Last Tuesday, May 16, I had the opportunity to speak in front of incoming 4th year college students and graduating students. It was my first time to do it. I didn’t want to accept it at first because I tend to get nervous during small meetings, what more with a larger audience who are strangers too!

However, my boss can’t make it so she had to delegate.

Worst, her college alma mater was also inviting her to give a talk on the same day. I was begging her to just send me to one and she handle the other but it wasn’t possible. If I don’t accept, I would have to give my next availability. Patay.

With no choice, I said ok. Plus, I realized that since this is a talk, I should be in a corporate get up. My wardrobe is limited. Wait, let me correct that. I don’t have a dress that is corporate enough. Blazer too. None. Wala. Nada. So I need to buy. And to limit the unforeseen expenses, just accommodate both requests on the same day hahaha!

Anyway, I was asked to talk about career opportunities for IT graduates. And so to give them as close to reality as possible, I talked about our team and what we do. That’s dual purpose. I met the required topic and I was able to sell (I hope) our team given that we need additional headcount now.

Lessons / realizations:

1. It’s not as scary as I thought. Hah! But maybe it’s because I am familiar with the topic. I just reviewed the presentation deck shared by my boss early Tuesday and the rest was just really how the team functions.
2. There are many types of audiences. Some interested and are listening intently, some don’t care, some I don’t know if they understand what I’m talking about. But I would like to think that most of them are listening because they react at the right time hahaha.
3. I need to practice walking in front while discussing. I think I was stiff because I did not move a lot hihihi.
4. I can smile the entire time and maintain an enthusiastic delivery but it’s a constant reminder to do those while I was talking. Most of the time in the office, I tend to get serious, hence, always misinterpreted as masungit.
5. It’s fun interacting with students! Most of my audience were boys gentlemen so they were the typical sutil college students.
6. It’s good to know that schools make an effort to bring in industry partners to talk to their students. That way, students can have a glimpse of the workplace and hopefully this can help them prepare for the real world.
7. I need to have many stories because it’s easier I guess to hold the audience’s attention with stories.
8. I am now comfortable wearing dresses. Some may think what the heck but this is a big deal to me because it was really a struggle for me to be comfortable in dresses. That goes back to as early as kindergarten hahaha.
9. Lastly, if I got pregnant early, that child would be close to finishing college by now hahaha.

I was introduced as a guest speaker and I was shocked and confused hahaha. Pero oo nga naman pala. Guest speaker nga pala talaga pag mga ganon. Pasensya na, first time hahaha.

One of our HR Sourcing team was with me. She took care of a quick ice breaker / pampagising activity plus a question and answer game.

I also learned a few things from the speaker before me too. One of which is to never stop learning. True naman.

Overall, it was fun and enriching. If given another chance, most likely I’ll accept it without being too nervous this time hahaha.

Certificate!

I don’t know how to blur the other faces so I resorted to this to at least minimize visibility because I really want to post this picture for remembrance. Peace, kids! 🙂