We recently connected with Erika Bailon and have shared our conversation below.
Erika, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned in school and why that lesson is important to you?
Growing up I was a very shy person. Always scared of making questions because what would people think of me if I am doing questions that have a very “easy” answer. During classes, I wouldn’t raise my hand to ask questions or to participate. I would however wait until the end of the class to go talk to the professor about my questions or comments in the lecture. Back then, classes were 30-40 kids big. It was intimidating, but I always did pretty good in school. In 2010 I moved to the U.S. I was 20 years old and I didn’t know English. The thought of going back to school was terrifying, so it took me a while to get into a classroom again. In 2016 I decided to go back to school, and to my surprise, the classes now had about 200-300 people in one lecture. Office hours were once or twice a week but there were many students going to office hours, I learned quickly that if I wanted to do good in this educational system I was going to have to put my fears away and be brave to ask questions and raise my hand during lecture. I quickly also learned that networking was a huge part of succeeding in this system. I got myself involved in a few Student Organizations and started to attend events. I am an introvert so it was very difficult for me to go talk to someone I didn’t know, but I needed to know because they had the information, knowledge, and resources I didn’t have, and really needed. During my 3 years in CU Boulder, I got well connected with some companies and faculty. Thanks to this step I decided to take in my life, I got my first technical job at a big named company. A classmate was leaving the company and he showed my resume to his boss and that’s how I got an interview. This encouraged me even more to network, and my second job at another big named company, got it as well just by networking. I was talking to a project owner during one of the events me and my students organization put together, and he offered me the job after hearing everything I was doing at the past company. Lastly, before graduating, I had already a few job offers that all came without me even applying to the position. It was all through networking and people hearing about my skills and my leadership skills and background. I will never be able to stress enough how important is to network and always have you “elevator speech” ready for every opportunity you get. Success is when preparation meets opportunity and I cannot be more grateful for all the opportunities I’ve encounter thanks to networking.
Erika, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My career path wasn’t always that straight and clear. When I was little I could see myself being a psychologist, a mathematician, or an attorney. I was always very good in sciences, specially Physics and Math. However, I grew up in Mexico where there are not many resources to experience what workforce is like, or have professionals come to school and talk to students to give an idea of what careers look like. During high school I decided to go for Actuarial Science. However I moved to the U.S before finishing my Bachelors and that degree was not offered in the state of Colorado. I had previously worked as a paralegal for about 5-6 years and the lack of good software to deal with law practices, made me think about going to school for COmputer Science to be able to help with software that would simplify not only the work for attorneys and paralegals, but also for the clients who are seeking their services. That is how I ended up in the college of Engineering to study Computer Science. I developed a passion for User Experience and User Interface. I helped in my previous companies, to design software that was more intuitive and easy to use, accessible, for more users. We all have heard about products that are very difficult to figure out and very difficult to manage. My purpose is to help with the design and creation and improvement of this challenges. I am currently working on doing automated testing for software used in the space industry, helping improve the flow of the software and everything that is displayed to the user in the screen. However, I am going back to school for a masters degree in Human Interaction, which will allow me to be involved again in the process to design a software and do it the right way since the beginning.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I moved to the U.S without family, friends, money and not knowing English. The purpose of my relocation was to help my family back at home (Mexico) and to improve the quality of life me and my family had. It took me about 3 years to get settled in this country, which means, learning English, getting a car, getting a place to live where my family could also live, getting a job that will help me support my family while they got settled. After those 3 years, my mom and two siblings moved with me to the U.S. and I finally had family to enjoy a holiday, a birthday celebration, a weekend together! It was not easy to keep myself on track and focused on why I moved to the U.S. Many times I wanted to give up and move back to Mexico because I really missed my family, culture, and the lifestyle when it comes to community and mental health back in my home. However, the thought of disappointing my family and myself for not accomplishing what I came to this country for, kept me going. I was able to accomplish even more that what I could imagine and I am glad I had that voice in my head telling me not to give up and that I was capable of reaching my goals and way more.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
A very risky moment in my life was when I rejected the offer from NASA JPL when I was about to graduate from my Bachelor’s degree. Back in 2020, right before covid, my sister got pregnant. I am really close to my family and her pregnancy was a huge life event not only for her, but for our family. My nephew is the first baby in the family so I was not willing to move far from my family. I wanted to be present for the whole pregnancy and development of my first nephew. NASA JPL made me an offer and offered also relocation packages, but I rejected the offer. I did not know or had any idea what would happen with me rejecting the offer, but I explained that I was not willing to relocate because of family matters. Some days after the recruiter reached back to me and made and adjustment to the offer. They were offering more money, but still wanting me to relocated. This story repeated for a couple times, until they offered me a fully remote opportunity and I took it. I have been working for them for 3 years and half and I am more thank thankful for the opportunity. It was a huge risk I took back then, for my family, but I do not regret it not even a little, because my nephew was totally worth the risk. Family is very important for me and regardless of what outcome would’ve played out from rejecting that offer, the reward from seeing my nephew growing up, has no comparison.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_erikabln/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erika-akire-bailon/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/439078471 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjqVoewTvBA https://www.colorado.edu/today/2019/02/28/students-focus-talented-recipients-get-much-needed-support-through-laef-scholarships https://www.colorado.edu/engineering/2019/04/10/erika-bailon-compsci20 https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6666005265235668993/
Image Credits
The picture with the women in a panel were taken by Norma Somellera