The Start of A New Beginning

Hi everyone! For those of you that don’t already know, I’ve started a podcast and a Youtube channel focused on helping college students. I’ll be coaching them on how to master college and land their dream job. I’m so excited about the content that my team and I have created and I can’t wait to share it with all of you! I wanted to give you all an idea of what’s to come and I also wanted to share a little bit about myself and why I’m so passionate about this subject.

I’ll start by telling you my story and how I got to this place in my life. I was born in Medellin, Colombia and lived a very comfortable life until my dad passed away when I was three. It was then that my mom realized that she couldn’t give me the life she thought I deserved without his support. We ended up moving to the U.S. when I was 8 with just 2 suitcases and $2,000 in search of the American dream. I graduated high school in 2008 and decided to go to the community college close to home. Financially it was my only option and I’m not going to lie, I didn’t have the best grades in high school so I wasn’t expecting any huge scholarships. My mom worked seven days a week just so that we could get by so I knew I wasn’t going to receive any help financially from her. I ended up finishing my AA two years later and I used direct connect to transfer to the University of Central Florida, where I graduated with a bachelors in Management and Professional Sales in 2012. Eight months before graduating, I had multiple job offers and decided to work for Pepsico Frito Lay as a District Sales Leader. I  played a large part in the Campus Recruitment Initiative for Frito Lay and have attended about 20 career fairs in search of new talent. Not only have I helped students land jobs with Frito Lay, but I’ve also helped many students get job offers from other Fortune 50 companies including Amazon, PepsiCo, Sales Force, and Target. Networking and finding a career that I loved was something that came naturally to me, but I found that it’s something that a lot of my friends and other students struggle with. As I was helping my friends land their dream jobs and as I was recruiting at career fairs, I realized that there’s a huge need for career coaching for college students. This is how I figured out that my true passion is helping students land their dream jobs. I quickly realized that as much as I enjoyed my career at Frito Lay, it was not aligned with my long term goals. I decided that I wanted to get into the recruiting and staffing industry so that I could better help students reach their goals after graduation. About 4 months ago, I left Frito Lay and started working at Vinali Staffing which is a startup here in Orlando. I’ve built a good relationship with the owner and he fully supports my long term goals and this business idea. For me, it’s a win win situation because I’m able to learn more about this industry and it also gives me more flexibility to focus on my business and pursue my passion.   

It’s so important for students to have a game plan for their college career because let’s face it, college is expensive! The average cost of tuition for an instate 4 year college degree is about $37,000 and that doesn’t even include living expenses. The reality is that most students are taking 6 years to graduate so that amount could increase by another $20,000. The worst part about all of this is that studies show that about 85% of students graduate with no job lined up. The last thing that you want to do is spend 6 years in school, incur thousands of dollars of debt, and end up with no job in your field of study after graduation. I see this happen way too often. I decided to create all of this content because I want to prevent this from happening to you! On my podcast and Youtube channel we will be covering many different topics to help students master college and land their dream job. Some of these topics will include the importance of networking, interviewing tips, how to stand out, how to be strategic with your time, how to build the best resume, and the importance of mentors. Not only will I be speaking on these topics, but I will also be interviewing subject matter experts. I want you guys to learn from the very best!

For those of you that have read this whole article, I really appreciate it! I’m honestly so passionate about helping students and I can’t wait to do so on a much greater scale. With the knowledge that I’ve gained by reading hundreds of books and talking to industry leaders, combined with my recruiting experience, I believe I can help anyone land their dream job!

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