Jesson Famentera – General Virtual Assistant

Hi! My name is Jesson Famentera, I am a father of 2 amazing daughters and a proud fur parent of 3 energetic dogs. Recounting my earlier days, I was heavily immersed in real-world experience as early as my second year of high school, which was about the time that I was more involved with my parent’s businesses.

My family’s primary business involved designing and fabricating custom modular kitchen cabinets, which catered to both wealthy individuals and top real estate moguls in the Philippines. Being a part of the family business allowed me to grasp concepts and develop my skills in sales, and top-level executive negotiations in a bidding process. As I became more integral to the business, I shifted to different core departments which included back office roles such as kitchen and cabinet designs, bookkeeping, inventory management and supply chain. In operations, I was trained to handle delicate German-made Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine to plot out desired coordinates, map out holes, angles and dimensions. Additionally, as part of the machines I operated were edge banding machines, angle grinding machine, laminate wood press machine, and even forklift whenever necessary.

Once I graduated high school, I had already accumulated 2 years’ worth of experience in different departments that I came to understand business as a second nature, which prompted me to take up a business degree at De La Salle University to better adapt in the real world, hone my skills and apply my fundamental experiences.

Eventually my diverse experiences and refined skills landed me a job with one of the biggest financial institutions in the world. As an employee, I worked diligently every day, always rendering at least 50 to 60 hours a week, learning every bit of information that I can process and optimising every bit of productivity. Determining my growth by comparative analysis with my colleagues kept me in a very competitive state which landed me awards and promotions in the shortest amount of time.

Despite my overwhelming contributions, the walls that confined my creativeness in handling difficult situation only bred stress and more work for less pay. The more productive I became, the more the management expected of me, and the more alienated I became from my home and my family. In the end, it became more apparent that it wasn’t a sustainable option anymore and decided to take a leap of faith and landed a remote job as an Executive Partner in the biggest virtual company in the Philippines. I was enthralled by the difference. For the first time in my life, I did not need to wake up 4 hours ahead of clock in time. There was no commute, there was no traffic. I didn’t need to pass through dark alley ways to get to work, my family appreciated my presence and best of all I got to spend time with my dogs.  I was totally unprepared to get my life back that, for the first time in a while, I could breathe and enjoy the freedom that being a virtual assistant entailed.

As a virtual assistant, I got to embrace more challenges that weren’t confined to specific line of businesses. I got to tackle different problems as a whole and apply my diverse background and expertise to different problems as opposed to being responsible for 2 to 3 departments. I am glad that I can still learn more in the process and become a fulfilling partner for my clients.

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