Where do you work? How did you get there? Is it your dream job? What will you do next?
During Row New York’s Career Week, our student-athletes contemplated their future responses to those questions. They engaged in activities and heard from guest speakers that helped them debunk confusion, build excitement, remove doubt, and redefine enthusiasm for the process of discovering their careers. Throughout the week, they learned 5 important lessons.
Lesson 1: It Takes A Lot of Hard Work and Time to Get to Where You Want to Be.
On Tuesday, Manhattan middle schoolers heard from anesthesiologist Jackie Co. After her presentation, the rowers, ages 12-14, fired questions at her, intrigued by her position and experience: “Do you have to have a certain personality to go into the medical field?” “What are the best and worst parts of your job?” “What made you want to become a doctor?” One student, Freedom Salas, pointed out that Co “put a lot of hard work and time to get to where she is today.” Eric Rodriguez, Salas’s teammate, agrees. “I learned that you have to have a lot of dedication to achieve your goals.”
Work Ethic is Attractive to Employers
Aliyah Ortiz, from Middle School Queens, understands the value of a good work ethic. When asked to write a tweet to her dream employer Aliyah wrote: “My dream employer should hire me because I am a very hard worker, I stay active, and I make my work my top priority. I love putting in my very best effort for everything I do and I have fun while doing it.”
Work Life Balance
Guest speaker Dr. Anna Bailey (sister of Novice Coach Sasha Bailey) spoke about the importance of balance. A general practice resident in dentistry at NY Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Bailey shared her path to becoming a dentist and noted that athletics helped her to create a balanced lifestyle. She encouraged the kids to remain passionate, and not to let others deter their motivation.
Lesson 2: Be Prepared
Imagine that it is the night before traveling out of town for a dream job interview. What would you bring in your suitcase and why?
Across programs, rowers were asked to contemplate this question. Lively discussions followed and our students came up with a long list of interview essentials:
· A resume, cover letter, and references (printed on nice paper)
· A portfolio of related work to demonstrate your skills in a certain area necessary for the job.
· Conservative clothing that allows you to comfortably present your best self (a hair tie to make sure you don’t play with your hair!).
· A description of the job and company to which you are applying; it always helps to refresh your memory of what they are looking for in an applicant.
· Snacks in case you don’t have enough time to grab a meal before the interview.
· Index cards to help you prepare during travel for some of the harder questions.
· Questions.
· A Smile!
Lesson 3: There Is Not One Path to Success
In Manhattan, the Varsity teams heard from Simon Skinner, Director of Operations at New York Restoration Project. Simon attended a trade school in his native Ireland, received a degree in horticulture, and noted that hands-on experience was his best teacher. He never imagined he’d be in charge of maintaining a building that floats in New York, such as the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse! The athletes really appreciated Simon’s unique story, and learned that there is no standard path towards a career—and that it takes patience and drive to end up doing something you enjoy.
Athletes shared career paths that they discovered from friends and family. One woman who started out waitressing ended up as a stock market consultant. The team learned a lot about each other and their diverse backgrounds in this exercise.
Lessons 4: Keep an Open Mind – Your Interests Can and Likely Will Change
The Queens Novice girls heard from Matt Linakis, senior risk analyst at KPMG. They discovered that the finance field is competitive and exciting, especially when you get to interact with clients and share your knowledge with them. Also, your college major doesn’t always lead to your career. Experience can be built from a variety of work environments.
Madgalena Garczynski, Kelley McCrudden, and Abbey Wells, who visited the middle school in Queens, agree.
The women represented three industries: Finance (Maggie, wealth management at Barclays), Architecture (Kelley, engineering technician at Vidaris, Inc), and Film (Abbey, associate producer at Animal Planet’s North Woods Law).
Maggie, the first in her Polish family to go to college, explained that in middle school, she never dreamed she’d one day have a job that required knowledge of math and economics. Math was not her strong suit at the time, but now she teaches investment strategies to clients, often explaining complicated options in layman’s terms. Kelley also had a slow start to her interest in math and science but now uses them daily as she scales large buildings in Manhattan and consults on their construction and sound foundations. How did these women end up changing their interests so dramatically?
Maggie and Kelley grew to love math in high school and have used it as a steppingstone to express their other interests (working with people, drawing, teaching). Abbey, who’s always been artistic and creative, didn’t plan her interest in creating documentaries. Over time she discovered working on them was invigorating.
Lesson 5: It’s Okay To Fail – As Long As you Learn Something and Keep Going.
“I come from a long line of failures, or so I’ve been told. How do you overcome failure?”
This honest question caught our guest speakers by surprise, but led to an excellent discussion about perseverance.
The panelists noted that they had often faced failure. One speaker didn’t have enough money to attend the school of her dreams. Another had to quit school to attend to her sick father and thought she had failed her ambitions. Another had to work several years for her promotion. All of them had worked in unfulfilling positions while dreaming of something better.
The key, they all agreed, was to learn from these failures, stay positive, and never stop striving to better themselves.
Many thanks to all who participated in Career Week—our rowers learned a lot, and were especially inspired by our guests’ honesty and achievements.
