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Rant & Rave
BEFORE participating in Groundhog job shadow day I assumed I knew what I was going to see. But the experience of "shadowing" various workers helped to open my eyes to the many careers available. Job shadow day
opens horizonsMy experience at ALTRES Global Business Services was interesting, enjoyable and educational. ALTRES, a nationwide business, helps to match people with jobs.
ALTRES has a great working environment with modern furnishings and equipment. It's a great environment for employees because it is comfortable. (Those seeking assistance in finding jobs would feel comfortable as well.)
After taking a career assessment test, the first person I career shadowed was Rey Prado, a recruiter for ALTRES. His job is to go out and find people to fill open positions in different companies and to help produce help wanted ads as well. He talked a lot about marketing, which I am interested in studying.
He told me about marketing's many components, such as advertising, recruiting, graphic arts, publishing, etc. Marketing also applies to the job seeker. People market themselves when introducing themselves, giving a speech or lecture or doing anything that grabs another person's attention.
All of our talk wasn't only about him "lecturing." He told me a lot about himself and that's when I found out that in addition to his job at ALTRES, Prado is president of the Honolulu Filipino Chamber of Commerce and is influential in politics. Then, to top off the experience, he took me to the state Capitol to witness the signing of the Groundhog Career Shadowing Day proclamation.
I was overwhelmed, especially because I had never been on the executive floor of the state Capitol and met people holding offices such as governor and lieutenant governor. I had a great time listening to the people there and taking pictures.
AFTER visiting the Capitol, we returned to ALTRES for lunch. It was hilarious talking to my friends and the people who worked there, sharing our old school and new school differences. We shared a lot of laughs.
After lunch, two other students (who were also career shadowing at ALTRES) and I listened to Melissa Fort talk about sales. Her 30-minute lecture was very interesting. I thought sales was a straightforward process. I didn't realize there are so many duties and requirements regarding sales and how much work there is to sales.
Louis Law was the next person I shadowed. As graphic designer for ALTRES his duties are to help create company logos for pamphlets, brochures and other projects. I really enjoyed his lecture on graphic artistry. After talking with him, I became interested in entering this field, especially because I am known as a designer in my school. One piece of advice he gave me was to learn how to use a Macintosh computer because it is an industry standard. I'm a PC person myself, but I intend to follow his advice. Hmm ... more food for thought.
Toward the end of the day, I met up with Yvette Fernandez, ALTRES' marketing specialist. She lectured about company function, how to use certain electronics in the office and told me about her role as the marketing specialist.
At the end of the day, we all met in the conference room for a briefing. I learned lots by career shadowing. Most importantly, I learned about careers that would be suitable for a person with my interests and that the opportunities in the "real world" are broader than I had ever imagined from my high school classroom.
Walter Villalba is a senior at Aiea High School. Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature
allowing those 12 to 22 to serve up fresh perspectives.
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