THE BILINGUAL JOB FAIR BLOG

Selecting Your Career

Mylene Duffy — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:38:04 +0000

Choosing a career or a field is a difficult decision for some; and really easy for others. Why? I believe that this happens because some people connect with their true self early on in life. It takes others longer to know who they really are – and who they want to be when they ‘grow up’.

We all have heard someone say: ‘I knew I wanted to be a Teacher, a Veterinarian, a Nurse, a Musician, a Singer, or a Physician when I was 11, or 15 years old.’ Those folks seem to be happy going to work and enjoy what they do. They know who they are and what they want to do work-wise. We have also seen some of our friends and family struggle with their jobs. They really don’t like what they are doing at work and hate waking up every morning because they have to face another day at their ‘meaningless job’. They feel like they are wasting their lives doing something trivial, and tasks they truly do not enjoy. If you are in this latest dissatisfied group, these are my recommendations for you:
1) Decide what you are passionate about. What do you like to do? What inspires you? Most importantly, envision the job you would like to have in the field you like – and see how you can get into that field.
2) Be real and decide how much money you want to make – and how much you need to survive each month. Take into account when you grow older and as your family grows. In other words, be honest with yourself and be realistic with the field you select and with your individual qualifications. Select a field that matches your financial and personal expectations. For example, if money is important to you, don’t select a field that doesn’t pay much because you will not have the financial circumstances you will be happy with. On the other hand, if money is not that important to you, then you don’t have to take the money aspect into consideration as much as other people. Another example would be if you are not a morning person, but the job you select starts at 5am or 7am Monday through Friday. You would be miserable waking up so early.
3) Other questions you can ask yourself:
Are you good with people, do you like to work with your hands, are you mechanically or technically inclined? Would you like to work in the front area or behind the scenes? What are your personal attributes? What personal gifts do you think you have – which you can offer to the business world? What can you contribute to a company? Why should they hire you versus someone else?

Having a job we like is important in our lives because a ‘job’ is part of our daily lives. We all need to feel a sense of contribution to the world; like we are important contributors in our respective communities. Think long and hard about who you are and who you want to be in the business world. What personal gifts do you have which make you unique? What makes you ‘You’? Think long and hard. The answer to some of these questions can make a big difference in our daily lives…when we ‘grow up’. May you find a great career and job!

SUCCESS STORIES – About BilingualJobFair.com

Mylene Duffy — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:18:29 +0000

HAVE WE CHANGED YOUR LIFE? Have we helped you find your dream job? ALSO – TO COMPANIES – Have we made your HR/Recruting job easier by sending you qualified bilingual employees or great bilingual job candidates? WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU – we want to hear from both, from our Bilingual Job Candidates and from companies that have posted bilingual positions with us!

Yes, BilingualJobFair.com is gathering SUCCESS STORIES from bilingual job candidates and from companies who have posted with us in the last couple of years. Write to us with your success stories. We have grown considerably and are celebrating another anniversary. We want to celebrate with your success stories. You can write your comments below, on this blog or write to us at our support email address.

From day one, our goal has always been to change lives. We know we are changing lives every day and are connecting great bilingual candidates to wonderful companies. We have heard from some delighted folks, but not from you yet. Let us hear your success stories! We are here to serve you! Your Bilingual Job Fair Team

Q & A about our Bilingual Job Board: BilingualJobFair.com – Totally Dedicated to Bilingual Personnel

Mylene Duffy — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:58:53 +0000

Question: What are the positions job candidates are searching for in your BilingualJobFair.com site?

Answer: Job seekers seem to be looking for customer service positions, clerical jobs, service oriented openings, interpreters positions, translation jobs, administration and sales careers. We have many bilingual professional job candidates using our bilingual job board each day. Our site has really grown, from companies posting positions every day, to job seekers returning each day to see whether positions were posted in their respective cities. Keep all your visits coming!

My 10 Biggest Recommendations – FOR NEW COLLEGE STUDENTS – Bilingual Or Not

Mylene Duffy — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:02:09 +0000

Here in the USA, August and September always means a lot of new college students are headed to a new university and to a new life. There are plenty of emotional parents at this time of the year, crying Moms, plus excited and stressed students, anxious to learn all about their new college lives.

This is a good time for me to pause on the Q&A blogs I’ve been writing for the last few months, regarding questions you’ve been sending to us, and instead, write to the college students and give them some advise.

Recently, I’ve had some talks with several of my friends’ kids, as they are getting ready to depart for college. We have had great conversations. I believe that the sky is the limit for these special young students, but I could see they needed some college advice. This morning I said to myself: ‘I should go ahead and share these ideas in my blog, with the rest of the world. It might help a student or two somewhere in the world.’ So, here we go…

Basically, in my talks with the new college students, I shared the fact that up to this point in their lives, their parents gave them direction, and they lived by the rules of the house. Now, there are no rules. So in effect, they will make their own rules every day in college. They plan their own day, go to bed when they want to, wake up when they want to, eat when they want to, and call their friends and parents when they want to. The parents’ role has been to give us all the basic knowledge, the foundation for our lives, and to teach us how we should behave in this world. Afterwards, it’s up to each one of us. Sounds basic? Doesn’t it? But it is not that easy when you first get there and start your own life in college. Many of us want to fit in with the crowd, and in an effort to do so, we don’t even do what we thought we wanted to do, or might abandon who we are. We go with the flow, and say ‘everyone is doing it, why not me?’ So, to make it easier for the college students, I have some recommendations below, for their new college lives.

My 10 biggest recommendations for new college students:

#1) Try your best to get along with your roommate. Invite her or him to lunch right away. Try to create a good first impression. And follow it up with lots of good impressions each day afterwards. In other words, be a good roommate yourself, first. Lead by example. Treat your roommate the way you want to be treated. Be fair. Give and take.

#2) Discuss how many hours of sleep you need each night, to feel rested, so you two can cooperate with each other. If you have a roommate who comes and goes at all hours of the night, watches youtubes videos loud and wakes you up each time a new video starts, or talks on her cell all night, you will not get the sleep you need. Be considerate of each other, as this builds better relationships.

#3) Your roommate can become ‘your family’ while you are away from home. Be cordial. Create a good working relationship. Become good friends if you both can. Discuss issues and don’t let anything go unaddressed to the point where the relationship is in jeopardy. Good communication is the key. This might also teach both of you to be a good wife or husband later on, and to have meaningful and long-lasting relationships for the rest of your lives.

#4) Realize that you might become homesick. Yes, after wanting to leave home so bad, you may want to go home again. But emails, Facebook, texting and calls will help you cope better. You can remain in touch as much as you want to, or as little as you want to. (Of course, I recommend the first choice, to remain in touch with your family:)

#5) Initially, you might be afraid and you might think you can not make it “on your own”. Keep in mind that you will feel lonely during orientation week, before the actual school work begins. BUT YES, YOU CAN DO IT. When you stick it out, you will be proud of your accomplishments. Focus on your long term goals. Visualize your dreams. They will come through, only if you stick it out. If you quit, your dreams might dissipate and you might have regrets later on in life, like: ‘I wish I would have finished college.’

#6) Don’t be shy about meeting new and interesting people. They can become part of your new life and enhance your college life. Be open to all cultures and to folks who speak other languages (of course, I had to say that:), and try your best to be friendly to everyone.

#7) Be who you are. Don’t change who you are to please someone else. This sounds simple and basic, but college is different. Some college students act like they just got out of a cage. They go crazy. Avoid these folks. They can add stress to your college life.

#8) Avoid people who are doing illegal drugs. Your life can change if you get caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. If there are illegal activities going on, get out right away. In other words, if it’s illegal, don’t do it. It’s not worth risking your bright future. And if a friend tries to ‘force’ you or to ‘persuade’ you to do something illegal, or something you’re uncomfortable with, realize that this is not your friend. End that relationship right away because it can change the course of your life. That person is also not respecting you and who you are. Let them know who you are by your quick response and by your behavior.

#9) Keep in touch with your old world, back at home, and build a new college world with new friends. This will keep you busier and more in touch with your more comfortable old world.

#10) Dream big. Create a list of college dreams and go for it. Align your intelligence, your attributes and your personal gifts to the world with your future profession. Like they say, you are only young once. This is a great opportunity for you. Make it happen. You won’t be sorry. When you make it happen, you will have a new pride formed within you. No one can take that pride away from you ever…because you are now a goal setter and you accomplished your goals and your dreams.

Conclusion: College can be an incredible experience and can truly change the course of your life. It changed mine forever. While it is is exciting, it can be stressful and lonely sometimes. College is like if you were awarded a new set of wings. You need to learn how to fly, and to make it on your own. Every decision is yours to make – not your parents anymore. Go ahead, spread your wings and fly. There’s nothing like succeeding at it.

Yours Truly ~ Mylene

Q & A – About our Bilingual Job Board: BilingualJobFair.com – Totally Dedicated to Bilingual Personnel

Mylene Duffy — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:50:19 +0000

Question: What are the TOP languages which companies have posted jobs for in your BilingualJobFair.com web site?

Answer: So far, the vast majority of companies have posted bilingual job openings for English & Spanish job seekers. We have had bilingual job positions for most languages though, including English & Chinese, English & Arabic, and English & French. The language requirements from our posting companies change often with us, so our bilingual job seekers keep checking with us, to see what bilingual positions have been posted each day and each week. Thanks for your question. Keep them coming.

Q & A – About our Bilingual Job Board: BilingualJobFair.com – Totally Dedicated to Bilingual Personnel

Mylene Duffy — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:28:18 +0000

Question: What type of job openings have companies posted the most in your site – what positions?

Answer: So far the number one job openings posted by companies in our site is for sales positions. Those sales positions are specifically for sales territories, such as sales representatives and or sales associates, for inside and outside sales territories. The number two posted positions from companies are for customer service. It seems like companies want to connect with their clients better and want to service their customers in their own language. We also have had numerous positions for bank tellers, and from the banking industry overall, plus from large wireless and communications corporations. Companies: Keep the FREE bilingual job postings coming. We have heard great success stories of companies and bilingual candidates connecting through our BILINGUALJOBFAIR.COM job site.

Q & A about our Bilingual Job Board: BilingualJobFair.com – Totally Dedicated to Bilingual Personnel

Mylene Duffy — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:29:51 +0000

Question: From all of the states in the USA, which five states have posted the most jobs in your BilingualJobFair.com web site so far?

Answer: It seems like this information changes every month. For now, the top five posting states are North Carolina, California, Florida, South Carolina and Texas. We have also had many job postings from New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia … as well as from our friends in Canada. Our bilingual online recruiting site is growing more every day! And I love seeing the growth. I want to thank all of the companies that have posted jobs with us so far and all of the bilingual job candidates. Hope we continue to see companies and great candidates connect through us each and every day.

Q & A about our Bilingual Job Board: BilingualJobFair.com – Totally Dedicated to Bilingual Personnel

Mylene Duffy — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:32:06 +0000

Question: What countries and territories in the world have visited your BilingualJobFair.com web site?

Answer: As of the time of this writing, we have had visitors from 156 countries and territories. Since we focus on bilingual personnel, it attracts a worldwide audience. Here are the top 20 countries/territories, in the order of number of visitors…but please know that it changes every day.

1) United States – most visitors came from the USA so far

2) Canada

3) Puerto Rico

4) Mexico

5) Spain

6) United Kingdom

7) France

8) China

9) India

10) Germany

11) Italy

12) Japan

13) Pakistan

14) Brazil

15) Argentina

16) Colombia

17) Phillipines

18) Iran

19) Costa Rica

20) Australia

Q & A about our Bilingual Job Board: BilingualJobFair.com – Totally Dedicated to Bilingual Personnel

Mylene Duffy — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:38:51 +0000

We have received many questions from companies as well as from job seekers, about our bilingual job board – BilingualJobFair.com – so we will cover some questions and answers here, in case that you have the same questions. We had to do some research for some of the good questions we have received – and the results are very interesting to us. Thank you for your questions!

Question: What are the top ten languages, which job candidates are searching for in your bilingual employment site?

Answer:

Spanish & English

French & English

Japanese & English

Chinese & English

Arabic & English

Portuguese & English

Russian & English

German & English

Mandarin & English

Korean & English

Celebrating 30 Years in the USA

Mylene Duffy — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:07:41 +0000

This weekend I’ll be celebrating 30 years in the USA. On January 8th, 1981 - my plane landed at JFK Airport in New York City. The USA became ‘home’ for me, although I did not know it at the time my plane had landed. My intentions were to learn English, go to a good advertising university, work for about 5 years, and then go back home,to Puerto Rico. However, life had other plans for me. It all began when I met my husband in our last semester in college, at Syracuse University. From that point on, my commitment to the USA became stronger and this country ended up becoming my home forever.

I can not believe that it has been 30 years now. My memories of the ‘big move’ to the ‘big apple’ are still pretty vivid. The road I’ve traveled in the USA has had its ‘ups and downs’, along with some curves, valleys, and numerous hills along the way (steep hills I should add) but I’ve traveled it all a-mile-at-a-time, and never losing the momentum needed to reach my final destination…my goals. I truly wouldn’t trade the road I’ve chosen for anything in the world. It’s been a good road thus far. Yes, it is true. The USA is the ‘land of opportunity’. If you have dreams, if you work hard and don’t deviate from those dreams, you can make them come true. Motivation, persistence, hard work and high standards have been my key to accomplishing my goals. Also, the people I have met along the way have been a blessing in my life, and have made it a better road for me. Since this blog has a bilingual theme to it, I’ve thought that to commemorate my special moving date, that I would share some of my personal stories, which I’ve included in previous blogs. Hope you can learn something from my experiences, and that they give you hope. May they help you in your path to becoming bilingual, help you in assisting someone who wants to become bilingual, or in accomplishing your own goals and dreams. Thank you for being an avid reader of this blog and for being a part of BilingualJobFair.com.

Below are some of my previous blogs, which include some of my personal stories:

What Motivated Me to Become Bilingual - The Story that Changed the Course of My Life

Mr. Brown, My First Friend in the US – Part 1

Mr. Brown, My First Friend in the US – Part 2

The Five Stages of Becoming Bilingual

HAPPY 2011. HERE’S A TOAST TO ANOTHER 30 YEARS IN THE USA!