New Graduates of 2011 Lucky - Lots of Jobs Available

Saw this article in recent Inquirer:

With the increasing number of investors coming to Cebu and a noted increase in available jobs in the province, Jobstreet.com will hold a job fair at SM City Cebu starting Feb-25 to fill in around 1,200 available jobs in 547 companies in Central Visayas.

Jobstreet marketing director Yoda Buyco said they are holding Cebu Career Hub in partnership with SM City Cebu until May 25.

The job fair will feature four top companies in Cebu every Friday for instant job processing and hiring as well as seminars on how to get hired when applying for a specific company every Saturday.

Buyco said the Cebu Career Hub was held first in Cebu where they see a lot of job requirements from different industries and fields including the business process outsourcing, information technology, finance, manufacturing and engineering.

“This serves as an answer to DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) Secretary Rosalinda Dimapiliz-Baldoz when she said that we have to invest in our country's resource, our human resource to make us more competitive and employable. Cebu Career Hub is a way to help further empower our Cebuano job seekers,” Buyco said.

According to Buyco, there are 1,200 jobs from 547 employers in Central Visayas, mostly in Cebu, that job seekers can apply instantly every Friday or through their Job Board which they will also show at the booth located at the 2nd floor of SM City Cebu.

“In the whole of Vismin area, we have a total of 300,000 job seekers who can have access to the eight million jobs posted in our website which are located in all our areas including Malaysia, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines,” she said.

Out of the eight million jobs, three million are located in the Philippines from 15,000 employers.

Buyco added that 40 percent of the total number of job postings in the country are from BPO companies which need a lot of agents to handle voice calls and some managerial and supervisory positions.

“In Cebu I could say that 40 percent of job postings are also from BPO companies,” she said.

The Truth About Offshore Outsourced Jobs

I worked for sort of a BPO company for 4 years a few years back, and believe me it wasn't easy. But you know what, the pay was awesome! I had to work really really hard though. And I mean that with 16-hour work days and deliverables up to your neck. Not to mention in-your-face foreign bosses who sometimes just don't get (and don't want to get) the local culture.

This article from Bloomberg Businessweek sums it up quite nicely. Hope you don't mind but I'm reposting it here for those who are interested in working for a BPO or for the appreciation of those who currently are.

Developing countries are benefiting from business process outsourcing jobs (BPO) that are of "reasonably good quality" by local standards, but the industry has some way to go to improve stressful working conditions, according to a study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) released on Monday.

A large number of companies in countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. have outsourced call center and back-office work to low-cost locations such as India, the Philippines and Brazil. A lot of the work gets done at night because of the time zone differences.

Employees have benefited with higher salaries. The wages of Indian BPO workers are nearly double the average wages in other sectors of the Indian economy, according to the study titled "Offshoring and Working Conditions in Remote Work." In the Philippines, BPO employees earn 53 per cent more than workers of the same age in other industries.

On the flip side, the ILO study confirms to a large extent concerns raised by social workers and trade unions in India about stressful working conditions at BPO companies.

Workers have to cope with heavy and variable workloads driven by performance targets, tight rules and procedures enforced through electronic monitoring, and unpleasant tasks such as dealing with difficult customers over the phone, the study said.

Efforts by trade unions to introduce collective bargaining in the BPO industry in some key outsourcing places such as India and the Philippines have not been successful.

"We have not had any success in introducing collective bargaining in call centers and other BPO companies in the Philippines," said Anna Fos, who heads research at the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

A key reason is that BPO workers in the Philippines find it easy to move to another BPO job if they have a problem with their current employer, Fos said. "They will not come to us, if there is a problem, as there are lots of jobs available", she added.

Workers in BPO companies also do not join trade unions because they are scared of reprisals from employers, Fos said.

Moves to unionize Indian BPO workers have also been frustrated by lack of interest from employees, according to analysts.

The BPO industry employs about 1 million people in India, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).

The work conditions faced by BPO workers constitute a "tailor-made recipe" for stress-related hazards, according to the ILO study. These problems are also clearly linked to the high rates of staff turnover in the industry -- which can be as high as 100 per cent annually in some companies -- and represents a serious problem for BPO companies, it added.

The study suggests a number of measures that governments and companies can take to improve working conditions, including measures to protect workers' health and safety at night. It also suggests a redesign of work processes, particularly in call centers, in order to allow BPO employees more discretion to "make use of their often considerable qualifications." ILO also recommends policies and practices aimed at improving workers' dialog with management.

Philippines' Biggest Call Center - Convergys To Hire Even More Agents

I picked up this article from ABS-CBN on Convergys expanding 5 of its existing stations and opening 3,600 additional jobs.

It's amazing how these guys have expanded. With the construction of an additional 2,300 work stations in 5 sites: University of the Philippines TechnoHub, Nuvali, San Lorenzo, Cebu, and Bacolod, more opportunities are opened for more people.

According to the ABS-CBN article, Convergys country manager Marife Zamora said their operations have been “outstanding," prompting the company's expansion. She also cited increasing demand from the US as one of the reasons for expanding in industries like technology, communications, cable, financial services, health care, and retail.

“Our clients demand more seats, more capacities…With the continuous demand, it is logical for Convergys to expand on these areas,”Jomari Mercado, Convergy's director for business development, told reporters on Friday.

Convergys estimates that it can increase its workforce to around 25,000 and open another workstation in a new area by end of 2010. Currently, Convergys employs 21,000 Filipinos in 12 sites in Metro Manila, Cebu, Bacolod, and Laguna.

The Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) earlier reported that the sunshine industry posted P7.1 billion in revenues during the first quarter of 2010.

BPAP estimates that industry revenues will rise to P9.3 billion by the end of this year, and workforce to 550,000 from the current 475,000.

Cebu City Still #1 in Tholon's Top 50 Emerging BPO Destinations Worldwide

Lifted from Inquirer posted last October 20, 2009

We should be proud and we should live up to that name. Surely more job opportunities in line with BPO (high-paying nonetheless) will come our way thanks to this accolade.

Cebu City once again clinched the top spot in the latest Global Services and Tholons survey on the top 50 “emerging global outsourcing destinations” worldwide.

The 2009 survey listed Cebu as No. 1 based on scale and quality of workforce, infrastructure, business catalyst, risk profile, cost and quality of life.

This is the second time Cebu City ranked first in the survey, which has been running since 2007. Cebu ranked fourth in the first survey and later climbed to the first spot in 2008.

However, in the big picture of top global outsourcing sites, Indian cities occupy the top three slots - Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai - followed by Manila or NCR (National Capital Region).

Tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano, in an interview, said this victory is another positive development for tourism as it creates a multiplier effect.

“More BPOs opening in the Philippines will mean more young people will be employed. This, in turn, will boost domestic travel as the young people of the country today are the ones exploring the (different places in the) country,” he told Cebu Daily News in a text message.

Tourism Undersecretary Phineas Alburo said the result “greatly enhances the image of Cebu as an island of talented and hardworking people.” this positive image, he said, will encourage tourists to continue visiting the city.

Jun Saa, vice president for operations of Robinland Inc., said the challenge for Cebu is to continuously improve itself to attract more investments.

The company’s Robinland Information Technology/Business Process Outsourcing (IT/BPO) is located at the Mandaue Reclamation Area

With a booming infrastructure base, Saa said the best asset to improve on is the workforce quality and quantity. He also cited the readiness of middle managers in carrying out more complicated roles, which poses a challenge for most BPO companies based in the city.

“We lack talents in this area. Since this is a (relatively) young industry, we lack experienced people to handle the jobs of middle managers,” said Saa.

He said the shortfall can be addressed through further training and education, and more strategic industry-academe linkage.

He said a concrete example is the recent initiative of the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (Cedf-IT) in bringing to Cebu training modules from Harvard University to facilitate online learning of managers from BPO companies.

He said the latest survey will hopefully encourage more investments to pour into Cebu.

Wilson Ng, Ng Khai chief executive officer, said it was good for Cebu to have maintained the top rank for two years in a row.

“For sure that will be a boost to Cebu's reputation as the place to be,” Ng said in a text message to CDN.

Ng said that Cebu is strong in customer service orientation, and adaptability to English languages, primarily in the ability to speak “American” English .

“We also have an attitude that endears us to customers.”

Ng, however, said that Cebuanos need to improve in basic education, quality of English and information technology instructions.

“The take up rate of applicants still can be improved,” he said.

“I believe what some BPOs are saying, that we are weak in middle management. This is due mainly to the brain drain, where people who have more than 5 years experience can, and usually migrate abroad, leaving us with a weak middle management layer,” he added.

Ng also suggested that entrepreneurs can continue training programs and continue to market Cebu properly as well as continue to boost s skills, attitudes and confidence to help maintain Cebu's reputation as the best emerging city for BPOs.

Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Sam Chioson said that the organization is glad that combined efforts of the private and government sector are paying off in putting Cebu at the forefront of the BPO industry.

“As our vibrant BPO industry has cushioned us from the effects of the global economic crisis, we expect that this accolade will further help boost the Cebu economy as more IT players take a second look at Cebu as an ideal location for their businesses.”

He said more locators mean more jobs and new opportunities for related businesses.

This is the third year that industry publication, Global Services and strategic investment advisory firm, Tholons published detailed analysis on the world’s top 50 emerging outsourcing destinations.

In its website, Tholons said an 80-page detailed report on the 2009 results will be published by the end of October.

Following Cebu in second and third places are the cities of Shanghai and Beijing of the People’s Republic of China, which also retained the same ranking as last year’s.

The cities of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam and Krakow in Poland also remained in fourth and fifth places.

Call Center Job Fair in September - Teledevelopment

Where Should You Work? BPO or Traditional Company? Tips From 10 Years of Experience

Hey just because I have 10 years of experience doesn't mean I'm old. I started working quite young. Blame it on old people who made bad investments. But nevertheless, there's no reason I shouldn't put this to good use.

I've worked in a traditional company and I've worked in a BPO company (business process outsourcing). They are very different industries with very different cultures. Where will you fit in? Here are some tips

• If you want to move up the corporate ladder quickly, try a BPO company - they are usually more open to that. Why? That's because turn-over is slightly higher in a BPO company - dog eat dog world. That's not to say that turn-over is any less in traditional companies, but you'll probably find a lot more older people (people who have been in the business longer) in traditional companies rather than BPO companies, making it rather difficult to move up the corporate ladder
• If you want higher pay/ salary right now - you'd probably be better off in a BPO company rather than a traditional company. Why again? That's because BPO companies are used to paying in dollars (and most likely receive their revenue in dollars) so compared to what they make, your salary equals peanuts. Traditional companies are more conservative when it comes to salaries
• If you want just to work days, then you should stick with a traditional company. The very nature with BPO is the fact that their clientele is outside the country (more often than not the time zone probably differs), so this will require some work hours that are rather uncommon (or unholy, however you want to put it)
• Depending on the how you would like to dress - a traditional corporation will require you to dress up, while a BPO company is not likely to care
• Also depending on how good your English speaking skills are, a traditional company will be more forgiving of your twang or your local accent, a BPO company on the other hand will be stricter with regards to your communication skills. If your English is deficient then you probably won't get very high in the corporate ladder in a BPO company
  
• If you're interested in stability, these days they say that a traditional company would be the way to go. I think it's not much different. Given the economic situation now. Everybody is having some difficulty - BPO and traditional companies.

One thing I've learned though is that if you work hard and go the extra mile, whatever the pay range... whatever the industry, whatever the company... someone will take notice and all that hard work will pay off.

Market Contradictions of Job Opportunity in the Philippines

Don't believe everything you hear on the news. Always take everything with a grain of salt. Now the world would have you believe that there is a crisis. You look around and see that this is true. Sad but true.

Nevertheless news pop out that this crisis is actually beneficial for the Philippines because a lot of back-offices and other BPO related industries that are folding in the United States actually find it cheaper to set up here in the Philippines, almost 90% less is what I recall. Telecoms are moving their operations from abroad to the Philippines, thereby creating jobs for Filipinos. Well and good.



But we also have to consider the flip-side here, which says that almost 800,000 people are also expected to lose their jobs as lay-offs such as that as big as Intel just last month and other companies start firming up their operations and taking out people due to "redundancy."

In the end all that growth and all the contraction will lead us back to square one where we may see no growth in the employment market at all. The best way to go about this now is to stay where you are. As much as possible, try to keep your current job. If the company lets you go, it will actually be good for you because you will get the appropriate severance pay. Or at least you should - depending on your contract.

Now is not the time to jump ship. It's difficult enough as it is. Of course opportunities I believe are still everywhere particularly if you don't choose what job you want to do. But if you are picky, then swallow your pride and ride through this wave, it'll be a couple more months (if we're lucky) to a few years (that's going to have to be the worst case scenario)