We asked some fantastic entrepreneurs and creatives to tell us about their first job in their field. Check out their stories below.

Petra Saidi

Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. It’s such an honor to be here! I am so grateful to share my story with you and maybe even inspire YOU on your own journey. Ever since I was little, I’ve loved to play and spend time with babies and little kids. I wasn’t exactly sure what my career would be, but I knew it would involve little humans. After moving to Kansas City in my early 20’s from the Czech republic, I started nursing school where I was able to experience several clinical settings. 1 thing was very clear to me – I need to be helping children. As I was getting closer to finishing nursing school, I was facing the decision to choose a specialty and place for my future work. Read more>>

Dwayne Mariner

My initial exposure to the field of nursing was fortuitous at best. I was in nursing school at a local university, just completed my prerequisite courses and was a few weeks into level 1, intro to nursing and maybe knew how to check vital signs. Browsed the local hospital “want ads” and applied for a nurse tech position. Interviewed, told my story and was hired within a few hours of interview. Feeling very certain I knew everything there was to know about nursing, I set out for orientation, basic CPR class and do’s and don’ts of the hospital. No problem. I went in my first orientation shift and quickly learned not only was I ill prepared, I had the wrong shoes, stamina and education(I was too green to really understand what it was I was supposed to be doing) . I had approximately 16 patients per shift and every shift, all 16 were very “needy”. Read more>>

tiago

It all started back in Brazil, when my mother used to tell me everyday to do a research on how I could improve her eyebrows. After that I was tired of hearing that and I decided to research about permanent makeup hahahaha. After that I took a training on Micropigmentation and she was my first model back in the days. Since then I haven’t stopped and over the years I was able to take several types of training around the world, such as for cosmetic or medical tattooing. Read more>>

Lauren Wagman

Ever since I was a child, I knew my career would somehow relate to social justice and social impact, though I didn’t have those words for it quite yet. When I graduated from college, I searched through the listings for nonprofit jobs and was thrilled when I stumbled upon an opening for a position at the Posse Foundation in their Los Angeles office. Posse identifies remarkable high school students from across the country who might be missed by top tier colleges and universities—and provides scholarships, preparation and ongoing support to bolster their success in college and beyond. I was familiar with Posse because I had attended Vanderbilt University, a Posse partner school. Read more>>

Austin Williams

Absolutely love being around motivated individuals and decided to join a group fitness gym when I first moved to Los Angeles. Have always had a passion for helping others and naturally was trying to motivated the others around me. One of the coaches noticed this and asked if I ever thought about becoming a trainer. Was beyond grateful to even be considered and a thought man that’s a lot of pressure. Great things come from stepping out of that comfort zone so I decided to give it a go. My first class went absolutely awful. People that were rooting me on even were like what the heck was that!? Read more>>

Charity Gantt

I just finished nursing school and celebrated with a pinning ceremony 12/9/2019. The world as we know it was shifting pretty fast with talks of a new virus. There wasn’t a name for it just yet but it was known to be spreading rapidly across the nation. I was questioning myself if I really wanted to be a nurse right now, I was scared beyond measure. All of my family kept asking me, when I was taking my state boards and I would casually shrug it off, because true be told I wasn’t too sure of I was. Then something happened while I was sitting in church there was a medical emergency in the bathroom one of the little boys nose was bleeding, and they came and got me out of service, I told them to notify his mother and attempted to stop the bleeding. Read more>>

Michelle King

I was fortunate to secure my first job in the field of psychology before I even completed graduate school. I attended Pepperdine’s Clinical Psychology program, and by making connections and building relationships with peers and staff, I opened doors to opportunities for my future. There was an anxiety I felt when I was getting close to graduation… and I had a lot of questions. What type of setting would I be qualified to work in? Did I have to pursue a specialty to be marketable? Where do I even start? So I took to the internet, did some research, and set my status on LinkedIn to “seeking a job.” Read more>>

Jessica Legrair

I got my first job as a yoga instructor at Rogue Awakening in Fairlawn. I’m still there, it’s fairly new since I recently received my yoga certification in May of this year. I completed my training there, and prior to that I was a member there. It has felt like a home for me, coming from CorePower Yoga while living in Los Angeles just over a year ago. I took my time when finding a studio because I’m someone who values making people feel welcomed and comfortable, and where I now does that for its members. Read more>>