The Director of Operations’ main responsibility is to lead and manage the whole operations of Make Technology. It is the Director of Operations’ role to develop Make’s leaders so they maximize their leadership potential and achieve the goals of Make through their teams. Roles and Responsibilities - Lead and manage the company’s operations - Provide the sales team support and right resources - Manage growth and profitability of departments’ operations - Manage productivity and efficiency - Handles strategy and planning

I am currently the Head of Development for Make, an Ace Saatchi & Saatchi co. My role is critical on helping Make achieve it's vision. My department is composed of Front End developers, Back End developers, Product Owners, Project Managers and QA Specialists. I will make sure the department's processes are in place and is correctly implemented. I will help scale it efficiently by providing the right strategy and properly execute it. I will also be in constant communication with the sales team and give them technical advice. I will serve as the team's leader who will not act just a mentor but someone who can also take over and be there in the trenches whenever I'm needed.

I became the Manager and Head of Creative Technology in StraightArrow. I developed and identified competencies needed for projects to cultivate the future leaders of our team. I oversaw all projects and make sure that they are on track with the goals the teams have set themselves. I tried to inspire my teams just as how I was inspired by the people before me. My aim was to make them see the leader in themselves and boost their technical and soft skills using trainings and other activities.

Over time, there was a growth in the demand of application development, leading the company to develop its own department for it. Our ASSET (Apps Development, Software Solutions, and E-Commerce Technologies) team specializes in web and mobile applications, e-commerce solutions, and marketing automation software. I led this pilot team of five and devised processes for this new service. We were able to secure two main projects: one was a dating application, and the other was a sports application. The team was successful, and we eventually combined the two Creative Development teams under one umbrella.

After a year as the Creative Technology Team Lead, I was promoted as Assistant Manager and Head of Creative Technology 2. At this point, we had two teams under our company's belt as we were growing. I believe that this role's challenge lies in the bigger scope and responsibility involved in it. Before, I only handled one team's progress, delivery, and development. With this job role, I was essentially the team lead of the team leads. I never thought that there was to be a point that I had to be more omniscient than before without my responsibilities overlapping with those of my team leaders. In this role, I was training specialists to become leads in the future.

I was eventually promoted as a team lead in the company. I was used to being in teams and delegating tasks when assigned in projects. However, there was an aspect in team leadership that I had yet to experience: human development and mentoring. The initial challenge in my role was when I was learning how to adapt better communication strategies. I learned that leading a team has two missions; one is finishing a task, and the second is growing your team to be better developers. I was mentored by one of our leaders on how to coach my team and I studied courses on people management. Moving forward from this role, I also hired talent for our team.I also kept in mind client expectations. As the team lead, I shed off the jargon talk and walked clients through our processes to foster better working relations. We agree on metrics, and make sure that I accommodate my team's needs in meeting these. I also made sure to allocate budget for bonding moments and activities to make the team grow holistically. I monitored my team and provided opportunities for training to help them accelerate their progress on the job ladder. We were able to develop and optimize 5 websites with at least 100-120 pages each. I was still a developer, but I was starting to learn how to develop people.

StraightArrow is the Philippines' leading creative process outsourcing company, with numerous clients from the US, UK, and Australia. Guided by the principles of Inbound Marketing, we plan your end-to-end marketing solutions aligned with your goals and budget. We create lasting partnerships with your markets. Our process focuses on creating strategies that pull your customers deeper in the marketing funnel to secure them as leads. We use a combination of email workflows, SEO, Creative Techology and Design, Social Media, and Content to create compelling call-to-actions to your brand offers and promotions.As the Social Media Boom was starting to cover more ground, I was assigned in the development of Facebook Apps, such as content management systems. I studied the platform and developed a variety of games and contests (ported in multiple languages) for clients that pull their contact details for the lead nurturing stage using the Git revision control system.I know that the digital platform is a medium for creating brand awareness and making services better for the population. StraightArrow takes pride in going the extra mile; where some companies only provide solutions, we provide partnerships with clients and their buyer personas. I found the company's processes novel and effective, and I believed - and still believe - that the company and I have aligned goals.

Rocket Internet is a company that integrates markets to the online landscape to adapt to the fast-moving demands of consumers. They employ a variety of technologies and hire top talent for quick outputs for major clients. As a Senior PHP Developer, I handled end-to-end projects for Zalora using the Yii and Zend Framework. I enjoyed my stint here; the project's complexity and and its challenge of a compressed timeline tested my wit in a pressured environment, but I made sure to translate the pressure as my drive.

RCG Global Services is a technology consultancy provider that has practices on Advisory, Data and Analytics, and various business applications internationally in different industries. The work here was challenging in the sense that I always had to be prepared to absorb the know-hows of managing cutting-edge technology and developments. I was assigned to Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online and worked in the Philippines with an offshore team where we handled major website developments using the Zend Framework, phpUnit, Perforce (SCM system), Wiki Enterprise, Eclipse, (IDE), Baretail (debugging), Putty (ssh client), Selenium, Maven, and others. The dynamic front-end layouts were completed using jQuery. I was exposed to a highly intricate process with many layers and branches. We were taught to pre-empt issues as early in conceptualization to ensure quality output afterwards for the client. Our second major software development under the same client is a cross-platform booking website application. We added many features, including drop-down elements that linked to different other aspects. The software was also integrated to a phone communications module so that customer service representatives can communicate with online customers.I was able to develop the following websites:- GBTS Passport Software (call sync software)- WDPRO Member Online Booking

GoAdv is one of Europe's fastest-growing digital media company of multilingual products and content. The group has many products, like Excite.com, Better Deals, Nanopublishing, and Blogosfere. I was assigned in the Philippine branch in internal projects where we create the company's products. My primary tasks were to lead 3 major company products and other minor projets. We developed widgets for company websites using different APIs (Application Program Interface) like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.). Additionally, I was also able to develop an internal ROI tool for the different departments. The main websites we crafted were powered by Joomla and Wordpress.We were expected to think like innovators; we had monthly meetings with our supervisors and we would pitch our own original concepts for the company. My co-workers and I enjoyed this company encouragement to think outside the box and be given an actual chance to directly contribute to the company's growth. The team and I noticed that our company has a wealth of content producers that were capable to create output even outside the scope of their deliverables. We saw this as an opportunity; we pitched an idea to develop a content marketplace of sorts where they can shelve their articles, and buyers can "shop" using a search algorithm. The company can then sell these externally, and the employees can also get compensated for every piece sold. It was approved and eventually developed in the company.It was a fresh experience for me, and I enjoyed working outside the box. With my freelance exposure, I had a tendency to keep my work to myself and troubleshoot problems alone. But with the birth of our big idea, I grew to appreciate the value of delegation and workplace coordination even more.We have developed the following websites:- Ausometravel.com- Vibcaster.com

The Design People is a web marketing studio that provides internet marketing, database development, web design, and search engine/email marketing services for businesses. I was part of its early stages as a Web Applications Developer. The company had internal products besides providing services, and I was assigned to work with the real estate side of clients. We handled layouting and website furnishing of the clients; should there be new functions that would help sales, we create scripts and develop the features into the website. I was lucky to be assigned with people who helped me grow my skillset. I was awarded with the Web Developer of the Month Award in my first month, and my teammates commended me for extending a helping hand even when mine were full. We handled internal product development (design to QA), physical and logical database design, implemented new industry trends (i.e. AJAX), and created company tools and products. For me, helping my team helped me expand my skills and I took it as a challenge to drive me to be a better developer.

I believe that freelance work teaches you some aspects in work ethic that's unique from companies. In the freelance community, I learned that accountability to your tasks is just as important as having the know-how in doing it. I learned how to be more responsible to deadlines, and made sure that I had control over elements that I can troubleshoot when a problem would arise. I learned these when I took on this project of spearheading a client's web development department and its processes. We built a website from scratch using cakephp, while I added features to other existing website projects. I also managed a database and created a script that could import and export from this database.

I took on a few more freelance stints before starting my career. I took on a project that focused on forms and form validation, as well as custom scripts to generate .pdf entries of collected data in forms. For websites, I worked on web templates (HTML and CSS). I also created an affiliate system that tracked sales referrals, a Google Map store locator script, a paypal payment system, and integrated custom javascript for NATS.

I took on a freelance work while I was still finishing my undergraduate thesis. I started with volunteering work through forums, and partnered with a client who needed help adding custom features for a website. I was excited to take on this challenge because I was driven to learn more and practice the theories we studied in classrooms.By tinkering with the client's website, I found a handful of errors while I was optimizing its database structures. After finishing with this project, the client recommended me to his colleagues who were also experiencing challenges in other projects (this time, my services were hired). I developed a competitive sports betting game which pulled US NFL player stats for outcomes.