As an outsider, breaking into an industry can often seem like an impossible challenge and so we reached out to some very generous folks who agreed to share their stories of how they broke into their respective industries.

Rosa Santana

I fell into my career by accident. I was a gym buff, and taking aerobics classes at my local gym. One day, the aerobics teacher was in a car accident and didn’t show up. The gym owner invited us to take a yoga class instead. I was the only one who went to try it. Instantly I became a regular in the weekly class. After a few months, once day the yoga teacher didn’t show up. We later learned one of her parents had passed away. Since I had been subbing aerobics classes, the students looked at me and asked me to teach the class. I told them that I was not a yoga teacher, and aerobics was different. They convinced me. Read more>>

Allaine Stricklen

I first started teaching yoga actually as a sub for my teacher who was going on vacation for 2 weeks, she asked me to teach her classes and the studio and students loved my classes and they hired me to teach my own classes a few weeks later. Read more>>

Kati Epps

How did I get my first job as a coach? It is funny, as in many things that we aspire to be or do in our life, first I was the student. I have loved training since I was young, but in high school my passion changed. It wasn’t just playing, running, or learning how to participate in a sport, I found weight training. One of the coaches, that also taught at the school, thought it was important to have a women’s weightlifting class. That class changed me! Read more>>

Terrence Hight, Jr.

I was an undergrad student and soon-to-be father of a baby boy, Trenton. There were a few reasons that led me to being out of school for a semester or two, but ultimately I had to relocate to my hometown. So, I did the typical, asking around and seeing if anyone knew of jobs that were hiring. One day, my dad called me and said, “You can probably get a job in registration here at the hospital.” I said, “What’s registration?” Read more>>

Jessica Bigio

In the summer of 2012 The Miami Beach JCC was preparing their new facility to open and I was recruited by their fitness director to teach part time. I had been certified for quite some time but hadn’t been teaching any group fitness. I was basically a gym rat and an amateur runner with a lot of passion for the fitness world. I was thrown into teaching spin class immediately, a setting I knew nothing about but quickly adapted. My first job as a fitness professional in Miami Beach started and I never looked back. The people were fun, and family oriented. I learned how to become more self sufficient, met exceptional clients and still train them today. If it weren’t for starting at the JCC I would not have gotten to where I am today in my career or met the people I know now. Read more>>

Chad Plumlee

I have always been passionate about cycling and used it for training in a previous life racing motocross! After graduating from The University of North Texas, I spent over 10 years in the medical industry until 2011 when I started the 1st Cadence Cyclery shop in downtown McKinney. It was going to be a second business but I quickly found myself spending more time at the shop and eventually turned to this as my primary job. It was a steep learning curve as I had never worked at a bike shop prior, but the work was rewarding and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. To this day, my wife Terri calls it my midlife fraternity house! I had a vision of how I wanted the culture of the shop to be and I hired extraordinary people to make that a reality. Ultimately, I wouldn’t change a thing and feel blessed to be where I am today! Read more>>

Rose Meza

I started out in skincare and doing lashes part-time however quickly became very busy and soon dropped the skincare to focus on my passion of doing lashes. I loved the artistry of it and how you can really change the way a person looks with just a few hours. It was amazing what it could do for a person’s eyes even if they were not naturally gifted with amazing natural lashes. I loved the way it made the clients feel, instant gratification. I never intended on expanding to a store front let alone two brick and mortar locations. I just loved doing lashes and I think the clients could feel when your passionate about what you do. Read more>>

Dr. Mark Vettraino

My introduction to this industry was a comedy of errors. After I was recently licensed and had hospital privileges at the Scottsdale Baptist Hospital, the administrator asked me to volunteer and to review a job at Motorola. The request came from a new community outreach program established by the hospital. Motorola was sending lacerations and back strains and sprains at a high frequency to the hospital. I agreed and scheduled with the process engineers to review the job. Read more>>

Anna Stewart

I was in graduate school and working full time at Florida Atlantic University and I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful mentor/professor who saw an advertisement in the newspaper for a job as a drowning prevention coordinator for Palm Beach County. At the time I had no interest in a new job, for I enjoyed my current position as an academic advisor. Read more>>

Amadna Landry

worked at Longhorn Steakhouse to help pay for my bills. One night, a group of mental health professionals came in and a friend of mine was with them. She introduced me to her boss, Dr. Bliss. Dr. Bliss, a psychologist, said to me, “Come and see me when you graduate”. I went and saw her and the rest is history. She offered me my first job as a therapist working at a juvenile delinquent program. During my time there, Read more>>

Amy Gonzalez

After I graduated from college, I took some time to study for the national boards to become a Registered Dietitian. I had already completed all the other requirements and passing the exam was the last task to check off before I could put the letters “RD” behind my name. While I was studying and looking for jobs, I was working in a restaurant waiting tables. After work, I’d go home, take off my apron, and hit the books. A couple months later, I took the exam and passed! I was estatic… but I still hadn’t had any luck finding a job in the field — so I kept my job waiting tables in the meantime. Read more>>

Alessandra De Almeida Caceres

I was born in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, and I remember myself as a little girl applying creams and make-up on my dolls. I used to sneak in to my neighbor’s to take clay from his backyard to apply all over my face and body! I had read in some magazine that doing so would help with body detox and stretch marks! My favorite places to hang out were pharmacies, and skin care retail stores, I would ask my mother to buy me scrubs and lotions for gifts instead of clothes and dolls! Read more>>

Tammy Pham

I graduated from University of Houston College Optometry school in 2008, the great recession era. I’m glad that social media was not popular then, which shielded me from the jarring reality that job demand was at all time low. My colleagues and I searched for jobs on the local Yahoo optometry group forum. Many moved back to their home towns, some joined the service. Those who stayed in Houston competed for the few available openings. Graduates even had to accept per diem contract work because fulltime positions were scarce. Read more>>

Clare Vacio

I decided to go to beauty school later in life. I was 43 when I started. I was the oldest in my class. I had two children and a husband who was a firefighter at the time. I loved the beauty industry, everything about it. I originally I wanted to go into makeup artistry. But I decided that skincare and makeup went hand in hand. I had wonderful instructors that truly got me excited about my new journey. After I graduated from school I started looking for a job right away. Read more>>