Ledropherey Manriquez – Administrative Assistant

My name is Led. I was raised in the slums by parents unconsciously promoting independence. My father was a drunkard, was always grumpy and never tried to give us a better future. My mother was loving and caring, however, she was always busy trying to make ends meet and take care of the house at the same time. Long story short, we never had proper guidance. We were not taught the importance of having dreams and what it takes to achieve them. But it was good having opposing parents — my mother’s love always stopped me from going down the wrong path, and my father showed me what I never wanted to be.

I had a carefree life when I was a child. I was free to do anything I wanted and to play with my friends outside as long as I pleased — not that I was allowed to, my parents were just lenient. I could even stay up late outdoors. One would say I had the best childhood, and yes, I somehow agree if you had millionaire parents… because later in life, you would be asked to take responsibilities — a task I was not prepared for. I didn’t take my education seriously, I didn’t even finish college. I didn’t learn the skills to help me be responsible because nobody told me that someday I’d be asked to be… but I had to be, and I did.

Luckily, I had some English skills. I don’t know where I got them, I just had them. Just enough to convince an online company to hire me as an online-ESL instructor.

When I applied for the online-ESL instructor post, I was not qualified for the job. Their requirements were to have a college degree, preferably in education, and two years of experience in the field. I am not sure why they let me in regardless, but I remember reassuring them that if they did, I would perform as good as, if not better than, those who have a degree and experience. And I delivered. Within three months, I achieved the title of recommended lecturer and became one of the most popular tutors.

Unfortunately, though, after four years of working for them, the company had gone through changes which led to my regular students’ discontinuation. This cut my salary in half, and eventually I was only earning a quarter of what I used to earn, hence I quit the job. I could definitely land another one at a different online-English school, but after hours and hours of looking for online jobs, I realised that I should not be teaching anymore. Teaching is fun, but it does not have much room for growth, there is a perceptible cap in terms of monetary success, and it is very routinary. The online world has so much more to offer and I want to indulge myself in that. But of course I couldn’t just jump in and be welcomed with open arms, so when I heard that there was an opening for a clerical post in our local government unit, I took the chance to arm myself with the basic requirements to start off.

Right now, I am working as an assistant of the secretary of our local government unit. My daily tasks involve writing letters, providing clearances and certifications to residents, receiving complaints and scheduling hearings. Twice a month, I am tasked to create session agendas, and occasionally, I do graphics for print media, and I am a member of the event organising team. I also make simple spreadsheets for receipts and Community Tax Certificates. During the first few weeks of my employment, I had found the process of making clearances and certificates time-consuming, so I researched and experimented and came up with formats in Microsoft Word that have tab order—moving from one item to another using the tab key. This made the issuance of clearances and certifications 95% faster.

Weeks following my employment, there was an upcoming festival and some graphic works were needed to be done. Since I was eager to learn graphic design that time, I volunteered to design that year’s concept illustration and some print media for the festival. The chairman of the Socio-cultural and Tourism, in-charge of the festival, also recruited me to be a part of the organising team. It was a great experience and I learned a lot from it. Doing graphics for the festival also led me to my previous side-hustle – the owner of the printing press where we had our print media printed offered me part-time work for their company.

I just want to share with you that, with all the jobs and projects I shared, I did not have prior experience. My English was not good enough to be a teacher when I started teaching online; I only ever used MS Word to make resumes and never touched MS Excel and Adobe Illustrator in my life. All I had was confidence in myself and my learning skills. Whenever I put my mind to something, I do everything I can to be good at it and make myself worthy of what I receive for doing it. And that is the most important thing that I can offer you — commitment.

I only want a few things in life: to give my baby sister the chance to choose what she wants to be, to make my mum happy, and to give my own family a bright future.

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