Fernando Hernández

My role later evolved as I absorbed the customer success position, for the 3000+ campus residents, but also assisting with partner programs. My main tasks were treating clients' questions and complaints, organizing and coordinating onboardings and kick-offs, redacting campus newsletters, coordinating community events, among others.

As the first full-time office manager, my role was to directly assist the HR Lead, but also to coordinate between the different managers, the director, and the staff. I was in charge of staff onboardings/outboardings, budget management, happiness, team events, business travel, internal policy development and implementation. I also managed the visits by schools, different governmental and business delegations, and the general public.

Working in this mid-sized PR agency, I had several roles. Mainly, I was the right hand of the President. As her executive assistant, I coordinated her agenda, business travel, assisted on diverse projects, and served as her personal assistant. As an office manager, I was in charge of the front desk internal accounting, human resources, event planning, managing vendors and service providers, and was responsible for the five different properties that made up our offices. I managed to succeed in this position, even after her relocation to the United States, all while maintaining a high level discretion and confidentiality.

As a manager of a small yet hyper productive bakery in the heart of Paris, I worked together with the owner to ensure the functioning of the establishment and was in charge of managing the staff, vendors, and stock. An essential part of the job was also ensuring economic performance while upkeeping quality standards. This position required a solution-oriented approach and a high level of customer service, while working under an extremely fast paced and unpredictable environment.

As the assistant manager of a coffee shop in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, I was in charge of the establishment’s daily operations: opening and closing the shop; administering the inventory and placing orders; communicating with vendors; managing the cash register; coordinating with management; supervising a small kitchen and service team; and developing business strategies to improve quality and increase sales. Being part of a small team, multitasking was essential successfully running the coffee shop. In addition to my management tasks, I was in charge of service and maintenance, which I was able to balance as the only full time employee.

As part of the team of legal interns in the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme, my job mainly consisted in proving our clients with legal advice and assistance regarding the asylum seeking process in South Africa. In the case of newcomer asylum seekers, I would conduct a Refugee Status Determination interview during client intake sessions, which would guide further action on their cases. Regarding clients with Asylum Seeker or Refugee status, my tasks ranged from providing assistance in their permit renewal process, to liaising with the government and private actors to ensure the respect of the client’s rights, and assisting the attorneys with appeal hearings and judicial reviews. Other duties involved database management, managing client files, drafting legal documents, conducting ‘country of origin’ research, and interpreting for francophone clients.

As a master's student, I participated in the PROMIG (Promoting Migration Studies in Higher Education) Summer School by giving a lecture on remittances and their role in global development.

As a Legal Assistant in the well-known El Paso law firm, my job consisted in assisting an attorney and one of the name partners. My main tasks were to manage the discovery process, scheduling deadlines, drafting legal documents, conducting research for specific cases, and constantly working with our clients to ensure compliance with discovery requests. Additionally, I liaised with opposing counsel, the courts, health care providers, insurance companies, and the Consulate of Mexico, to request and provide documents and information necessary for litigation. Interpretation and translation were a key part of the post, as we served many Spanish-speaking clients.