What exactly do you do for work?

Hi Jayson,

I've done so many things in my career. I don't have the typical background like most on this site answering questions. I do not have a college degree, although in today's society I feel it's very important. I'm in the networking and engineering field and have worked for company's such as Google, Juniper and Box, as a Technical Program Manager, building their data centers around the world and managing engineering teams.

After high school I as accepted into a state college, however I did not have the financial and emotional support needed to go to school. I felt lost and didn't know what I was going to do or what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted more for myself but wasn't sure how to get there. I knew someone who was an engineer at Cisco (although I had no clue what the company was). He told me to think about going into networking and engineering. I honestly didn't think I was smart enough to do so. One day, I walked into a bookstore and came across a networking certification book. I read the book for about 5mins and felt a connection with the concepts and felt maybe this was something I could learn. I purchased the book, studied, read and took the industry test. I passed and that day become an Associate Networking Engineering. I started looking for jobs as an entry level network engineer to gain experience . I continued my self-study paths eventually became a certified professional Network Engineer.

I've now been in the networking/engineering field for 25+ years. I recently joined Airbnb as a Technical Program Manager focusing on Infrastructure engineerings programs.

My recommandation to you are the following:

1. Make connections and find a mentor that can help you determine the fields you are interested in.
2. Create a profile and resume on LinkedIn and start connection and talking with people in those fields.
3. If college is in you path, major in fields related to what you are interested in doing for work.
4. Gain work experience as an intern.

Good luck!

I am a recruiting coordinator. So what that means is I handle candidate experience from the moment a person is recruited up until the company offers them a position. I schedule onsite interviews, coordinate schedules, and make sure all logistics are set and in order to ensure candidates have a great experience when interviewing with our company. A few ways success is measured in my role is by how quickly I respond to candidate emails and get interviews scheduled. I really like my job because scheduling and planning is something I enjoy doing. In order to be a recruiting coordinator you need to be organized and a problem-solver.

I am currently a Project Management and Communications Specialist. For the most part I design and wordsmith things to be sent out or presented to our workforce. Whether it be a simple ad, a training series, an email from Leadership or a web page. Once a request comes in my team must decide who is best fit for the job and meet with the client to ensure that expectations and deadlines are met. We must also know the ins and outs of the ever changing business. Things can get very hectic at times but for the most part, it is quite rewarding.

Such an important and frequent question in our own lives ! For starters, know this - it’s okay to still be figuring out what you should do for a living/ want to be when you ‘grow up’ at any age; drive and passion for a career has no age limit ! Secondly, to answer your question - I am a Farmer for a family run Juice Farm. My goal is to gain agricultural/labor work experience as a resume builder in order to be able to be the best I can be for when I finish my schooling and apply for the AmeriCorps.

I work in my company's legal department as an attorney. Typically, I get to work around 8:30am. I usually respond to emails that came from the prior night. The rest of the day is filled with phone calls with potential customer's negotiating contracts, and internal meetings with colleagues to discuss business issues. I usually leave the office around 6:00pm.

Each day is somewhat predictable but each day is also very different.

I am a Process Manager at AT&T in Finance-Credit and Collections for business services. I help write our handbook, which helps our collectors navigate the rules and regulations that relate to collections. We do a little of everything on my team - making connections and partnering across the company to solve issues, writing technical instructions, web publishing, writing business cases and application requests, and inventing the future of the center. My work is different and changing daily, monthly, yearly.

I'm an executive assistant in tech. I support people every day so they can do their jobs better. What does that mean? I schedule meetings for them, making sure logistics are worked out (where are they meeting, with who, for how long, etc), I attend meetings with them to make sure nothing is missed and then follow up on action items later. There are levels to being an EA. You can be a high level one person supporter or you can support a group of people. The great thing about being an EA is that you can shape the role to be whatever you want it to be. Often times people will be an EA because it propels them into other interests in the company as well. Hope this helps, but please know that you don't have to figure anything out now. I'm in my mid-30's and still figuring out if this is what I will be doing 10 years from now (I've been an EA for 11 years)

I had no idea what I wanted to do out of college. I was looking at everything and anything. My first job was selling insurance and I hated it. I had an opportunity to take an entry level tech sales job that a lot of SaaS companies offer now. These roles are typically called Sales Development Reps or Business Development Reps. This job is all around qualifying incoming sales leads and generating meetings for Account Executives by outbound prospecting. I can't recommend a role like this if you're trying to break into High Tech.

Fast forward 10 years and I'm still working in tech as a Customer Success Manager. I work with customers everyday to make sure they're getting the most value possible out of their investment in the technology. Daily life consists of reviewing adoption reports, driving support escalations and understanding where my customers are going as a business so we can stay aligned. I really enjoy what I do everyday.

Hi Jayson,

Great question! I think most folks don't have a clear idea of what industry they want to go in coming out of college, and I would encourage you to try out many different roles via internships, externships, etc. There is only so much you can glean from ready reviewing and talking to people, but actually experiencing the job first handle will give you the best taste if you like it or not.

As for what I do, I work in Corporate Development at a technology company focusing on acquisitions and investments. What that means is I help our company identify product gaps we may have internally, and help search out smaller companies who can help fill those gaps. The Corp Dev role involves researching various emerging technologies and speaking with startup CEOs, as well as valuation analyses and financial modeling.

I hope this is helpful. Best of luck!

Dan