In 2006, when Jackeline Ojeda was offered a position as an administrative assistant by financial planner Pierre Lafond in Repentigny, she hesitated.
Jackeline Ojeda
Administrative assistant at Pierre Lafond Financial Services
Arriving from Mexico shortly before, where she taught English, this literary woman moved by Gabriel García Márquez and Taylor Caldwell did not speak French very well and, above all, she had no interest in the abstruse – and arid, world, she believed. – mutual funds.
“Honestly, I thought I wouldn’t like it,” she said. What interested me was teaching second languages, and I wanted to enroll in university. I said yes, telling myself that it was just while I waited and to pay for my studies. »
Seventeen years later, Mme Ojeda is the framework of the office of Mr. Lafond, who wrote to The Press to say it was the best hiring decision of his life.
“This employee is gold in a bar,” said in an interview Mr. Lafond, who will soon retire and who still congratulates himself on having trusted his judgment on the character of the candidate, not just on her RESUME.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Pierre Lafond, financial planner
I quickly saw that she was punctual, reliable, hardworking and professional. She made very few mistakes and the few times she did, she had the honesty to say so.
Pierre Lafond, financial planner
“When she arrived in Quebec, at the age of 40, she was a pure immigrant who had sold everything in Mexico to come and settle here with her daughter. »
However, the immigrant who spoke little French and who knew nothing about mutual funds did not take half measures, says her boss: “To improve her French, she registered for the intensive program of francization of UQAM. She absorbed everything! She writes French almost without mistakes and she checks when she is not sure. She has an eagle eye and even corrects my reports. » As a result, it is she who manages customer service on the telephone and in writing with a predominantly French-speaking clientele, says Mr. Lafond.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Jackeline Ojeda
“I loved it so much!” “, said Mme Ojeda about his French lessons. “I was analyzing the language and the differences with Spanish, it was fascinating. » She notes that French, with its many exceptions, is more complicated than Spanish, with its spelling almost entirely phonetic. “Just take the last names: Archambault, Thibeault, Pineau. I would put an o at the end and it would end there! “, she said, laughing.
Same enthusiasm for the technical side of the work, says Mr. Lafond: his “hard worker” invested in learning collective savings and obtained his certificate from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.
Mr. Lafond says that his assistant has the knowledge to be a collective savings representative and that he offered her, at one point, to take on clients.
“No, it takes a certain temperament to do that, for example when the markets are falling and you have to manage your emotions and those of your clients,” says M.me Ojeda. I don’t have that. Same thing for advising funds. If I try to sell you anything, it’s me, in the end, who will end up buying something from you! »
On the other hand, Mr. Lafond says that his employee has good business judgment, which she demonstrated when her firm chose another for a merger, which is in progress, with a view to its gradual withdrawal from the business: “She had her say. »
Recently, Mr. Lafond was able to go on sabbatical for a few months with his partner: “I was in contact with the office, but I had complete peace of mind knowing that with Jackeline at the post, the fortress was well guarded. »
“In Mexico, I did a baccalaureate in communications,” says M.me Ojeda. But I chose to be an English teacher, because the schedule accommodated daycare for my 3-year-old daughter. It served me well in collective savings. Most of the mutual fund companies are in Toronto, and I was learning a lot there too. »
“But what I like most is contact with customers. These are my favorite moments of the day,” she says, which her boss also emphasizes: “My clients love it to the point that some of them don’t even want to talk to me anymore! »
“In a world where good customer service is from another era, I feel privileged to have such an ally,” says Mr. Lafond.