Exta Con Madre to Shift Things Out!

Since I am naturally a very optimistic person, I turned a recent professional challenge into an opportunity that would, in fact, allow me to start seeking career advancement and pursue my dream job — because honestly, I have never worked at a company in which I've had a clear career path. Therefore, this is an exciting chapter in my professional life.

Initially, this initiative was aimed to target young adults and basically portrait the true Latino spirit. I came up with this idea after seeking opportunities and contacting an executive director from We Are Mitú. I love Mitú's creativity and comedic approach to the Mexican culture; however, I don't think all Mexican households are like that. Mitú offers an accurate representation of only a certain portion of the Mexican families, but there are still a lot of variations. I reflected on this idea and I felt like I wanted to show a different side of Mexican society; the side that it's almost never shown or appreciated. I wanted to write about the Mexican people that contradict Trump's statements made during his campaign and which wrongly described "some" Mexican immigrants.

Basically, this is why I created "Exta Con Madre," to be able to own a blog, create samples of my creative work, and at the same time, to promote another authentic side of the Mexican culture through reflective posts.

Throughout this time I have been required to complete some tests as part of my interviewing process. I personally see these assessments as a huge opportunity to demonstrate my talents and skills. I excel at creating work samples to make it easy for the hiring manager to get a deep understanding of my knowledge, experience, and most of all, my reach as a professional. I have dedicated a fair amount of time developing artwork, marketing campaigns, digital ads, and audience research for some companies that — for some reason that I am dying to learn — have decided not to move forward with my candidacy. But still, to me, it's all a learning exercise.

So, I thought it would be a great idea to share my work through my blog rather than keep it to myself and keep reviewing it a million times after, even when I have already gotten a "thank you" email.

It's been a roller coaster — fun at times, worrisome and frustrating at others, but with a lot of learning experiences that have made me a stronger, more knowledgeable, and more skilled person and professional.

Lastly, yes! This is also meant to be my own way to represent the professional side of another group of Latinos in the U.S. — and in all humbleness, yet wholeheartedly — this is respectfully dedicated to all the Dreamers in this country. This is my journey towards achieving the job of my dreams, and I am glad to share it with you.

Later on, it was hard for me to keep up with my writing during my job hunting, therefore, I ended up taking a hiatus from blogging for a couple of weeks. This, of course, went completely against my purpose of developing writing samples to add to my job applications. I had to prioritize, hence, I made the decision of turning my blog into a portfolio of assessments.