Alison is an Infrastructure Data Center Recruiter at Facebook, San Jose State University alumnae, Bay Area native, and passionate people connector. As a Leadership Coach for the Spring ’17 semester, we asked her to share how her personal, academic, and professional experiences led her to her dream job and why she decided to coach diverse college students through Braven.
Tell us about your experience in college.
My parents always emphasized the importance of a college degree. They believed a college degree would ensure we could pursue our dreams and enrich our lives. During senior year of high school, I was thrilled when I received my acceptance letter to UC Santa Cruz to pursue my childhood passion to become a marine biologist.
Following high school, I attended UC Santa Cruz and quickly discovered that the university and major was not the right fit for me. I felt disappointed and was concerned my parents would disapprove of my decision to leave the university. I returned to the Bay Area after my freshman year and managed to do a lot of soulsearching over the summer.
I landed a job as a Barista at Starbucks and believe this job changed the trajectory of my life. It was the first thing I’d done for myself and it was my first opportunity to create my own identity and not be known as my brother’s little sister. I felt like I’d found a strong identity through my work and hustled hard to get promoted to a shift supervisor within six months. Working in a leadership role so early in my career was both fulfilling and frightening. That being said, it gave me an opportunity to learn a lot about myself and provided me with a clearer direction as I considered my college degree.
As I was working full-time at Starbucks, I was also going to school full-time at San Jose State University. I had taken a public speaking course and realized that I loved Communication Studies. I find interpersonal communication fascinating, and I wrote all my papers for my organizational communication class based on my work experience at Starbucks. I loved having the ability to take my personal experiences in the workplace and apply them into an academic setting. My classes felt relevant and made me excited to consider my next employment opportunity.
What was your first job out of college and what did you learn?
I received a role at Target working in retail management leadership. I graduated at the height of a difficult economy and felt very fortunate to land an internship which turned into a full-time job as an Assistant Manager at Target. In addition to molding my leadership skills in a store environment, I also had the opportunity to return to universities and talk to students about their college experiences, career plans, and the opportunities Target offered following college.
I didn’t know it at the time, but those first experiences in recruiting made me discover my professional passion. After leaving Target, I have been fortunate to work in the recruiting industry for four years, spending the last year in a dream role at Facebook recruiting technical talent.
Why did you become a Leadership Coach?
When I heard about the Braven Accelerator course, I knew that it was an incredible opportunity to give back to the school that provided my family so much, as well as pursue my own passion as a recruiter to set up college students for success in their first job. My favorite part of Braven, besides being able to connect with students and support them in their individual journeys, is the program design. The students go through a series of three phases: “Design your Career,” “Hustle to Career,” and “Tackling Career Challenges.” Through the entire semester, it gives the Fellows an opportunity to reflect on their personal stories and provide feedback to each other, a skill I have found extremely important early in my career journey.
Giving students the skills, mindsets, experiences, and networks needed to find a strong first job is unique for a college course. Fellows gain the opportunity to refine key work products needed to find a job, access networks they would not have had the opportunity to meet without Braven, and even complete a project in a workplace setting that feels high stakes but allows them to share ideas and take risks without the concern of getting fired. My cohort of Fellows worked incredibly hard on their project and even though we had some rocky moments where Fellows had to give each other tough feedback, our finished project was strong and I couldn’t have been more proud. I’m also sure my cohort will always remember “feedback is a gift.”
What is your favorite part of the Leadership Coach experience?
Coaching through Braven has given me an amazing opportunity as a recruiter in the Bay Area to reach students who I’d say wouldn’t have had the opportunity to previously connect with somebody from one of the large tech companies. The Braven mission of ensuring that our next generation of leaders will emerge from everywhere directly ties into my focus of diversity in technology.
Most importantly, my role as a coach allows me to have more in-depth conversations with diverse audiences because I’ve heard others tell their stories and am now able to be an ally and empathize with their experiences. The ability for the students to come onsite to Facebook once a week to see and feel what it is like to work in a large tech company has been incredible on both sides — my hope is that they’ll say they got more out of it than just free snacks, which I think they will.
From my personal experiences and career journey, my core value revolves around paying it forward. I am so thankful to Braven for the opportunity to give back and form strong relationships with students at my alma mater. I feel lucky to be a part of the solution to help the Bay Area train and attract more diverse talent. Shoutout to #FBBravenLeaders for being an amazing cohort— you’re all on a strong path to success and I’m proud of every one of you.