University of Cebu

Graduate School
Self-Introduction/VMG Reflection

Name: Marian P. Oclarit

Subject: Organizational Behavior & Development

- Give an overview about yourself and your work history.

I am Marian P. Oclarit, a graduate of Holy Name University with a major in Management

Accounting. I am working here in Cebu at Pag-IBIG fund for over four years. I was first
assigned in the Accounting Department as Accounting support assistant tasked in doing
reconciliation of General and subsidiary ledgers. At first, it was challenging yet exciting job
for me but it eventually became a routinary job. Since it was just a project-based job, I got
transferred to another department after six months. I was reassigned at the Loans
Origination Department as a Customer support assistant. My initial task was as an evaluator
of housing loan applications. As explorative as I am, I showed willingness to do other tasks
that’s why I was given other tasks like monitoring of accounts and title, doing inventory of
the office supplies and attending to telephone calls answering queries from other
departments, developers and as well as clients. It is exhausting to do different tasks but at
the end of the day it is still fulfilling to be able to cater various needs of different people.

- What are the major changes of your personal and professional life for the past three
years.

I should say that the major changes in my personal life are: 1. Being independent. Since I am
living away from home, I’ve learned to do things that I don’t used to do like cooking,
managing my own finances, solving my own problems and travelling without a chaperone. 2.
Learning to socialize. Before, I consider myself as an introvert because I was not
comfortable to be around other people except my family. Now, I’ve got to accept friends
that I now consider as family here in Cebu. 3. Starting to take risks in investing such as in real
estate. 4. Choosing a healthy lifestyle. Living alone here in Cebu made me decide to follow a
healthy because it is hard to get sick while I am away from my family. 5. Being more
compassionate. Before, I just think of my own needs and wants but right now I’ve learned to
sympathize to other people and extend help in my own little ways.

I should say that the major changes in my professional life are: 1. Wearing multiple hats.
Even though there is a job description included in my employment contract, I need to try out
different things to be able to help the company where it is necessary. 2. Being tactful. No
matter how much I believe I am right about something, not everyone reacts the same way
to different styles of confrontation. I’ve learned to know how and when to deal with various
issues that crop up in the workplace. 3. Accepting criticisms and learning from it. Sometimes,
truth hurts but if we are willing to learn and enhance our skills and abilities, we should be
open to be trained and listen to criticisms since jobs are constantly changing and evolving. 4.
Improving my communication skills. At first, it was hard for me to answer telephone calls,
face clients to attend to their queries but with continuous learning and fearlessly answering
those calls and facing those clients, I was able to gain confidence and carry myself well.

- Was those changes planned or unplanned?

Most of those changes were not planned. I just learned to be flexible and develop different
mindset to cope with the continuous change in my personal and professional life. Indeed,
real possibilities are discovered if we fearlessly experiment and discover our identity. It can
be a short or long process, but one that is necessary for us to survive is to learn to be
flexible, realistic and open-minded. If opportunities come, we must be able to see them in
their entirety, with their drawbacks and advantages.

    - Discuss your understanding on the university's VMG.

Clearly, the University of Cebu’s vision, mission and goals focus on making quality education
accessible to everyone by allowing equalization of student-teacher roles in influencing
creation and transmission of knowledge and undermining social and cultural barriers that
hinder participation and equal access to appropriate learning tools. As I have observed, the
institution continuously conduct researches to provide effective instruction and innovate
better way of learning by embracing technological advancement. Evidently, the university
conduct efforts to create an impact not just in the lives of the students but as well as in the
education industry.

   - Express briefly how can you contribute to the realization of the university's VMG.

As a graduate school student, I can contribute to the realization of the university's vision-
mission-goal by upholding the core values of the university such as embracing technological
advancement like utilizing the learning management system, applying the knowledge and
skills imparted to me by the instructors to my workplace to be a catalyst of change in the
organization I work with-one example is to conduct a research of best practices on financial
services which would be very useful in achieving excellent service to our clients. Lastly, I
should be more than willing to volunteer in administering the university’s social
responsibility activities.