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.

Sarah Benedict

Getting my “first job” and being invited to Wellness Expos and Psychic Fairs to work as a tarot reader and reiki energy healer was actually quite the journey. Read more>>

Nawartat

When I began school for massage therapy, I was working full-time at a call center. Hours seemed to drag the day on and the calls with customers that were not happy with any resolution given to them was the mundane part of the job. Read more>>

Holly McIlwain

My first job was shucking corn in the back of my daddy’s pick up truck, in a bank parking lot in our small town. I cleaned houses with my mom. I worked as tanning bed cleaner. It’s true. The 90s were weird. Read more>>

Abbie Jama

I feel like this field chose me. My first introduction was as a customer in a store where the target demographic was supposed to be older than me, more classic. Read more>>

Sonya Craig

In 1988 an event happened that changed the trajectory of my entire life. I gave birth to a precious baby boy who would later be diagnosed with Autism and an intellectual disability. Read more>>

Nicola McGill

After completing my training in numerous modalities in the UK, my family and I relocated to the USA. I was excited and had ideas that the USA would embrace the concept of integrative/complementary healthcare, to use as a prevention and maintain a level of good health. Read more>>

Tori Diaz Diaz

I got my first job in the field by creating the job for myself. I applied at several companies clinics they would not hire me without experience and as I explained to them I cannot get the experience if you did not hire me and the cycle went around and around and around. Read more>>

Elia Nikolaev

The pandemic lockdowns of 2020 gave me the opportunity, and even the necessity to reconsider what skillsets may be of greatest utility for the direction that public health seemed to be heading at the time. Read more>>