It's been more than a week since I first started sending my applications to job postings in odesk and during that time, I've had 4 or 5 applications declined, and 2 interviews which turned out to be scams. I'm still awaiting results on the others. I began wondering if it usually takes this long to land a job so I visited the community forums in odesk. And what I've read so far from the discussion threads were sort of discouraging. Some contractors have been applying for weeks and even months and haven't landed their first gig yet. I started having doubts myself if I will ever get that first job but the stubborn part of me just refuse to believe that all my hard work, persistence, perseverance, determination, motivation, desire, and belief will amount to nothing. Who was it who said that "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction"? Or is "Kapag may itinanim, may aanihin" more apt?Then yesterday evening, I participated in a live Q&A with a virtual assistant which was organized by Jomar Hilario. The guest was a Mr. Marvin Macatol, who was a va, among other things, and a student of Jomar. Marvin talked about his experiences as a VA, his previous jobs before that, how he started as a va, his first interview, his first gig, etc. and we learned that it took him 4 months after the Virtual Assistant Seminar before he got his first job. So! All hope is not lost after all.
It was an enjoyable session. I had fun participating in the chats with the other participants, and with Marvin talking in the background hehe. And Jomar promised that he will have another session next month, every month in fact if he's not busy.
So in the meantime, I will continue to study one application/program everyday which is what I've been doing after sending my applications. I'm preparing to take another free test in odesk to add to my skills in my profile. It's really very important for a virtual assistant to have a varied set of skills because a prospective client is always looking for someone who can help with a variety of tasks. And also, in this way, a virtual assistant will not be limited to data entry jobs.
Fellow VAs, the only way to go is forward.
