The Mock Call and Interview Were a Challenging Experience, But I Successfully Completed the Assessment.

Good day, everyone! Today I'm going to share with you our final days as students taking the CCS TESDA course. We only have two days left to graduate in this course, but before we graduate, we need to survive the two assessments. The first assessment is the mock call; the instructor will be the customer while you're an agent of a customer service company, and you need to answer the customer's concerns. The second assessment is the interview. These assessments are important because they will grade you if you're ready to be a call centre agent.

So let me share with you my experience on our mock call assessments. As we headed to our office/room, we noticed that it was a festival at that place, but sadly, we don't have classmates who lived there, so we continued on our way. So as per usual, our class started at 8 am, and our instructor put our name on the randomised website so that the list is fair to everyone. And he will press it three times, and the third time will be the final list. Let me tell you, every time he presses, it was so nerve-wracking, and I was so afraid to be the first to perform. But luckily my number is 12, and I'm in batch 3, who will perform. After our instructor had the final list, he decided to make it in batches so that we would be finished quickly, and each batch is 5 people, so I'm in batch 3.

A few minutes have gone by after batch 1 enters the room. Our instructor gets out of the room and demands another batch to perform because the first batch is not fully ready yet, and he was furious. So we discarded the list, and the people who are ready are the first ones to perform. Thankfully, the mood of our instructor was lifted after the change of groups, and as we waited for our turn, we were going over and over about our scripts. After some time, the first group is finished, and they need another group to go next, and we asked them what happened, what our instructor asked them about something like that. Thankfully, they are so kind to tell us and give us some tips on what to do.

As time went by, it was finally our turn, so we entered the room, and they quickly picked the other seats aside from the front seat, and I was left with no choice but to sit at the front. And as I am at the front, I am the one who has to perform first. I was so nervous it's like I can feel my heartbeat at my throat. Despite my nervousness, I took a deep breath and started my performance.

Before I forgot, our instructor is acting like a customer, and we are the agents. So my scenario is that the customer is having a problem with her bill because it was too high for what he expected, and I need to make him understand why his bill was like that. In the beginning, I made a mistake because I was taken back by what our instructor said to me.

Let me tell you the flow of our call. So first I would say some greetings, and then I would ask what's the problem that I can help him with, and then give them assurance that I can help him, and then ask for his information, and here's where it went downhill. So when I asked for information like his name, account number, and password, he said that he didn't know his account number, and I was taken back because I didn't know how to react. I panicked, and so I just said whatever came to mind, and then our instructor said, "Girl and dami mong sinabi at mali pa." I was just saying sorry, sir, and he taught me the correct answer, and then we went back to the beginning.

Despite that mistake, I did pretty well on the rest of the call. I explained well about the bill and even gave him different payment options. I have a realisation after that happened: even if you don't know the answer and you were taken back about the question of your professor, just take a minute and process what your professor said, take a deep breath, and calmly ask again and find a solution. Don't panic, and just take a minute to process your thoughts. So after that, my instructor said I did well aside from the mistake that I made from the start; he said it's probably because I was nervous and just gave me some tips to counter my nervousness. After that, I went home and ate because I still have a class in the afternoon.

The next day was our interview, so I woke up early and wore something formal/casual attire, and I was not ready for the interview. I still don't have a script on what I should say to some common questions like what are my strengths and such. So we headed there, and when we arrived, there was a sign that told us that motorcycles can't cross the bridge because it's being repaired. So we just walked through the bridge, and when we arrived, there were still a few people in the room. So we waited for the others so that we could start, and as usual, our instructor used the same method as the randomised website. I was glad because I'm not the first to be interviewed, and our instructor announced that he's going to interview 2 people at a time. While the first 2 people were being interviewed, I was making some scripts and practicing my answers.

After some time, it was my turn to be interviewed, and the other person that was going to interview with me is Charise, and we've been friends for a while. So the interview went on like this: he asked a question, and then we answered in turns. The questions are like the common interview questions, but he gave us 2 situational questions to test if we could solve the problem. There's this one question that I will never forget, and that is, for example, in my "right hand is a cup that is half full, and on my left hand is a cup that is half empty. What would you choose and why?" It was quite confusing because it's the same, and it took me some time to answer, but thankfully I was able to answer it.

The last question that he asked us was "Why should we hire you?" and we took turns answering. After that, he gave us some advice on what we should say more or less and what we should emphasise, and he said that an interview is like a courtship. Cause you need to show off yourself in a good way and convince the interviewer that he/she should pick you out of so many people that are applying. And after he said that, he told us that we could leave, and I went home.

My final days at CCS TESDA were a whirlwind of challenges. The mock call and interview pushed me to my limits, teaching me the importance of staying calm under pressure and presenting myself confidently. I emerged from this experience stronger, more confident, and ready to face the world. So that's it guys! Thank you for reading this far! I really appreciate your time and effort on reading my blog but pleasee look forward to my next blog! I still have a lot of things to share with you guys! Thank youu so muchh!