First job, fresh out of University! A real #success story JWOC – Phann’s new lateral move from Hotel Industry to Currency Exchange Customer Representative.

I met with Sophann, when we were both volunteering at the JWOC office.

I, on a European 3-month volunteering program and he while pursuing the Scholarship Program, studying Hospitality Management at the University of Southeast Asia in Siem Reap

By chance, one day we were sitting next to each other at lunch time, and ended up speaking about a job offer he had just received. He told me he was going to receive a 2-week training, and of course I was interested in learning more. Later, we talked more about the kind of company he was going to work with, and he told me it was called Global Exchange. We made a deal, that after his two weeks training, he would come back to the office and let me know about his #journey.

So today, Keisha, Phann and I sat down to ask him how his experience had been so far.

How was the two-week training, Phann?

For my new job, on the first week, I was trained on the background of the company, and during the second week we learned about the principles and goals of the company. Later on we’re going to study about the job; what it is we are going to do and when we finish we’re going to start the job. The job is not yet ready, but we are just training on everything first.

The training was at the City River Hotel. I trained there for 2 weeks, and then when we finished at the airport.

What did you like learning about the company?

During my training, the interesting point was the job. There were a lot of technical words and the training was delivered in English, but my trainer was very good at explaining things. They told us about the system, and about the same job in another country.

What kind of position will you have?

I will be a Customer Service Representative for Global Exchange. My position will revolve around 3 tasks: exchanging currencies, operating tax refund services and dealing with excess baggage. There will be around 25 staff

Will you be able to manage your last semester at University and starting working while writing your thesis?

At the moment I’m in year 4, so I currently study 1 day per week. During the rest of the time I write my thesis with my friends.

Will you be able to link your thesis subject to this new work?

They are completely different, but my thesis is about hospitality, but I will be working with tourists and my major is in tourism management. My thesis is about hotels, and I have 3 years of previous experience working in hotels.

Are you excited about the new job?

Yes! It’s a good job and has good benefits and I’m happy. When I got the phone call from the company, they told me that I got an interview. I made an appointment with the HR manager and did the interview with a sore throat, but then they gave me an offer letter and then the contract, which I received before the training day.

To summarise, a group of 25 future Siem Reap employees, including Phann, who will be working together @ SR International Airport, received an intensive training focused on the company, objectives, operations, principles, culture. Also, how they operate in other countries…Their trainers came from Hong Kong, so it was interesting for Phann to hear about the specificities of this country as well as  about Denmark, where the country they originated from.

Phann liked that some of the training were also using some his transferable skills from his previous jobs, into landing this new career in Financial Services Industry.

We talked about the importance of having a good resume, with lots of relevant experiences to secure a good job, and how the JWOC workshops helped him feel more confident and able to be successful at his 2 sets of job interviews.

Phann will keep in touch with JWOC, via our LinkedIn.

New adventures ahead for Phann – we wish him the best!

This post was written by Joelle Millery, a professional volunteer who has been supporting our marketing and communications over the last 3 months.