Import Breakbulk 

(Female, Age 46) from Lynwood, NY

This is a REAL-LIFE job profile written by a Female aged 46 who works as a Import Breakbulk in Lynwood, NY. We have removed all names and personal information in order to protect privacy. This professional kindly spent a bit of their time to complete one of our job profile surveys so that prospective job seekers like you could read their insights. Please excuse any punctuation or grammatical errors in this profile.

At a Glance

Current Job

Basic data on your current job

Job Title Import Breakbulk
Salary $40,000
Other Compensation None Set
Hours/Week 40
Company Size (not answered)
Location Lynwood, NY
Years Experience 26 years

Career Ratings

Opinions on your CAREER overall (i.e. not just your current job)

Years in Career 0
Education (not answered)
Income Rating 0 / 10
Interest Rating 0 / 10
Work-Life Rating 0 / 10
Fulfilment Rating 0 / 10

Current job Q&A

Describe the type of organization you work for.
I work for a Transportation Logistics company. We have offices worldwide and we move freight all over the world as well as import various items from all over the world into the United States.

Describe your job role and responsibilities.
Answer all email from Overseas office

track and trace ocean shipments online and via all steamship lines

extensive data entry

Make arrival notices for the various brokers of import shipments to be cleared as well as prepare arrival notices for Inhouse brokerage accounts.

Make sure consolidation boxes are handled properly with the CFS stations.

I also do Customs Clearance for multiple import accounts.

Please list an additional benefits (beyond compensation) that you receive.
2 weeks vacation, 5 days sick time, health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, 401k plan

Do you feel you are under/over or well/fairly compensated at your current position?
under

Does your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this something you like/dislike about your job? Please explain.
I work with everyone in our office. It is an integral part of my job. I must work with the sales department with quotes and tracking shipments so they can inform our Japanese offices of the status. I also work with our export departements when customer change their minds about the importing freight and we must move it out asap.

Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes

Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes

Describe your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what you like/dislike about working in it.
I work in an office. I would prefer to be able to work out of my home as I would have the flexibility to come and go as needed.

Please rate each of the following aspects of your current job on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest/best):
Income: 1
Benefits: 3
Hours: 5
Co-Workers: 6
Supervisors: 7
Job Title: 8
Level of Responsibility: 4
The Actual Work: 2

A day in the life of…

Please describe a typical workday for you in your current job:

5am to 6am
6am to 7am
7am to 8am 7 Am to 8AM I am making breakfast and getting ready for work. I drive my son to school and drive to work to start my day.
8am to 9am I am driving to work and arrived around 830am. I have my coffee and breakfast and start work at 9am.
9am to 10am I answerered my emails from my overseas agents and printed all pre-alerts

Put pre-alerts into folders and went on line to get arrival information and arrival notices from the steamship lines.

10am to 11am still checking on arrivals.

went into the Editrade which is the the brokerage portion of my job. I printed the ACH Payments and matched up all documents for payment.

Made payment through ABI

Break from 1030 to 1100pm

11am to 12pm Copied all ACH Payments and sent to accounting for payment.

Set up the rest of my files for entry into the system.

12pm to 1pm Meeting with the supervisors to go over the consolidations for this week. Necessary releases of shipments and payments.

1pm to 2pm Lunch
2pm to 3pm worked on consolidations to send out arrival notices.

Scanned all arrival notices to my computer.

3pm to 4pm Worked on brokerage files classifying several different shipments.
4pm to 5pm Entered these shipments into Editrade Customs website for customs clearance. Will get results tomorrow morning.

Leaving work at 5pm.

5pm to 6pm
6pm to 7pm
7pm to 8pm
8pm to 9pm
9pm to 10pm
10pm to 11pm
11pm to 12am

Table of Contents

How you got your job

How did you get your current job?
Referral through the EDD

What was the application process?
Submitted a resume online at the unemployment agency and the agency found my resume and submitted to this office.

Did you have to interview for your current job? If yes, what did the interview process entail?
Yes I did. I had the first interview at the agency office. I did the security procedures in the office as you need to go through TSA in order to get this job as we handle air shipments as well. I than had my second interview at this office and the interview entailed speaking to my future manager and the station manager for an hour. I was than called back for my last interview the following day at their other office and I met the import brokerage manager and it was more questioning on my background and more quiz like questions about my knowledge.

If you can remember, what questions were you asked during the interview?
Do I know what a 7512 is? Am I married or single? Do I have children. How would I get to work everyday.How many years do I have in this business.

Do you feel your employer properly prepared you for your job? Explain.
I was pretty much prepared to move right in and do the job they expected me to do as I already had the knowledge of the business and knew everything that the job entailed.

Was there training for your current position? If yes, what did it entail?
I originally started out doing air export. I was trained by someone who was in the business for 15 years. She showed me the ropes of airfreight in and outs. I eventually surpassed her and moved up in the company and became a supervisor. The company eventually merged with another company and I left there after 14 years and went with another company and opened up their Air Export Department from the bottom up. I left there a year later due to non advancement and went to another Logistics company where I was a Supervisor for their Air Export department for one year and after 9/11 I was asked to run their Air and Ocean Import Department and this is where I was trained by the Supervisor for two weeks as she was leaving to move with another company. I stayed there for 9 years and 10 months. I than went to another freight forwarder and opened up their Ocean and Air Import department and was laid off a year later. I was than hired by the company I am with now and trained for two days and had learn their system and customers on my own as I already knew the business it was just going on what I already knew in the business.

Do you feel your educational background prepared you for your job? Explain.
No I do not as I was only a high school graduate and only learned the basic mainstream education.

If applicable, do you feel your internship experience helped you prepare for your job?
N/A

If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
I would recommend them to start out with a temporary agency dealing with this type of business and start at the receptionist desk if possible to get the knowledge and understanding of who is calling into this type of business and you will see to who and where you need to send their calls.

What skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a position like yours?
Organization skills is a must and computer knowledge is a plus. The social skills should be there as you will need to communicate with people even though you do not understand what is going on when you first start in the business.

Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
I believe there is a high success rate in this position if you get the right training and you have the desire to learn this type of business

What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Keep your eyes and ears open and pay attention to detail.

Long-term career plans

Is your current employment part of your overall career plan? Why or why not?
It is now since I am older now it is harder to make a career change at this age as the field I wanted to go into would take many years of education and by the time I finished it their would be no openings for someone of my age

What are your current career goals?
I plan to stay in the business I am but in the long run I plan to do this as a freelancer helping smaller companies with their shipping and importindg needs.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your career?
For me it is exciting and as I said it fulfills my need to help others. Its not for everybody but If you enjoy working with Transportation Logistics than this is the job for you.

Prior work history

Please list your most recent jobs prior to this current job:

Title Length Salary Description
Prior Job 1 Import Supervisor 9 yrs 10month 49000 Import Breakbulk Operations
Prior Job 2 Import Supervisor 1 year 53000 Air and Ocean Import Operations

Educational background

Please list your educational background:

High School GPA:3.5

GPA School Degree
College (Undergraduate)
or Technical/Vocational
N/A N/A
Graduate or Professional
(Masters or Doctorate)
N/A N/A

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