Latina Career Coach Bonnie Negron gives advice for achieving career goals

Inspire. Identify. Achieve. This is the tagline for Bonnie Negron’s company, Bonnie Career Services, Inc. The company aims to help individuals in their job searches and careers by inspiring them with the confidence to reach their career goals and achieve success.

Bonnie loves helping others and believes that her work goes beyond just helping people find jobs. She wants to help them feel empowered and bring them hope and excitement as they strive for their utmost career goals.

Bonnie is an Executive Leadership Award winner with a BBA in International Management from Pace University and an MBA in Management with Honors from Wagner College. Born in Brooklyn to an Ecuadorian dad and Italian/Irish mom, she began her career at the age of 16, working as an intern for an international law firm in New York City. From there she continued working, earning her first management position at the age of 19. It was during this position that Bonnie realized how much she enjoyed mentoring and training others. She loved helping people succeed. Since then, Bonnie was always in a leadership role.

Career goals for all

As she continued to strive for her own career goals, friends, family, and colleagues would often ask her for help with their own careers. She often would help them edit their resumes, offer career advice, and coach them on opportunities.

“I took the time to provide insights for their career development because talking success and happiness gets me excited,” said Bonnie, “so I would happily divulge any knowledge I thought they would find helpful.”

In 2017, after years of working in the corporate world, Bonnie decided she needed a change. She no longer felt fulfilled in her job. Deciding to start anew, she sent her resume to a resume writer, hoping to enhance her resume to be the best it could be. What she received was disappointing.

“I received a document that was full of spelling errors and with minor revision to my original document. I was appalled that I had wasted hundreds of dollars on a service hat I very well knew I could’ve handled on my own,” said Bonnie.

It was at this point that Bonnie had the vision for her business.

“I realized that I had been doing this resume writing and career coaching since I was a teenager and I needed to expand my skills outside of family, friends, and employers so I could help individuals everywhere.”

She officially began Bonnie Career Services in September of 2017 and the company has been growing since then. Of the obstacles she’s faced so far being a business owner, Bonnie says the biggest struggle was the transition from employee to owner and setting up all the benefits she was used to having.

“Medical/dental, 401K, payroll and other insurances– there are so many options and pricing for these services that I just didn’t know what was the best option for a small business owner,” said Bonnie.

She was able to overcome this obstacle by doing extensive research, asking for quotes, and consulting with various other business professionals as well as utilizing the resources within Statewide Hispanic Chambers of Commerce of New Jersey.

Every business has its challenges

Bonnie has not let these obstacles deter her from her ambitions. She continues to stay motivated and says her biggest inspiration and motivation are her daughters.

“Every step that I have taken in my career has been to be a mom that makes them proud and teaches them to be strong, independent women,” shared Bonnie.

Her daughters often help her with her business and they enjoy learning about resumes, different positions, and career paths. Bonnie hopes to inspire her daughters the way she inspires her clients, showing them the value of their skills and talents so that they may achieve their career goals. It is from this desire to inspire that the business’ tagline was born.

Bonnie enjoys helping people realize their true potential and harness the skills and strengths they have to better their careers. When asked what she would say her biggest strengths are as a Latina business owner, Bonnie cited her leadership skills and problem solving.

“My strengths have always been in back office operations such as finance, human resources, administration and IT…and performing as a hiring manager for many years.”

Its these positions she says that have given her the hands-on experience so that she can now coach others on their own career development.

Bonnie has some career goals advice to share with readers

“Don’t think about doing it, just do it! Set career goals and stick to them. Ask for that raise or promotion, network with industry professionals, have a positive support system, and always have an updated resume.”

She specifically stresses the importance of having an updated resume on hand as one never knows when an opportunity may arise.

Bonnie urges both her clients and readers to simply begin. Take those first baby steps towards one’s career goals. It’s the first steps that are the hardest.

“Once you make that first step, everything else follows directly after and you’ll question why you didn’t make that first step sooner.”