› Are you an Asian professional looking to change or enhance your career? Listen to the voices of these Asian professionals as they tell their career stories in their own words:

I help designers for my company choose outfits for fashion shows and for retail sale in stores. Many people think that what I do is easy, but I can assure them that it is not.

I learned that regardless of race, I needed to put my best foot forward to ensure that my employers were happy with the job that I did for them. I wanted to be the best human being for the job, not just the bet South Korean employee. This is important to me and I hope that it is for many people out there.

I am a man of Taiwanese descent. It's neither hurt nor helped me, it has just been something that people recognize and typically respect.

I design textures, polygons, and map environments for some of your favorite video games. It's not quite the fairy tale that most people imagine it would be, because it's typically very grueling work.

The payoff is when the game goes into beta, and you can see people commenting on the work on which you've labored so hard. That is why I really take pride in my job, because of the joy it gives people.

My work entails working out code bugs in educational computer programs that the company sells in retail and directly to public school programs. I feel as though being an Asian male has hurt me even though the perceptions of my ethnic group inside of this profession are mostly positive. I feel like I am sometimes shouldered with problems that I should not have because people have higher expectations of me than my non-Asian coworkers.

I am a Filipino and was born and raised in Cebu City. I first moved to America as a pre-teen. A large part of what I do today involves using data to help managers with their business decisions.

I worked diligently at educating myself, and delivering on everything that I said I would. I actively sought out the dirty jobs that were deemed impossible or just unwanted. My reputation as a problem solver opened opportunities for me that I was able to use to my advantage.

I have always felt strong ties to my Chinese ancestry and have sought a way to reflect these feelings in my professional career. After searching for teaching opportunities in the US to no avail, I found that there were many, many jobs teaching English overseas. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for me, as I am interested in my heritage and fascinated by other cultures.

I chose Thailand because of the numerous positions available, and because I felt that my Chinese upbringing and cultural understanding would facilitate the transition into my new position, but I was wrong. Thai culture and Chinese culture are fundamentally different.

Coming from such a different background than those around me has really stretched my ability to adapt in a work environment. Understanding your own upbringing, and the upbringing of your coworkers really helps your efforts to work together productively. I would encourage anyone with any culturally different background, Asian or otherwise, to keep an open mind and see what opportunities come your way.