Filipino VA Webinar
Last Thursday, May 26 was the monthly webinar of Jomar Hilario for Filipino Virtual Assistants (VA). Jomar Hilario is an internet marketer and VA trainer. Every month, he invites one or two practicing VAs and lets them share their work experiences. The VAs share their previous work background before becoming a VA, how they started as a VA, what kind of VA work they do, the kind of clients they work with and what their typical working day is like. The VAs generously give tips on what to do and what not to do, based on their own experience.
I have listened in on a number of the VA webinars by Jomar before and they're generally the same stories of people who got tired of the daily hassle of being employed and who now work at home on their own time. What keeps me always tuned in is the message of hope imparted by the featured VAs and Jomar himself. That it is possible to break into and succeed in the VA world through perseverance, continuous learning and consistent good work. Their words inspire me to continue exploring the scary freelance world.
If you want to be a part of the VA world too, start learning about it here.
CIIT's Free Adobe Photoshop Workshop
The following day, Friday, I got into a free 3-hour Adobe Photoshop workshop. I stumbled into this free workshop 2 days before the scheduled date through the blog of Boy Kuripot. The free workshop was conducted by Cosmopoint International Institute of Technology, an ICT (information communications technology) education provider located in Tomas Morato, Quezon City, with headquarters in Malaysia. It was a short teaser of their Photoshop course as part of either the Web Design Specialist package or Multimedia Specialist package. I had expected only a short Powerpoint-powered presentation where the facilitator would feature photos before and after being altered by Photoshop and a few hands-on opportunities. What the participants got instead was a full, although short, hands-on tutorial of some of the different tools used in Photoshop.
I've always wanted to learn Photoshop so I could correct and enhance photos, as well as manipulate existing photos to create a new photo for a particular need. Like making it appear that I've been to Egypt by transposing my photo into a photo with the Egyptian pyramids at the background. This would be a big help in my web content creation tasks, as some clients want pictures accompanying the articles or blog posts that are submitted to them. The workshop gave me an insight of how I could use Photoshop in that manner.
It was also a chance to check out Cosmopoint's facilities, instructors and programs. At the workshop, we used CIIT's top of the line computer equipment and facilities. The instructors are industry practitioners, so you're sure that what the facilitator teaches you comes from actual experience and not just from books or manuals. After the workshop, a Marketing Officer named Cecille briefly explained to me their current programs that include, among others, Multimedia Specialist, Web Design Specialist, 3D Animation Specialist and Game Development Specialist packages. Currently, those career options are in high demand and offer high paying career opportunities.
I was impressed with the staff, facilities and programs. I am seriously looking into the opportunity of studying at CIIT.
