About

About This Website

This WordPress website serves as my digital space for both professional and personal content—part journal of my work and life experiences, part instrument for expanding my career opportunities. It’s still a work in progress, with some sections set to be filled in soon.

After Pivot represents my story exploring growth that extends far beyond spreadsheets, formulas, functions, pivot tables, reports—everything far beyond Microsoft Excel and accounting.

Although I launched this website in 2025, its concept dates back to 2015, when I first began learning Japanese. Back then, responsive web design was just emerging, and I explored webpage development concepts that were way beyond my field and experience—ones I did my best to understand (albeit I didn’t understand them enough).

At the same time, creating videos in those days required learning Adobe Premiere and After Effects—though admittedly, I never learned them well enough to produce a truly decent video. Eventually, I had to put this project on the back burner, as it required a significant investment of time and money—though my former employer covered the cost of the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite—but I never removed this project from my life to-do list.

Fast forward to today—building a WordPress website feels much easier than ever, and building an online presence and purchasing digital assets have definitely become within my reach. Web hosting and site setup have become even more intuitive and cheaper too. In addition, with the advent of AI, proofreading my composition has become an easy task.

There’s no better time than now for me to embrace today’s advancements, and I feel truly fortunate to witness the world’s shift into the age of AI. With these innovations now becoming within my reach, I can finally focus on expressing myself freely through writing and content creation.

About Me

I’m Giovanni, and my family calls me “Ban” for short. I’m a Filipino, born and raised here in the Philippines. Originating from Pangasinan, I’m ethnically both Ilocano and Pangasinan, and I speak both languages together with our national language, Filipino.

Before I moved to Metro Manila in 2017, I’d been living a rustic life in the province for more than thirty (30) years—honing my skills primarily as an accountant, and with a little IT know-how on the side.

Growing up in a poor family, I never felt deprived, as our family always had enough to survive. However, from a young age, I was keenly aware of the lack of opportunities and the disadvantage of having a limited perspective on life. I found myself lagging behind in many aspects of life—buying my first computer only after graduating from university, learning to drive (not my own car) after turning 30, moving to Metro Manila (the capital) for better career opportunities before my mid-30s, and finally traveling overseas after reaching 40. And the list goes on.

At the age of 17, I wanted to own a computer—something that would unmistakably be considered an luxury in our family. That would become a reality only after I passed the CPA board exam and after just under a year of saving up money in my first job (I was 24 years old at that time). Before then, I studied how to use a computer, how to code, and how to write SQL only by reading secondhand books I hunted at thrift stores. Little did I know that my past would write the story of my future self.

Neither an empty stomach nor an empty pocket ever stopped me from dreaming and pushing forward toward my goals. All I had was a modest amount of money in my bank account, relentless passion for learning (particularly accounting and IT), the good fortune of meeting mentors instrumental to my career, and the unwavering drive to turn aspirations into reality in spite of all life’s setbacks.

This website stands as a testament to my journey—one of perseverance, faith, and the countless blessings from God and Jesus that have guided me forward, reminding me to never give up.