John Penales – Administrative Assistant

Hi! My name is John, 22 years old from Davao City, Philippines. I’m currently a student of Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering. At the age of 10, I became a young independent since my parents separated and left us to our relatives. At that young age, I was tested by the hardship of life and started to work in my grandfather’s farm.

I acquired most of my skills during my High School years. I always represent our school in arts competitions, quiz bees, dancing, and etc. But at the same time, I was also a working student. I worked as a service crew in my aunt’s restaurant since she was the one financing my academics and my shelter.

In 2015, I became a mission volunteer for Missionary Families of Christ – Youth. I go to different regions in Mindanao to preach about the word of God to the youths and share with them my experiences in life. This experience built my skill in public speaking and communications.

During my Senior High School years, I became a top researcher of our school and got the chance to represent my paper in a regional competition. I became the 3rd best research presenter in the region and ended my senior high school year as rank 4 in the entire batch.

Since I was about to graduate High School, I decided to work harder to save for my college expenses. I became a freelance event host. I host weddings, birthdays, debuts, and etc. I was also a freelance graphic artist. I created designs for t-shirts, tarpaulins, brochures, publication materials, and logos.

Luckily, because of my high educational background, I passed the entrance exam at a State University and was accepted in the Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering program. After a year of studying, I became the Public Relation Officer of the USeP Mining Engineering Society. My tasks include managing the social media account of the organization and also communicating to the public. I am also responsible for building relationships and communicating with all the Mining companies in the whole Philippines.

In 2020, since the pandemic started, all the transactions of the organization stopped and I lost my part time job. This was the time when I started my Virtual Assistant career. With my first client, my tasks were lead generation, appointment booking, listing leads on CRM, calendar management, social media management and graphic design. I worked for that client for almost five months and sadly they rebranded their company.

I then had another client and my tasks were admin task, video transcription, video cutting/editing, creating campaign CRM, Facebook ads, and text concierge. My job there was mostly admin stuff since I am in the support department. I worked there for almost a year.

Life has never been easy for me but God always has a plan. Thank you for reading my story.

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