Guest Author - Maria G, Martinez

Most people I know have gone through it: Can’t find a job, and end up with a job that is not necessarily the best. Some take up on waiting tables or bartending, others on landscaping or construction. A few take a temp job doing something silly, just to not incur in much debt. For me, it was taking an entry-level Quality Assurance position at a struggling dot-com. I knew that I would eventually want to get out of there. As a Junior/Entry-level Quality Assurance person, I wasn’t making the type of money I needed, and the situation at the company was not necessarily nurturing for people in my position.

My days would begin by getting the Chicago Tribune “wanted” section and search positions that I thought I was suitable for. If I had a moment to rest at work, I would browse through the listings at CraigsList, and would pray that my resume would catch someone’s attention at Monster or Dice. Lunch hour consisted of making endless phone calls in an attempt to get an interview or a number to fax my resume.

One weekend, my friends kidnapped me, and took me over to a Renaissance Faire. I tried to wiggle out of it by saying that I couldn’t afford it, but they convinced me that I would have a good time, and that they had it all taken care of.

My moment of epiphany came as I listened to the history and lore of glassblowing. The Renaissance aficionados explained how the glassblowing practice has been passed down generation after generation through an apprenticeship learning model. Young, aspiring glassblowers would find an experienced glassblower to take them under his or her wing, and would spend many days and hours learning the dos and don’ts. It occurred to me that my new job maybe wasn’t at CraigsList or the Trib, nor was it at HotJobs or Monster, but in the very same company, through the very same job that I thought I really hated.

Just like in olden days, when one learned their job through apprenticeship, by finding a tutor who would take you under his or her wing, nowadays, opens up a fantastic world of opportunities.

I made an inventory of the contacts and the network that I already had at work. Being in Quality Assurance, I was basically in the middle of all development, since I gave the ultimate "go" or "no go" to every project. This meant that I could talk to the developers, to the project managers, to the marketing people...

At first I thought that maybe I wanted to be a project manager, and asked the project manager I worked with the most to guide me on how to become a project manager. I followed her advice, and even though I did not get certified by the Project Management Institute, I felt I had a good feel for the job, and when the position opened, I applied. I interviewed against another girl who was also in Quality Assurance. I did not get the job, but I was the second choice. Being the second choice felt sad for a little bit, but it gave me the confidence to try again.

This time, I wanted to try out development, since I thought I could do a good entry-level programmer. I asked a programmer with whom I worked with the most to help me out. And he did. I studied C#, I wrote little programs to develop a little portfolio, I read books on software architecture, good coding habits, and designing a program for growth. During all this studying, I figured out that it was too complex for me to learn it on my own, and decided to put it on the back-burner for a while. I was shown by my programming mentor that if I could get a job doing basic web design it would be a good platform to launch me into programming. I had always liked web design, so when the opportunity to apply for web design came up, I presented a strong portfolio with a couple of websites that I was webmaster for, and even some of the basic programs I had written in C#. With my already acquired experience in QA and demonstrating my knowledge in project management, I was clearly a strong candidate... and I got the job, and along with the job a juicy raise.

I soon found out that my skills lie in web design, not in programming, but finding a mentor - a senior programmer, is what helped me achieve my goal!