My journey starts at Christopher Newport University, where I came into my sophomore year as a transfer student. Fresh out of community college, adjusting to the university campus lifestyle was difficult, but I was excited and optimistic to start my degree in psychology. To stay ahead of the curve I always made a point of communicating with my professors and making new friends with fellow classmates. With this strategy, I was able to endure, graduate on time and get my Bachelors Degree.
Shortly after I graduated from college, I decided to apply for a part time retail job at the Hollister Co. in my local mall. While retail was not my initial plan after graduating college, it was a place where I could get some good first hand job experience.
To my surprise, I was able to rise through the ranks at Hollister Co. pretty quickly, from starting off as a Part Time Stock Associate to becoming a Full Time Key Holder/Manager in just under a year. Being a manger in retail taught me how to lead, work with a team, problem solve on the spot, multitask and respect others in the work place.
After working at Hollister Co. for 3 years, I suddenly hit a wall and was not able to move up in the company anymore due to their not being any openings for assistant manager. So, I decided to apply for a Talent Lead Management position at the Banana Republic in the same mall.
Working at Banana Republic gave me a much more professional job experience that I did not know I could get in retail. While I was overall content with my job at Banana Republic, I felt that I wanted to do something more with my career. I couldn’t quite figure out what that would be, but I really wanted to change things up. I was able to find out about General Assembly’s 10 week User Experience Design boot camp through a friend. After some research and thought, I saw the potential that this course could teach me and immediately signed up.
From transferring to CNU to working in a job I never planned, being adaptable really helped me excel at General Assembly. I was going into a completely new field and ready to tackle new challenges with an open mind. By the end of the course, I was able to establish great connections within the UX design world, learn new skills and tools, and made lifelong friends and mentors to help guide me through this new career.
Now that my journey at GA has come to a close, I am excited to embrace opportunities to use old and new skills and learn more along the way.
