Environmental Science, the SF Tech Scene, and a drive to Change
What led me to where I am today you ask? This wasn’t a predictable path, and it involved some luck, being in the right place, and having a drive to be in a career where I would satisfied.
In 2007, I entered my undergrad program at Humboldt State University. After changing majors twice, I decided to pursue a BS in Environmental Science. I gained a lot from this major, and it opened my eyes to the environmental issues that the world faces. The lessons learned in the program stay with me to this day, and even though I didn’t find work in Environmental Science after graduating, the weight of responsibility to contribute to environmental change in a positive way stays with me.
I traveled to SE Asia after graduating from college for a 3 month long solo trip before I started to look for work. Being stuck in the 21st century catch-22 of entry level positions requiring experience, I was not able to land a job in the field of which I studied. I settled on working as a server for a Mill Valley Italian restaurant that a friend of mine worked for. I gelled quickly with the role, using my empathy and charm to squeeze tips from affluent Marin families. I was promoted to bartender, then manager within 9 months of joining.
I knew the restaurant industry was not my end goal, and was able to transition into an Account Manager position at a tech-Catering company, Cater2.me. This was my foot in the door of the San Francisco tech industry. At first I was excited, because I was able to continue to use my empathy with clients, wanting them to have the best experience with our product. Overworked and underpaid (at least for SF, one of most expensive cities in the world at the time), I followed one of my co-workers who found a job as an Operations Manager at a mobile, on-demand, cell phone repair service/app, called iCracked, Inc.
When I joined iCracked, Inc, it was during a hangover period of the companies success. After the 25 year old CEO squandered 10 million dollars of venture capital money on everything from on-tap margarita machines, annual employee “business” trips into the mountains in mansions with open bars, Hummers and a fraught idea to buy property in Redwood City (again, a very expensive city) for employee housing, my timing for joining was not the fun job I expected. The week I was hired half of the company was laid off, and we were left with about 100 employees in a 400 person office which overlooked a serene pond behind the glowing Silicon Valley. Behind the glow was a concerning lack of any profitability. After 2 office changes, and several lay offs later, it was down to 20 employees with about a month of capitol runway before the investors pulled the plug. They were able to secure a merger with a more prominent company, Square Space.
Not wanting to be out of a job, I was ferociously applying to other companies as a merger deal was being stuck behind closed doors. I was able to secure a position at Tradeshift, Inc as a Service Delivery manager in January of 2019.
Tradeshift was just as dysfunctional as the other tech companies I was apart of. It was just another company “selling the dream” to unsuspecting customers, but on a much larger scale. Million dollar contracts were being signed to implement a product that was still in Beta, and our NPS scores were about as low as they can be from our clients. After months of being yelled at by customers on the lack of functionality of the product, I was disheartened of the reality of Customer Success for a lot of tech companies — That I would never have the training to actually fix their issues. I was a middleman, a messenger to convey back to the Product team all the complaints of my clients. I wanted a change. I wanted to be able to contribute to the product, and not flatfootedly receive blows from disgruntled clients. This is when I really knew I needed a change in my career. But what to change it to?
I moved to Denver in October of 2019 with my girlfriend who was raised in the area. I was able to take my job remotely, but I knew I needed a change as I was deeply unhappy with my day to day. I started googling “tech jobs with highest satisfaction” and stumbled upon UX design. “This looks great!” I told my girlfriend, “This role would be creative, I would still be able to utilize my customer service skills I have acquired, and could parlay my experience to be an effective leader.”
My girlfriend has a friend who was an alumni of the CMCI program, and recommended I talk with her. After a 45 minute phone call with the alum, she convinced me out of doing a UX bootcamp, and to apply for the program. I was accepted, and put in my notice to the Tradeshift, excited to start a new chapter.
There is so much for me to be excited about with this program. I am hoping to focus on UX design, as that was my original intention, but there is so much more to this program that I didn’t realize. I am excited to focus on leading technology so I can pivot back to my intention of contributing to positive change in Environmental Science. CAD technology, as well as VR and AR can be used as tools to show businesses potential environmental improvements, energy savings, and C02 reductions through building retrofitting. App development programs will help me to build a program that can focus on potential C02 reduction through improvements in lighting, windows, HVAC systems, etc. This would be ideal for me if I could come out of the program with the understanding of how to create such an app or program.
So there is a lot to learn in order for me to get to this point, and while I don’t have experience in most of the topics we will cover, I am confident in my ability and drive to learn them in order to get to where I need to be develop such a program. Maybe my journey isn’t a typical one to this program, I don’t know, but I am excited that I ended up where I am, and will push myself to create the change that I want to see in my life, and in the world.
