“Success comes from opportunities undoubtedly grasped.”

Ellen Joy Cartagena-Gallenero, whose dreams are unwavering despite life’s pitfalls, first ventured the call center realm when she was just eighteen.

She was hired as a seasonal agent for an American company called Teleflora and within weeks, awarded as the top-performing agent. There and then she knew she had the knack for this job. She kept on polishing her skills at the same time keeping her grades up in college.

Because of her high marks after graduation, she was assured of a job abroad as a merchant sailor; yet she still opted to stay behind the desk and applied as an Advanced Customer Service Representative for Dish Network. Both she and her husband- now a ship’s captain- agreed that they should take-off and excel in different careers. This was an easy decision as she was well aware that being in the BPO industry was her calling.

Years passed and she flourished into an all-rounder in the call center world. She was offered a position as a team leader during her years at Everything Everywhere/T-Mobile UK but she insisted to stay as a Senior Quality Assurance Specialist. Her job was to monitor and evaluate calls; conduct calibrations sessions with clients from the UK; helped with the hiring and training of new QA interns; and she was the one who made the local calibration process, QA onboarding process, and QA readiness assessment- these were essential tools as a guide to team leaders, managers and fellow QA’s on how to enhance their agents’ mastery of their crafts. Her goal as a Senior Quality Assurance Specialist is to help the company develop a group of leaders and agents to their utmost potential.

When her first child started going to school, her office life has come to a close and this is when her home-based career took off. She did various jobs i.e. HR recruiter, Virtual Assistant, B2B appointment setter, social media manager, cold caller, telemarketer, and project manager with different companies in a span of 4 years. These tasks were all new to her at the beginning yet due to her thirst for challenge she was able to conquer them all.

After a brief stint with her last employer, she realized that she also has what it takes to lead her own company. With her skill set, her desire for success and with a little nudge from her peers, VA Studio PH was born.