by Leo Li

I worked for seven years in my last company in China.  It was also my first job. People always ask how many years do you have in your life when someone is doing some job or something for a long time. Sometimes, I have also asked myself that question.  How many seven-year times do you have? It means if it is worth to do that for such a long time. It was a long time for me. But also it doesn’t feel so long if you look back.

I still can remember the first day I went to my interview. It was simple one. It was not so formal. Just some questions and I translated an article of the company profile. I was hired as a salesman. Surely, I was nervous. Everybody would be.

It was an international trade company.  It offered promotion products like ball pens, badges, cups, non-woven bags and silicon wristbands etc. But the most important product of the company was the lanyard, which could print a logo, company name or slogan on it with a hook on the end to hang a card or something else. This was my major product, too.

It was hard and boring at the beginning, searching for customers on a search engine website like Google, called Kelly search. I just found my first customer after two months. Some of my colleagues didn’t find anyone in the first three months. After that, everything became easy and simple. Customers send inquiries. I did the quota. I received the orders and did the design artworks for the lanyards. I got the artwork for approval and arranged the sample productions before mass productions. Finally, I arranged the shipments.

My major customers were from Europe, especially from England. I once got an order to be one of the lanyard suppliers for the London Olympic Games from one of my English costumers. The order quality was more than 300,000. It was an honor to take part in the most important games.

I had a happy time in that company with my friendly colleagues. Even to this day, they are sincere, easy to work with and there are no office politics between us. We are still friends now.

Xun (Leo) Li is from China,; now i am living in the Bronx. I like studying English at the Harlem Library with people who are from different places and with different backgrounds. And the teachers are very nice–Myrna Holguin and the generous volunteer teachers Julian Kalkstein and Terry Schwadron. The United States is a good place to fulfill your dream!