Travelogue

My work immersion journey started in Department of

Social Welfare and Development or the DSWD. I woke up early
in the morning just so I won’t be late and it is also because of the
excitement that I was feeling. We arrived there earlier than they
expected us to, we were even earlier than the other employees,
and there were only guards and janitors the time when we
arrived, so we waited for about an hour for the person tasked to
distribute us to arrive. But the waiting helped me to reduce the
feeling of being nervous. And we were assigned to our
departments after the waiting and all.
I and James Trinidad were assigned in a department
located on the third floor, were in the employees were mostly in
the age of late 40’s or early 30’s, basically married people. They
welcomed us as if we were their child and what the not. The aura
was so warm that I felt comfortable working with them in just a
couple of hours. We were tasked to do stuff that what they
normally do so that we could experience it at some point. It was
pretty much tiring but I learned something from every task, I
learned patience and other values that you need to have when you
are working with reality already, so it’s essential.
When we are staying in the office we get to
talk to the other engineers and other employees. We
were also given the chance to attend a work shop in
which we were taught how to use the AutoCAD which
is an application used to make blueprints or floor plan,
this can absolutely help us in the future for
convenience. We also get to actually use it, they lend
us their laptops for us to use, they guided us all
throughout, we were tasked to copy a floor plan, and
they entertained our questions patiently. Even if I was
sick that time, I still tried my best through observing
and listening, because I can barely move that time and
I was feeling tired and sleepy at the same time,
because I had dengue, but they considered my
condition and adjusted for me.
When we had our site visitation, I was
still sick then, but with the willingness to learn,
I gave my best to keep up with all the lectures
that the other engineers were giving to us.
Seeing all those projects, those houses, and
buildings, made me envision as the engineer
assigned to that project. It was a great feeling and fulfilling at the same time. The visitation
helped me to love my chosen career path eve more.
When we hit the last day of our schoolwork immersion, we
shared some food for our departments, and gave them message of
gratitude for they have been patient and understanding for us.
They taught us things that will surely be helpful, experiences that
will be talked years and years from now, learnings that will be
used until we retired from our jobs. The out of school work
immersion was a blast I say. But our work immersion journey
didn’t stop here, we still have a lot to learn, a lot of people to
meet and work with, and experiences to treasure as well, and this
will happen in our in-campus work immersion.
In our in-campus work immersion, I and John Anthony Agamata were assigned with the
electricians of the Claret School of Zamboannga City. We spend an hour every week with them,
watching them work, listening to their conversations and lectures, and acquiring knowledge from
them. Even if they were electricians and my desired course is Civil engineering, which is a bit
off from them, I still learned a lot of things from them regarding to how will I act with my co-
workers and how I should I look like at the job that I will be having, whatever may it be. Seeing
them working with each other as if they were friends and not co-workers signifies that they built
a good relationship among them, developed care and concern to each other, and treated
themselves as family, working family. Watching them work, I realized a lot of things, and one of
those is to love your craft and work for great things will happen with you. And another person
that helped us all throughout this learning journey of ours, is ma’am Narzabal, for she was so
patient to us from the start up until now. Most of us were stubborn and noisy, especially the
boys, but she still kept her patience and gave us the information that we need, so I am really
grateful that we have here. So now, I can say that this work immersion program is a success.
 My Story of Experiences and Challenges
In every journey we take, we learn something from it, we apply the learning we learned,
and we treasure experiences we get from the journey. I consider our work immersion as a
journey we took to learn and gain experiences from it. A journey where I met new people, a
journey that I will surely remember years from now, a journey full of experiences, a journey that
I am grateful of.

My whole stay in the Department of Social Welfare (DSWD) was a blast. When we
arrived there, I was pretty much nervous for I didn’t really know what to expect, but being
welcomed with warm smiles and great talks with the employees made me feel comfortable, to
the point that I was not shy to ask questions whenever it is needed. For I am a type of person who
won’t approach anyone unless being approached first. My confidence boosted when I felt like I
can do great with what I have in me for they showed me the encouragement that I needed, they
entrusted me with task that are very important, with this, I knew that they knew I am able to do
just any task. With my work immersion journey, I also encountered people that works differently
to how I am used to, for it was a different environment, where in people had different
personalities, but gladly, with my boosted confidence, I able to interact with them nicely and I
was able to acquire experiences that contributed to my knowledge of how will it be like to work
in reality. And I can observe that the employees were like a family that look after each other,
formality may be needed during work, but them, I can see that they care for each other more than
just being co-workers, this made me envision myself working in an environment like them.
Another challenge that have encountered was dealing with pressure, they gave me task that is
needed to be finished as soon as possible, I got scared at first, but I got over it by encouraging
myself and reminding myself with what I am really capable of doing, and that is to do great, so I
got into it, and luckily finished it in time, I felt proud when I saw that I actually finished all those
stack of papers, I made it. It may be tiring, but the important thing is you learn something from
what you are doing.

This work immersion, my journey, made me love my chosen career path more, this made
me see myself working as an engineer, and engineer who can do great things in the future. It
made me see things beyond from what I expected it to be. It may not seem so easy, but with the
right motivation and the right mind-set, you can do things that you never thought that you will
ever be able to do. So I can say that this work immersion program really helps the students to
figure out if they are really sure with their chosen path, if they will be happy working with the
profession that they chose now, if they can handle the challenges that they may encounter in the
future. We don’t just deal with things that we learn from school when we started working, we
may encounter conflict that are related to your relationship with your co-workers, your boss or
your clients. But with this work immersion, I can see myself conquering every challenges with
the right attitude and with the right approach. I am me, and I am able, I will be a great engineer
in the future.