moving out of the comfort zone..

I received an invitation for a Career Orientation Seminar last week. The company did not divulge its name but mentioned that they are into rural banking and microfinance. The invitation said we were shortlisted from through the Placement Office. True or not, it was still an ego booster. =) I checked the email addresses and found out that Francis was also invited. I texted him a couple of days before the COS if he is coming or not. He was still unsure and so was I.

Anyway, both of us came today thinking that it was Planters Development Bank. However, it turned out to be Producers Bank. All of my expectations went down the drain. My mind was a clean slate when the orientation began. The orientation started at 930am (though the invitation said 9am). We were about 20. Everyone came from the Ateneo (batch 2003 and 2004) and each of us knew at least one person in the room.

After the prayer, we were asked to introduced ourselves and share our expectations while the facilitator wrote them on the manila paper. I haven't done this since college and it reminded me of school days. The company background was presented the whole morning and questions were entertained. The facilitator said we were free to leave anytime we want if we feel that we don't fit in.

Lunch was served (for free). And when we resumed for the afternoon session, there were only 8 of us left - Miss Maricar (talk about one cool mom! she was an IS major batch 2004), Jill, Alex, Francis, Nic, George, Roy and me.

An overview of the Management Trainee Program was presented. After that, we were given 30min to think if we were going to remain to be interviewed. Almost everyone was hesitant because the trainees will be assigned for a time in the provinces (rural areas that is) as part of the training and will be actually doing field work. Field work means looking for microfinance clients, borrowers, etc. We were actually warned about this during the morning. I remember the Corporate Planning Officer said, "This is not the microfinace that you are thinking, which is the sosyal microfinance. It's different."

We remained.

We were panel interviewed by batch - 3, 3, and 2. I was in the last batch with Nic. While the first batch (Francis, Jill, George) were being interviewed we had our merienda (again for free.. hehe) and discussed about our plans and what we think of the opportunity. We exchanged phone numbers afterwards. They were such inspiring people.

Then, it was our turn. The questions were: What can you contribute? How are your people skills (pertaining to the grassroots)? How do you think Microfinance will help the poor? Is it ok with your parents if you are going to be assigned in the provinces? Do you know how to commute?

We will be informed of the results in 2 weeks time.