4.4 What does Carlos like about his job?
Whitney Chappell and Carlos Ruvalcaba
Generally speaking, people want to like their jobs–working in an interesting area, accomplishing meaningful things. We asked Carlos what he likes about his job and why it is important, and, in his answer below, you’ll notice that he focuses on the impact of his work.
Transcript: “I really like the impact that we, we make on the community. Um, being able to help people who fled their home countries, uh, not only get a green card but, you know, potentially citizenship is really, really exciting. People who have been victims of domestic violence, people who have been trafficked into the United States, or even people who just enter the United States and they’ve been living here for years, and now we’re able to get them a green card after 20, 30 years, is just very, very gratifying, very rewarding, and I think the work that we do is making a positive impact on our community as a whole. I can give you some example, some examples of cases that I’ve handled in the past that really get me excited, really make me happy that I was involved in those cases. Definitely, when I was a young lawyer, I represented a lot of unaccompanied minors, a lot of them from Guatemala who didn’t even speak Spanish. They spoke their own language from their home country, and it was very challenging but also really rewarding to be able to connect with those child, those children, get them to open up about really traumatic experiences and turn those traumatic experiences into a pathway to obtain a green card and ultimately a citizen–ultimately citizenship in the country, has been very rewarding. Um, a lot of those kids are now U.S. citizens. I feel really old, but I feel really, really excited that, you know, they’re making this country better. Um, another case that I’ve handled that was really excited–exciting–is a man who lived in the United States for over 50 years. He thought he was undocumented, and at some point he was detained by immigration, and through a lot of research and a lot of, um, you know, uh, research and meetings with my client, we realized that his grandparents were U.S. citizens, and we did a lot of research through Ancestry.com, the Library of Congress, spent many years–many nights looking into his family tree, and we finally managed to get him citizenship because he was born a United States citizen. He was about to get deported, and it turned out that he was a citizen altogether. That was, that was, uh, a really, a case that I really enjoyed representing.”
We live in a world very focused on STEM, technology, and AI, but Carlos’s stories showcase the value of soft skills and critical thinking. Helping traumatized, scared children find safety and legal residence in the United States, on the one hand, takes a real emotional toll. On the other, it’s hard to think of a more meaningful way to make the world a better place than by giving a kid a chance at a good life. It’s compassionate, important work that benefits future generations. With respect to his “undocumented” client, I like to imagine Carlos and his team as Sherlock Holmes types–up late, sorting through endless genealogical records until they discovered the truth. That aspect of the job, for me, seems intellectually stimulating, like solving a puzzle or completing a crossword. In short, this type of job is perfect for empathetic people who are also creative problem solvers.
