GLOBAL Services Sector (GSS) workers are sharing their career successes in The Real GSS Stories video series, highlighting the benefits of working in the sector’s knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and information technology outsourcing (ITO) segments.

The Real GSS Stories, which may be seen on the GSS website www.gssjamaica.com and its social media pages, features several employees and includes Holly Allen and Meschach Mitchell in the most recent episodes.

The Real GSS Stories video series is produced and promoted by the GSS Project, which is a five-year project funded by the Inter-American Development Bank to provide Jamaicans with access to training and better jobs in the sector.

The executing agency is the Jamaica Promotions Corporation, an agency within the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce. The GSS project is further supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, the HEART/NSTA Trust and the Global Services Association of Jamaica.

Holly Allen is an accounts receivables manager at KPMG Jamaica Extended Support Services (JESS) who has worked in the GSS for over a dozen years. She began her GSS career in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector and has since moved into KPO at KPMG JESS. She has been in the GSS for approximately 14 years, with 10 years in the BPO and almost four in the KPO industry.

In her role at KPMG JESS, Allen reports, analyses and posts cash applications. She says, “The reality is actually more positive than what you hear out there day to day about the GSS. [The sector] is one that is growing.”

Her career is testament to that as she has been able to work for different companies and even received promotions at KPMG JESS, moving from an officer to team lead to her current role as accounts receivables manager. The flexibility and salary allowed her to study while working and recently, she has been able to take care of her newborn child by devoting time and hiring help where necessary.

The latest video from The Real GSS Stories also features Mitchell, operations manager at ITO firm Knightfox App Design Limited. Mitchell says his job at Knightfox provides flexibility and stability, and allowed him to transform his life. Since working there he has gotten married and has been able to travel, even while working.

“It doesn’t matter to my employer where I am,” he says, explaining that he has worked remotely while visiting his wife overseas.

“Wherever I was, as long as I had an Internet connection I would get my tasks, write the code, make the changes, do whatever was needed, and we’d all communicate over online messaging.”

Mitchell’s experience at Knightfox is a far cry from his previous employment at the local office of one of the world’s leading IT firms. He appreciates the freedom of not being in a corporate environment, and the stability of being part of a team that can fill in the skills he does not have.

“You don’t have this huge corporate structure where you are trying to climb the ladder,” he says. Despite that, at Knightfox he quickly moved from his initial role as software developer to operations manager.

Previous episodes of The Real GSS Stories featured George Pennington, Alex Henry and Deidre-Ann Fraser.