Why go freelancing when I have an engineering degree? Why did I even take metallurgical engineering? Here are some questions I usually ask myself when I start to doubt myself about my career choices.
Why did I choose Engineering?
Let's go back to 2007 when I was transferring to UP Diliman. I was a BA Psychology student from UP Clark during my freshman year and we had to move to Metro Manila. I didn't make the quota for the Psychology course in Diliman, so I was pretty desperate in finding a different degree. While filling an application in the Engineering Department, I strategically picked Metallurgical Engineering for two reasons - one, I meet the requirements for shifting, and two, because 'Metallurgical Engineering' sounds cool.
What is Metallurgical Engineering?
It was only in third-year college that I really understood the meaning of Metallurgical Engineering. Technically, according to Britannica:
Metallurgy, art and science of extracting metals from their ores and modifying the metals for use.
Mining gets the ore from the ground, and deliver them to the process plant.  From there, metallurgical processes are applied.  Imagine this, we can transform a rock into a cellphone (it will just go through a LOT).
The first goal is to crush the ore to powder form to be able to separate the waste from the valuable metal, for example, gold. The next step is to separate gold from the waste by concentration. We combine all the gold, to a recovery that we will be able to make a profit out of it.  After which we use another process to ‘cook’ the gold – we smelt it to be able to refine the gold to 24K purity for our jewelry!
So why is it called art? Each ore is unique. Every rock has its different processes unique to its characteristics. Maybe it is abstract art! That is why we need the 'science' part to develop the most efficient and most practical processes for these abstract art. You can check out one of the presentations about metallurgy I made in my portfolio.
When I graduated and got my diploma, I was so excited to apply all the things I've learned in school. I got hired in a copper-gold mine and acquired my skills as a metallurgical engineer. I gained experience in #projectmanagement, manpower scheduling, conflict resolution, risk assessment, risk mitigation, #research and technical writing, and many more.
Being in a mine site means being away from my family. I decided to resign from my work and moved to Manila. I got hired as a Content Analyst for a financial data company where I gained experience in data entry. Check out my About page for more details about my work experience.
So why did I choose to go #Freelancing?
I was happy with my office job! It was related to my field, metals and mining. It was easy, we get to read reports, press releases and articles all day, get relevant data and input in the database. Although stressful at times we don't meet the target, it was still fun working with the team and the company really valued their employees.
I resigned from my office job in 2017 to focus on my delicate pregnancy. I needed bed rest and I wanted to take care of the little human being in my belly. I started to look for online jobs but as soon as my baby was born, I literally had no time for myself. So I paused my freelancing journey to give all of my time to my precious daughter. Now that I have
Coach Keren once said "Always remember your Why." My WHY is - I wanted to be available for my daughter. I want to be with her for all her milestones. While was I writing this blog post, I realized that my WHY's change as I grow older. My priorities changed. Now I wanted to grow as professional, while being together with my family at the comfort of our home. I would still apply all the knowledge I've gained as an engineer in whatever job I get.
I never thought that my engineering degree was a waste, but I'll make sure I'll make something out of it! Metallurgy is the art and science of extracting metals and modifying them for use. When applied to virtual assistance, I can extract information, analyze and make them simple for your use.
So if you are someone like me, a first-time mom, who wants to take the leap and go #freelancing but know nothing about virtual assistance, you can check the Filipino Virtual Assistance website to learn more. That's what I did, and I am one step closer to my goal. And if you are someone who needs #virtualassistance, contact me!
Thanks for reading! 'Til next post... Meow!