Former IT reporter Grace Sarmiento-Clavecilla has relocated her family to Australia after taking a lateral transfer from the Philippines to the Melbourne office of Swedish tech giant Ericsson.
Sarmiento-Clavecilla will be assuming the same post as communications manager in Melbourne. Although ?hosted? in the Philippines in the last few years, she performed communications work mostly for the Southeast Asian region, reporting directly to a boss in Australia.
Sarmiento-Clavecilla said she sought the transfer since her family is already based in Adelaide, a city a few hours away from Melbourne. Her father, a former employee of the National Power Corporation, first relocated in Australia after retiring from the government-owned energy firm.
She said her husband, Philippine Army major Elgin Clavecilla, plans to stay for one more year in the military service before taking an early retirement to join them in Australia. They have two children, both young boys.
Before getting employed at Ericsson, Sarmiento-Clavecilla worked as a journalist at trade magazine ComputerWorld Philippines. She then hooked up with Smart Communications as part of the company?s public affairs team.
Though already an Ericsson employee, Sarmiento-Clavecilla said she had to compete with other candidates to get the Melbourne job since Ericsson opened the post to outsiders, including to those based in Australia.
A journalism graduate of University of the Philippines in Baguio City, she said intends to take up further schooling in Australia to keep up with the demands of her job.
