Career Highlight – Marilou Reotutar

After earning my Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting, I started working at the Manila Midtown Ramada Hotel Treasury department. While working, I earned a Masteral Degree in Business Administration wherein I was offered to work as Revenue Enforcement Officer on Bureau of Internal Revenue. This is when I chose to work on the ships instead. I thought that this is where I will make more memories to remember and reminisce on during my golden days.

When I applied, the agency in the Philippines assigned me as a Room Service Operator. Then, I decided to transfer to another department to hold a position that was aligned with my education and experience. I first looked at the finance office, then to casino which I believe my bubbly personality would be best suited for. In a week’s time, the casino London office hired me. They wanted to process my department transfer quickly and, with this kind of welcoming, I had in mind that I wanted to prove that the casino department had done the right thing accepting my application. I heard a lot about other cruise lines and big casinos that opened in Asian countries, even in the Philippines, offering competitive salary schemes but I was never tempted to apply because being at home is incomparable. Yet, GCO is my second home away from my family home.

I met my partner in life on the ships in 1997 and had my only child in 2001. They took advantage a family cruise package in 2010 to show my son where I am whenever I am not home. In addition, seven of my other siblings, two nieces and a nephew are employed by CCL, thus every vacation time brings special events to us.

My employment with Carnival Corporation, allowed me to send my son to reputable schools and university for his education. Working on the ships has given me financial freedom and stability along with the opportunity to invest in real estate.

In addition to my financial freedom, the main two reasons why I am happy and satisfied are because I LOVE AND ENJOY MY JOB, these two conquer all. When I say I love my job, I am truly grateful for having it and I have a sense of ownership thus my commitment is coming from within. And when I say I enjoy my job, I feel the genuine laughter with my team every single day at work. I heard many times that I am a model of the Carnival Value “Include Fun in Everything We Do”. I was nominated many times as Leader of Month, although I won just once.

During my younger days, shore leave was my favorite thing to participate in, but now I am happy to connect daily with my family via social media, this makes me feel that I am not too far away from them. The money I’ve earned allows me to have quality vacations with my family. This justifies that it’s worth staying for my job because I get countless blessings for myself and for my family.

I am thankful for the amazing teams onboard, the Operations team who never apply pressure but are always there to help, the HR Team who are ready to assist and many other good things to mention.

I will always treasure the days I spend with GCO. I will continue creating more memories, enjoy my employment, and save more money to spend when I get older after my retirement.