Andrea Josette Locsin – Administrative Assistant, Graphic Design

“Everything happens for a reason.”

This quote has always been my reminder whenever I doubt myself.

Back in high school, my first choice of career path was to become a surgeon. My second choice was to be in the field of design advertising, even if I only like it as a hobby that I tried to explore. However, my parents wanted me to study in De La Salle Institutions in Metro Manila only. Hence, they enrolled me at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde to take up Bachelor of Arts – Major in MultiMedia Arts. Somehow, I enjoyed the first 4 terms in that field. I was also even granted a scholarship because of my maintaining GPA that time. However, my parents found out that architecture was new in our college and asked me to shift courses.

My first job was in a corporate firm for 2 years, but I had to resign to watch over my family. Being a workaholic back then, quitting my job caused me depression. I then came to realize that I wanted to shift careers again to become a Flight Attendant, but a few days before I got the call back, I found out that I was 3 months pregnant.

Now that I am a single mother, my corporate career was forced to be put on hold for a longer time. My family helped me by letting me manage our start-up businesses, but it’s the least of my interests. Then again, I had to adjust and did some research on how to manage a business. Fortunately, I turned out to be successful in handling our business. My siblings then wanted to take over so I had to find another way to continue my career.

I wanted to be more independent and chose to move out 3 years later. Moving out for me was one of the greatest milestones I had to achieve. I instantly got hired in an architecture corporate firm but had to leave again to look after my son. I realized that working for a corporate firm is not the same anymore now that I am a single mom. Now, I am transitioning again to working from home, as a freelancer and teaching myself again how to be able to survive in this competitive field.

Because of my experience of shifting fields, it made me realize that I can adjust to everything and do anything. Experience is indeed the greatest teacher.

For a copy of Andrea’s resume please click here and for a copy of her portfolio please click here.