“Begin with the end in mind“

Monday, 04 May 2026 – 11:26 am (Sydney)

In April of 2008, I arrived in Sydney, Australia. Prior to migrating to this new country, I have already developed a young career in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry (aka call centres) in the Philippines. I have been a call centre Team Leader for several years for several American clients and companies. When I arrived in Australia, it was one of my first goals to ‘get back to the saddle’, to restart my young career from where I left off.

Challenge:

While I was sending out my resumes to different Australian companies to seek a team leader role in their call centres, I was able to land several interviews. However, I was always knocked back and the reason usually given was that I did not have ‘local Australian’ experience. This frustrating experience went on for several months to deliver several failed interviews. As I needed income to pay for my tuition fee to support my student visa, I gave in and temporarily changed my aim to get employed in a call centre and just start at the bottom, as a call centre agent.

When I eventually landed a call centre agent role within the Samsung call centre, it was my immediate goal to rise through the ranks and get a promotion, to become a Team Leader in the shortest time possible.

I started inquiring what was the culture like in terms of internal job promotions. One of the senior support staff mentioned that he was working there for over 10 years and the farthest he’s ever been is a level 2 subject matter expert. I needed a creative solution to reach my end goal! The end I had in my mind was to become a Team Leader again in less than a year! This was non-negotiable in my head!

Situation:

The Samsung call centre had 2 shifts, the morning shift which started at 7am and the afternoon shift which started at 12 midday. The centre had a rotating roster but shift swaps were allowed.

Creative Solution:

I needed to demonstrate to the existing team leaders my capabilities that I have developed over my past experiences. I needed to prove to the Operations Manager that my previous experience can be translated to the ‘local Australian’ landscape. Most of all, part of my plan was not to give them an option to say no. My plan and actions should put the influencers and the main decision maker in a position that they have no other option but to say yes and give me a Team Leader role. More importantly, my plan was time-bound. This has to happen within a year! I had a plan. Now, I had to work and execute the plan.

Execution:

Every time I was given the morning shift to start at 7am, I would always swap it for the afternoon shift to start at 12 midday. However, every single working day, I was already at the office at 6am. In my head, I would act as a Team Leader, whenever appropriate, like opening the call centre and getting the systems and teams ready prior to opening the call queues. To begin, I requested the team leaders who were officially rostered to open the call centre to delegate some tasks to me. Any tasks. Team Leader tasks, agent tasks, workforce management tasks, any tasks at all. I made it clear that the delegation is free from overtime pay and any encumbrances. I simply wanted to learn. That’s what I told them.

Initially, my offers were rejected. Regardless, I persisted. My wife told me I am crazy for persisting to show up to the office at 6am daily even though my official work time does not start until 12 noon. She told me I was crazy for showing up 6 hours earlier before my job starts and worse, to offer to do additional tasks for free!

Regardless, I persisted. I had a plan and my plan was time-bound. My plan had to succeed in less than a year! I decided that I will not take any if’s or but’s and I will bend to no excuses from anyone nor myself!

I kept showing up at 6am. I kept asking for delegated tasks. Consistency was part of the legwork of the plan.

Eventually, the Team Leaders recognised my consistency and persistence. As the need to delegate arose—especially when one of them was running late and they were overwhelmed with deliverables—they entrusted me with a task. Although it was the most basic task available for delegation, my several years of experience as a Team Leader allowed me to complete it quickly and to a high standard.

Over several weeks, the volume and complexity of tasks delegated to me steadily increased. It eventually reached a point where I was still working on these tasks even after my official rostered start time as an agent at 12 noon. Often, the Team Leaders and Operations Manager would ask the Workforce Manager to delay my placement on the call queue by an hour so I could continue focusing on delegated work.

This overlap continued to grow. On some days, instead of starting on the phones at 12 noon, I was directed to begin at 3pm or even 4pm. Over time, I found myself spending the majority of my working hours handling delegated tasks from the Team Leaders, Workforce Manager, and Operations Manager, rather than performing standard call centre duties.

At that tipping point, the scope of my responsibilities led the management team to formalise my role by creating a new position for me: the “Administration Team.”

The creation of this new title caused a stir across the call centre. Some senior staff and Level 2 support members—many with over a decade of tenure—perceived it as biased. They were unhappy that someone with less than a year’s experience had effectively been promoted through the creation of a role that did not previously exist.

However, the resentment was short-lived, as most colleagues had directly observed my work ethic and performance, which helped validate the decision.

After several months in the Administration role, one of the Team Leaders resigned. By that time, my responsibilities already closely aligned with those of a Team Leader. When the Operations Manager and senior Team Leaders began interviewing candidates to fill the vacancy, several colleagues applied, as did I.

A standard interview question was whether candidates had experience performing Team Leader duties. My answer was straightforward—I had already been doing them in my current role. Given this, the decision was clear. I was ultimately selected for the position, as my experience directly matched the requirements of the role.

In effect, I had already been operating at a Team Leader level; the promotion simply formalised the title.

This is a story of a concrete creative plan, with realistic time-bound objective. With consistency and resilience of leg work, it was as if the universe conspired to deliver!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND.