Elmar Ceasar Gigataras – Executive Virtual Assistant

Hi! I’m Elmar Ceasar Gigataras. I still live with my parents, and you know what, it is what every other Asian young adults do – a cultural thing. Lol, it just shows how family-oriented Filipinos are! Kidding aside, even if that is the case, I am independent in life and curious to explore the world and the unknown. I reside in the heart of the Philippines, the city of love, Iloilo City. I graduated with a degree in Business Administration Major in Marketing in the University of the Philippines Visayas. I then worked in Manila for almost 2 years in a packaging manufacturing company doing marketing and decided to go back home to study law.

Virtual assistance was not as huge as before. Prior to pandemic, it was just called “online freelancing” for some. I had the opportunity to work in online platforms as I do have colleagues who were established freelancers at the time.  I had to juggle both working at home and studying law. It was hard as I was the breadwinner of the family and I had to support myself for my education. Fortunately enough, I was able to graduate with my post-graduate studies and still continued to work and earn remotely.

In my early years doing remote work, I started catering clients in real estate mostly in property administration and management. As I was studying, I tried to have legal work for a shared service company as a contracts analyst and had the opportunity to do recruitment as a head career consultant for an agency. I learned a lot of the ins and outs of the processes and at the same time CRM databases. I interview candidates, sourcing them from social media and potentially matching them to clients. I became a top recruiter because of my dedication and work ethic. I enjoyed talking to people as I consider myself an extrovert and empathic to the stories being shared with me. I then had the opportunity to work for a lawyer in Illinois and a business franchise in Texas in doing several tasks like admin work including email and calendar management, billing, cold-calling or outbound calls, scheduling, appointment setting, social media management, CRMs, etc.

I never thought before that there could be another way that you can work in the convenience of your own home while you can financially support your family and be physically present in their lives. Doing this as a career, clients may come and go, but I will constantly learn something and have takeaways in every endeavor and experience I will face. I aspire to be successful so that I can give back more not only to my family, but also to my community.

For a copy of Elmar’s resume please click here.