Success in Career Shifting – Marga Bellosillo
By Neil Nepomuceno
This is the story of an athlete and a top Communications Graduate who leaped into the business and marketing industry bringing with her a little knowledge about her chosen career path and a lot of passion.
Marga Bellosillo is the 7th out of 8th children. She grew up in a big family that is caring and tremendously supportive of their dreams.
“My mom and my dad, they’re super nice people. The reason why I was able to graduate Cum Laude and be a scholar in College is not that they forced me to do it, but because I wanted to do it. I was willing to do it because I want to make them proud,” said Marga.
Marga cleared the ball to help UP score the goal against San Beda
Marga made it to the UP women’s football league as a defender with their love and support behind her. Being a part of the varsity, she became a scholar and only had to pay 50 pesos per sem.
She continued to play for various leagues and also developed an interest in theatre arts and even blogging. Through all these, her family always told her to keep going.
Marga scored a goal for UnionBank’s football team
When she graduated from college, she worked in the Human Resources department of a telco company for 6 years. This allowed her to work with people from all walks of life. “I guess the best part in HR is learning empathy and skills necessary to communicate with stakeholders and employees,” she recalled.
After spending her last year as part of the Learning & Development team in her previous employer, she looked for a job that would be more challenging and provide opportunities for growth. She seized the opportunity to work for UnionBank in the HR Benefits department.
The majority of her work involved employee loans and benefits transactions. One project she is most proud of was when she worked with the Employer Branding and Communications team in developing CHAT: Connect, Heal, Assist and Talk.
“I was part of that team, along with the HR Benefits and Employer Branding and Communications Team. What I love about that project is we were able to help people. Especially in the pandemic when there was an increase in people having mental health issues,” said Marga.
“Being able to help people with their mental health, it became a really fulfilling project for me.”
Aside from these, she was also writing articles for the Manila Times, where she developed an interest writing about businesses and learning about Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
Her writing stint sparked her desire to create products and solutions to help MSME business owners positively impact their businesses and lives.
“I wanted something aligned in those advocacies, inspiring others to create their businesses and inspire MSME business owners.”
After years of diligent work in HR, her opportunity to pursue her passion came when she applied for an opening in UnionBank’s SME segment.
“Thankfully, there was an opening, in the SME segment, under Sir Jaypee Soliman’s team, and I immediately applied for it. I just turned one year with him. Being in a job na aligned with my advocacies was one of the things that I realized, You’ll do great things if you are passionate in that aspect.” She explained.
Marga’s first job under Sir Jaypee was at the GlobalLinker, a platform created for SME owners where they can create E-commerce stores, network with other suppliers, learn new things in the knowledge section, and avail discounts from service providers, along with UnionBank solutions.
Her first big project came in the form of “Laban Negosyante,” a 3-day event that showcases different speakers as they talk about topics like how to pivot digitally, the impact of social media in business, and the various channels they can use to increase their sales.
In under three weeks, 1,000 people registered, and when the event concluded, their hard work paid off with a lot of good reviews.
Marga was proud of her team as she said, “I’m very proud of it because it was a very fulfilling project, kasi alam namin na marami kaming natulungan because of it. Hopefully, it won’t be the last big event that we stage.”
The second would be the MSME Business Banking App as a whole. Their team released an app that allowed MSME owners to transact, pay bills, transfer funds, make mobile check deposits, and even request payments easily.
She loves this app because they could target or introduce the app to different communities with MSME business owners, especially the digital account opening feature.
Their efforts were recognized in the 2021 Asian Banker Awards, winning the “Best Mobile Technology” award.
“What I like is that we started from scratch, and with Sir Jaypee, Alex, and Colleen, all these people that make up the whole project, we are so excited about the upcoming months because we will be releasing more features,” said Marga.
“I love working with the team I’m with now because Sir Jaypee, Ms. Ana, the digital marketing team, and the product team, they’re abundant with ideas.” She added.
It took her 7 years before she landed a job at the Customer Experience Group as a Marketing Manager, and she had no regrets about changing career paths. She is even grateful for all the learnings and experiences that she will continue to apply in marketing.
When asked about what advice she can give for future UnionBankers, she generously gave us three, and these are:
Build relationships that would last a lifetime – “Because I feel like relationships are important. It doesn’t matter if you’re not the best in what you do, but through these relationships, you can get mentoring, and you have people that will truly support you.”
Stay Kind – “Being kind is something everyone should learn. When you’re kind, you’d be surprised at how much good karma you’re going to get. When you are kind to others, it comes back to you.”
Don’t be afraid to take that leap of faith, to take risks – “In the end, what I realized is it doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything, but as long as you have that attitude to learn, be open and the humility to accept your mistakes and learn from it then you can go far.”
From someone who is anxious about where her career would take her to becoming an essential part of UnionBank’s Customer Experience Group, Marga took all the challenges. She faced it with courage and determination while retaining the traits that helped her succeed in any field she chose.