Whenever I feel lost, I can always circle back to the basics or lower my pride, seek help, apologize. It’s still movement, being able to adjust from 45 to 90 to 180, make a 360. It’s also an opportunity for you to experience another degree of fulfillment, growing from each role and helping others see that in themselves.

Despite the circumstances then until now, I’m at a degree, a position where I am satisfied keeping this movement consistent. Seeing the highs and lows and how it can teach me something, how it can keep my gauges going, despite not having a college degree, I know can have a higher degree of fulfilment in life.

Thank you.