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Carla Jenkins and Elyse Robinson, two dynamic professionals, ignite a riveting discussion on career switching amidst a tumultuous economy. Their electric exchange amplifies the woes, unveiling a kaleidoscope of challenges and triumphs. Brace yourself as these powerhouses unlock the secrets to conquering uncertainty and seizing opportunities!
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Alternate Titles For The Algorithm:
The Maverick’s Playbook: Carla Jenkins Ignites the Career Switching Revolution in the Midst of Economic Turmoil
Unleashing the Power Within: Carla Jenkins’ Thrilling Talk on Conquering Career Woes and Dominating the Economic Landscape
From Stagnation to Transformation: Carla Jenkins’ Epic Journey of Career Switching and Economic Resilience
Carla Jenkins: The Game-Changer’s Guide to Thriving in a Fluctuating Economy through Strategic Career Switching
Beyond Boundaries: Carla Jenkins’ Explosive Conversation on Overcoming Obstacles and Paving New Career Paths in a Turbulent Economy
Igniting the Spark: Carla Jenkins’ Electrifying Exchange on Seizing Opportunities and Conquering Career Challenges amidst Economic Shifts
The Rise of a Trailblazer: Carla Jenkins’ Inspiring Discourse on Carving a New Career Path in the Face of Economic Uncertainty
Thriving Against the Odds: Carla Jenkins’ Empowering Talk on Embracing Change and Succeeding in Today’s Volatile Economy
The Catalyst for Change: Carla Jenkins’ Unforgettable Discussion on Career Switching Strategies and Flourishing Amidst Economic Disarray
Breaking Barriers, Building Dreams: Carla Jenkins’ Captivating Dialogue on Redefining Success and Navigating Economic Upheavals through Career Switching
Show Notes
0:01
Hey y’all. This is your host Elyse Robinson. With nobody wants to work though podcasts. I hope these stories will inspire you to switch careers. I was an auditor in my past life and I’m in tech, then let’s get to it
0:19
we are switched into tech tech resources to accelerate your career in information technology, monthly classes on tech topics. We offer free or discounted exam vouchers, scholarships for you to me courses, free events, free boot camps and more. You can find us at www dot switch into tech.org.
0:46
Hey, yeah, it is Elyse Robinson with nobody wants to work though podcast today we got Carla and me. I’m excited to have her because she was an economist in her past life. Now she in tech. Go ahead. Do you think Carla?
1:02
Thank you for having me at least I greatly appreciate it. You know a little bit about me, I have over 15 years experience in it Cloud project management, both the private and public sectors. And I work as certified PMP and tech all around the globe. So I’ve had colleagues and companies on several different continents. And I’m just very happy to be interviewed by you today.
1:26
Have you worked on different continents or just Yes,
1:29
Tom, actually, I’ve had places where I had to work in London, when London, England I actually traveled there. And I also had colleagues that when I was doing the international teaching space and technical training, I had to work with people in Africa as well as in India. So I have a significant amount of global experience in dealing with people teams and all type of work.
1:55
All right, yeah, no, Ted, I guess technically, I never worked overseas. I was supposed to do China. But that’s the whole story. Um, but yeah, when I worked for the military, they were like, Yeah, you can go to Abu Dhabi and my, my boss lived in London and you could go to Italy, Korea or some other place Germany, so no, but life happens. What did you want to be when you grew up?
2:29
When I grew up my career when I when I grew up, I initially wanted to be a chemist, I changed so many careers. I remember for Christmas, my mother given me this science kit and actually had like, back in the day, they actually had a live animal, it actually had like a frog in formaldehyde. And I cut it up in everything. I was very happy. I wasn’t gonna be the best chemist ever do audit experience. I had taken like four years of science. So I took just a general science, biology, I didn’t take chemistry, but I took physics, I took botany. I took a lot of science, and I took a computer science when I was in high school. And that really, really helped me with math, especially when I transition from statistics to cybersecurity, because a lot of it is anomaly detection, which is based on standard deviation so that that background really helped me a lot.
3:37
Um, I’m trying to think, I mean, I always love physics, and I really did love chemistry, but I was like, That’s too much work. I mean, I looked at the classes and I was like, you know, I went to community college because I’m here for graduated high school. At first and I’m like three hours for lab I’m like yeah, this this ain’t gonna work. So more power to people that are chemists and physicists and biologists because yeah, I wasn’t about that life. I just couldn’t do it. You know, because I came from the part where online we’re just getting started so a lot of my classes online and you know, I took English and whole bunch computer science classes online and stuff and I’m like, I ain’t gone to school if I don’t have to. Um, so what was your first career like? What did you study and all that good? Sure. Of
4:33
what my first were what I study I initially wanted to do communication because I wanted to start my on my own like, newspaper, my own online everything. And then I ended up in economics. And I ended up with economics because it was interesting to me. And I just continued from there. I took an internship in Washington DC through the Washington Center. I was the first person in my small town College to go. And that was actually my first career switch because I had a dual major of international economics and Spanish. My interning there made me decide that I wanted to keep my economic major but minor in Spanish. And it was like eight years to the day I interned there, I actually ended up working as a paid economist for the government. So it was amazing that like, one block away from where I interned, I actually ended up working there.
5:31
So did you get a master’s in econ a PhD? Because Oh,
5:36
my Bachelor’s was in economics. My my master’s was in business administration.
5:41
Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Because yeah, you look at some of those job bulletins in Oh, seven?
5:51
Yes, why relocated? Economies? I was a, I’m, I’m a native Clevelander, and Cleveland has to fourth district Federal Reserve. Well, in order to be an economist there, you need a PhD. And I was like, Well, I don’t think I need a PhD to be an economist. So since I interned in DC, I just applied for, like a federal government issue. And I got once I just relocated and ended up working in my major. And I think that that was the biggest thing for me. Being able to work in my major to say, Okay, this is what I went to school with, this is what I did, you get a lot of validation from saying, Okay, I study something that I actually need to work in, and actually get to apply. And so that that was something of a curse was because normally, when people you know, will eat, whether it’s high school or anything, once they finish, they usually stay within the area. So the fact that I had to move to get the get to work on my major, that was the first career switch, because I was the only person there the majority of my family at the time was still in Cleveland, Ohio, and in Northeast Ohio. So the fact that I had to go out there, you know, myself, that was very different. The climate is different, like, here off the lake, your seasons, if you if you ever lived to Washington DC, is not the same thing. Now granted, those southerners have never dealt with snow. But also, they heat. That’s something I had to get used to. But, but yeah, going to DC it really strengthened me both personally and professionally. And that was something that I felt really helped me in life just being able to switch like that to keep going and to figure things out.
7:44
Um, yeah, no, I can agree with the moving because I’m originally from Sacramento, California, shout out to Sac town. And I tried and tried to find a job in my city, you know, because I never I never really thought about moving away from home. My parents lived in the same city their whole lives. My mother died in the same city, you know, so for me to move to Boston, and work for the IRS. It was like yeah, you don’t you know, do that. But I can totally relate, you know, like, I won’t say that I’m country or anything like that. Cleveland is pretty country. But you know, of course, I come from a southern background, my my grandparents are southern on both sides. Matter of fact, my, my grandparents on my father’s side come from Ohio. So um, but ya know, they, they, they were like, What are you doing? I thought I was gonna say what did you do?
8:52
Oh, she’s from the south. My paternal grandmother was born in Macon, Georgia, and my paternal grandfather was born in in Chattanooga, Tennessee. So yeah, they came up north. And just was like, we’re gonna be here, like, oh, about that.
9:11
Hey, ya know, I’m like, I, you know, I used to ask my grandparents. I’m like, Why did you move to Sacramento, like ill you know what I’m saying? Like, you know, because when I moved to, to Boston, Boston almost killed me with the snow because, you know, Sacramento, I think it’s a third of the most sunniest places and you can go weeks without seeing the sun in Boston. And they, you know, moved to a couple places after that. And I was like, I moved to LA LA was just everything.
9:43
So yeah, no, I get it. So I have to be an economist, where’d you go?
9:50
I transition to another agency, outside of commerce, and it was more traditional, where I was at It was like, like, you know, the general schedule is the regular standard government. It had a pay ban when I first got there, so I had to opt I was on the alternative schedule. Risk was okay, because you will get more bonuses, but it was more managers, or discretion. Uh, one of the reasons why I I applied for promotion and left the agency was because I got selected for a leadership development program. And I came back. And it wasn’t what I thought it would be. And I saw one of the people in the cohort and the program, she stayed on at Main commerce with the headquarters, and she got like a promotion. So I was like, Well, how did you do that? She said, program analysis. So I looked it up. And I got project management. While I was at my agency, as an economist, I got my Certified Associate in project management, which is the junior level certification. If you’re going to project management institute, that’s the creator of the Project Management Professional, which is the more senior certification. So I got that. And I failed the first time. And then I came back, determined to pass the second time. And so I went back, I had to physically go in the center. And the thing that happened was the day I took it, never forget, it was August 23 2011. was in there. It just so happened, it was an earthquake that day. And we I was at the end of the thing, all chaos broke out. Like, you know, fire marshal bill from a living color. The fire marshal really showed up with the axe in hand, because when a building shank with a stretcher shake, that’s a fire hazard thing. So the fire marshal literally is up here with an axe people are leaving, but I was so far into the exam, I got to state here, that has never happened to me. I’ve never had this situation. happen again. But I passed the exam. And so I said to myself, I am okay with the reality that if I get promoted in this another agency, then I’m okay with leaving in eight months to the day. I passed the test on August 23. I started at the new agency and got promoted to a more traditional schedule and I and it was similar to a band because it was a 1314 but it was general schedule.
12:42
Yeah, I was in Boston when I hit and it’s funny because people don’t believe me when I say you know, I live in California most of my life and the first time I ever been in an earthquake was when I was in Boston. But I come from Northern California you know, I didn’t live in San Francisco or LA so you know, it was strange first hurricane was in Boston. And yeah, it was it was really crazy but you given me flashbacks when I was living in Mexico City and I was in the year 2017 earthquake and and everything just looked like a warzone when I came back home. But ya know, earthquakes are or are crazy because you don’t know when they’re coming. They just come at least with everything else like you know, flood, hurricane tornado, you can kind of get away from it.
13:35
I was told that if a hurricane ever hit DC, because it’s on Atlantic coast, and if ever like I’m packing up my stuff and coming back because the one thing that I can say is that you can you can shovel snow you can do all that other stuff but you can shovel a hurricane baby is just come in and all the water and all that other stuff happening. And I was like no. So that’s that was my one rule I had with with my parents like about the weather like because I never forget that talk to this one lady. And she was like he can’t I was in the middle of Hurricane Isabel and she was explaining how everything went black because she was in the eye of the storm. It came back I was saying to myself there are a lot we need to be here. I don’t care they didn’t pay me the money for that.
14:30
Yeah, I mean, my my family you know, have been living in Houston. Shoot what going on seven years? Yeah, seven years. And you know, they’ve been they’ve been getting they’ve been cleared every year. And then 2017 was the bed will be by hurricane Harvey.
14:53
Yeah, Harvey Yeah, I’m
14:54
just watching it on TV and I’m like, Oh my god. Oh my god. And then like right after that, you know, I had I had I went back to Houston. And it was like nothing happened. And then the earthquake that hit Mexico City happened. So it was just, it was just crazy stuff after crazy stuff. But But yeah, what next went, What’s next your career
15:18
was next was my transitioning from the public sector, the private sector. So I left the government, but I got my project management, professional certification, and actually, the way I got hired at the private agency is that I got my PMP to hire me on the spot. So I just started there. And it was very different. It’s very different when you go from federal employee to federal contractor, in my experience, every time I did some specially if you see it came across, like, if you ask for specific instructions, they think you’re going to try to sue them, I just want to be able to do my job and deliver to the best of my ability. And for my for me with consulting, it was not like the best thing because it always for me came across like they didn’t want to give out all the information. Because it just felt like they were gonna get sued or something. Because, you know, things were finite, you know, you’re only supposed to do this specific work order thing. And that was the major frustration of contracting for me. But I was very happy that I got out there in the private sector. Because you get to see the other things. And then also, I had reinstatement eligibility with the federal government. So I can come back and get my grade and I was a career permanent to so I can come back, get my grade, I’ll be fine. And you know, everything could be settled. But yeah, that that helped me get into the other the other things because the good thing about private sector is it, it tapped into my continuous improvement, I always wanted to get better, I always wanted to challenge myself and with the government, you can just stay at the job, if you get a three on your performance appraisal. Like that’s average, if you don’t have to upgrade, you don’t have to upskill, you just got to get a three on your performance appraisal for your midterm annual annual, you can stay there as long as you want, you don’t have to do anything.
17:31
Definitely, I will say here, like don’t say that don’t say that.
17:37
Even unless it’s true, because it’s like, as long as you there. You find it’s very rare that you have to like, like, actually continuously improve. And I was in an agency, one where it was a large statistical agency that produced indicators that people in businesses use. And then I also wasn’t another agency that originated federal money, like federal loans that people use. And in this, it’s like, it’s the same. But what I will say I do like about the government was all of the training opportunities, that’s something I would say I do, like, especially when I was in DC, you could go to Ben, it was the USDA graduate school, I think now it’s to grad school up in the fire Plaza, you can get all of that training, that you can go online and get training, they will provide you with a lot of training. So I will say with the federal government, they did provide me with a sufficient amount of opportunity to get started to train. And just to learn more about, you know, different careers, if if anyone’s watching this, and they want to go to the government. What I will say is look up the Partnership for Public Service, even though was oh, I think if I 2007. They had things called mission critical occupations, mission critical occupations are once they go all the way to Gs 15. And if your classification, which is what they call the job titles, goes to 15 it means it also go to see your executive service. That’s extremely important, because there’s certain if it doesn’t, that means most of those jobs are support jobs, and that they taper off at Gs 11 or 12. That matters because when when the federal government said they doing these hiring initiatives, and they’re, you know, aligning the government there, those those mission critical occupations like economist that I work for, those positions are not going to be cut. They’re not going to be right sized, they’re not going to be sequestered. The impact program analysts was another one. I remember I was working for the government in 2013 when they had the government shutdown. Well, I was in disaster. are. So I kept working. That’s another thing that I want to impart upon anybody who’s watching this. That’s why mission critical jobs are important. Because if the government shuts down or something, you may be spared and keep working. And the thing is, because I was working during the Senate, now I got my regular paycheck, I didn’t get the lump sum, which would be higher, because it’s, it’s taxed differently. But it’s just the fact that you were getting the regular paycheck. You, you, you kept working, you kept burning your time and everything. And I wanted to just impart that because a lot of people like you know, you get a government job, and that’s good. But you want if you want to do it as a career, you want to be in certain occupations where it goes all the way to Gs 15. So your income doesn’t get limited, because you don’t, I, at least what I feel is, you don’t want to go, Pat, in general steps you got from step one to step 10, you really don’t want to get so far out, like like step five, six or seven, that feels just ride you out in that step, rather than promote you to the next grade level. And once you get outside of three, then you get a step increase every two years for four, or five, and six, and seven. And then when you go from seven to 10, I think it’s every three years. So that’s something I do want to let you know, because when I got my promotion, I was under like step three. So that means that you’ve only been in that grade one or two years, and you get to move up, I actually started to government in pay band two, which was GS nine and step one, because I had a master’s degree. So I had a master’s degree with no experience. I started a GS nine. And I moved up all the way up to like 14. But that’s that’s something I want to say especially if pay is important. If you’re going to richer areas like Boston, DC, LA, something like that. The more education you got, the more targeted spirits you got, the higher it is, I never forgot. We locating from Cleveland to Washington DC, if I did not have my master’s degree, and I came into GSM, then I would have been eligible for Section Eight housing. Working full time for the government eligible for government assistance, B dC costs money, people don’t understand. DC costs money. I think now DC is median income, and that’s median is the number from zero to infinity. The one in the middle, we shrink out all the numbers, it’s like 92k. That’s a lot of when when your per capita or average American citizens making 51,000 And you got to come up with 41,000 Extra and that’s the median in the middle, like no DC costs a lot of money. I never forget that I was like, and as soon as I saw that, I was thought to myself, like Carl, you gotta get out there and work and make some more money cuz it’s a need if you only so, so much from being in Section Eight housing, that was amazing at the time.
23:07
No, you touched on a lot and and plug for myself, I do a seminar here and there on you know, from zero to 100k and the Gurmukh. Because I mean, if you start off at what a seven, you can easily hit that 100k In three years. So yeah, check that out on switch into tech.org. And then also, where you say, you know, you can sit in one place and do nothing, because I mean, I did for a number of years, I got literally paid to do nothing. And that was that was really in Boston. And you say Boston being expensive as hell yeah, it is. But I will say I had a boo. So you know, 5050 but, ya know, when I when I was the auditor, and I worked for the military, I was thinking about getting my CPA. So I had applied and paid all this money and everything else I just needed, you know, somebody to sign off on the experience. And so my boss was like, yeah, like, you got time and stuff. And I’m like, What do you mean, I got time, like, I’m asking you to do it right now because I don’t know what’s what’s gonna happen in the future. You know, so I need you to sign off on his paper. And so the thing was outside of her not wanting to do it, I actually had to get her boss involved in it and get her chewed out. But nobody had their CPA license and at the Air Force at the Air Force, Air Force Audit Agency, no one had their CPA license because you can work there 3040 50 years until you basically die. Yes. And never have a CPA license. And it’s like, okay, well, nobody’s going to private industry and none of this stuff. And, you know, we make enough to where we gotta do nothing on the side and we don’t care too much. So why would I ever get a CPA license? You know, I’m the only dummy out here like, hey, you know, I want to get my CPA license because that’s what I’m supposed to do as the auditor, right? So it was a big hoopla and it really pissed me off because I’m like, Y’all is limited my career. I don’t know what’s gonna happen in a future where I might need my CPA license, you know, um, and you said something else I wanted to touch on, but I can’t really remember. But But yeah, I mean, government is cool, I got to do all kinds of it is that, uh, you know, you would never ever ever get to do and private industry. I wish I could kind of talk about it, but I can’t. But, but just know that you’re no, you get to do all kinds of stuff and know all kinds of things that you know, you will never get to do in private industry. And the pay is good. The pay is really good. And the reason so yeah, now there’s that. It may seem as when you move from from Cleveland to DC, well, what did your parents say? Did you have support? Where were they thinking?
26:13
They didn’t like it at all. See, my mother didn’t like it. Because at the time, I was working for the county, and she worked at the county, so she thought I was gonna follow in her footsteps. She was very, she was very upset. She didn’t like it. And it didn’t help that I had to get moved on Mother’s Day. I started, I started on May 5 team, so may 14 was Mother’s Day, and I had to fly out and she was not happy. You know about that at all, because she thought, you know that you were going to be you know, I’m her daughter. So I’m going to be like her, I was going to be a white collar County Professional, like the ones she interacted with. And that didn’t materialize, because I wanted to work in my major. So it wasn’t it. She didn’t like it. But you know, something. My, my maternal grandmother, she liked it, which was her mother, my father, he was okay with it. But he was he was in the army. So he moved around. But yeah, they weren’t happy, they thought I was gonna stay here. And work in Cuyahoga County, get a white collar professional job there, because a lot of the people who I went to high school and college with, that’s exactly what they did, they got those positions. But my moving out to DC, I felt is the best thing that happened to me, because then you know, like, how much you can really make and what other opportunities that you can to make money. And that, I noticed that if I were to stay where I was at, I wouldn’t have like the purchasing power that would know how to get like different types of money. My, my, my problem solving skills wouldn’t have been as good. And just ability to just do your career because like, you know, it all was the county government issued like you plugin, you set it and forget it. But in the seed, it was like, You got to constantly like do better continuously improve, at least what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to go to like, the top, I wanted to get like to 14 which was very good to me. And I do feel that that’s why I said earlier in this interview the importance of like knowing what was mission critical, knowing like which ones go to Gs 15. I’ve seen a lot of people who worked in the government who was frustrated that they couldn’t get promoted, or they couldn’t get stuff. And I looked at it and say I didn’t want to be that person. So I made sure that you know, I looked at OPI, which is Office of Personnel Management, look at what what they’re what skills I currently had, what can be transferable to other classifications. What did I have to take and when I was there, at the time for a year, I lived in Virginia, and I went to Northern Virginia Community College Arlington. I lived off a Southwater B drive when that was in Arlington, but if you walk up the street pass King Street on the other side is Alexandria. That’s no Beauregard. So I never forget. I was out in Virginia and I walked up for 30 minutes, just going up the hill to Alexandria to take the math class that I need to go and do the to get math class I need to like beef up my math for to qualify for mathematician And statistician, mathematical statistician. And then when I came back to DC and got residency, I went to the University of district, Columbia math at night to the calculus class, the linear algebra class, and the calculus based statistics class. And little did I know those math classes would help me not just transition a program analyst will also help me when, you know, artificial intelligence and machine learning got bigger a decade later. So I didn’t even know that I had the maths skill set for artificial intelligence and machine learning until the pandemic when Microsoft was offering the monthly cloud skill challenge. So they have ai 900, which is artificial intelligence fundamentals. So I look at that, and I see you know, linear algebra and matrix and stuff like, well, I’ve done that before I’ve done linear algebra. And now past it the first time, that’s when I knew that I qualify for all of this stuff that they’re now talking about. But just the fact that I said, Okay, I want to cast as wide of a net as possible with a different classifications, so that I won’t be stagnant in case I can’t go all the way to 15. With the economist, these are the other paths I can take. And that ended up being a great idea, because that’s how I got to order program analysts. And that’s also how the math that I took, then it’s helping me now.
31:31
Definitely, definitely, um, because yeah, as, you know, auditor, I could do program analyst, management analysts, and I don’t have a tech degree, but since I was at a level at Microsoft, I can, you know, easily move into, you know, IT specialists, and then I’m getting my master’s in data science, so I can do data scientists, mathematicians that I’m gonna say it wrong instead of Titian. That attention. And I guess if I take some economy of economic classes, gosh, I can become an economist too. Outside of that, but, um, yeah, I mean, that’s one reason why I do this podcast so people can see that, you know, at this point in time, you know, you got to have a whole bunch of skills move around baby, because you know, you can you can get laid off, you could become stagnant. You can I mean, you might not be able to do a job because you get hurt on the job. I mean, just the list goes on. Right. So, um, so, yeah, definitely, definitely. And one thing I love about the government is, you know, it has all the jobs, maybe even more jobs and you can find in private industry, you know, when I was living in Boston, I knew a health inspector and so she would go around to like the farms and and things like that, and kitchens and stuff like that, and do health inspections. And she told me never to eat sushi, and never go to Chinatown. But um, yeah. Um, but yeah, I’m gonna change this question up a little bit, but you kind of talked about your process on changing careers. You know, what was the process going from economists to program analysts and the government? Like, did you was it a lateral move? Or do they try to make you start at like a nine oh,
33:36
it was a promotion, because I went from Gs 11, which was paid man three, so it was 1112. So pay man two I came in, she is seven, nine Pay man three was 1112. And the pay band for was 1314. So I was at as an economist, the lower end or GS 11. But that actually protected me because if I had one year, it was 1112. So that means that I didn’t have to get a 12 to become a 13. The way I got it was the Certified Associate in project management, because that counted as credits for program analysts. So that was very important. And I also had my MBA, so I had management classes, because the one thing that they’re going to ask you for the government is do you have 21 credit hours in that profession? So I had 21 credit hours in economics and an econ degree. I also had 21 credit hours and a management degree in the Masters of Business Administration. But that’s something if you do want to go into government, they’re all gonna say do you have 21 credit hours in this discipline? But do you have any Oberlin certification or something like that? My cap M really made the difference in me getting hired? Because like you were saying, you know, you had all these people don’t understand the counts that work for the government, they have accounting degrees within our CPAs. The modern project management, which is waterfall predictive was fine, it was created post World War Two with the Department of Defense. But there’s not a lot of people that I work with, they have project management, professional certification, or Certified Associate in project management. So I know that that’s what separated me for everyone else, because it was aligned to Project Management Institute, which is, which has been in project management now for over like nearly over 50 years. Yeah, offices 1969. And that really separating me but no, it was a promotion. And my cat got me my promotion. And my PMP got me my other one too.
36:03
Gotcha. Um, so what are you doing currently?
36:11
Currently, what I’m doing is I’m doing IT consultant, I’m doing cloud consultant, I’m working with an educational technic technology company. And I actually am doing online community college. So I went back just to like, learn stuff and continuously improve. And it really helped me better understand the I was doing business the the requirements for like business when it comes to cloud. So they introduced me to dynamics. So for those who don’t know, Microsoft Dynamics is the customer relationship management software from Microsoft. So if you heard of Salesforce, then that’s Microsoft’s equivalent. And the reason why I wanted to learn about that is because I do a lot of Azure, which is the Microsoft Cloud. And sometimes when you get the requirements from the customer, you don’t understand why they’re saying what they’re saying, because it’s like, they must not know you know, what Azure can do, or what type of product or service that they’re requesting. Well, now that I’m starting to learn about dynamics, that is, okay, they put this in the system, they put this request, this is how they built the survey. This is how they’re asking questions. Now I want to understand how the request is coming to me. So I have the other side on the other side of the table, and what I’m doing, but I’m also actively looking for new opportunities, and it Cloud project management and remote in DC. And I’m very happy to announce tonight that I passed my renewal for my SC 200. So the security operations analyst renew I passed the first time today, I was very happy about that. Because that means that I’ve upgraded and updated my cybersecurity knowledge. And that’s something I’ve always wanted to stay with. Because, you know, like I say with statistics, cybersecurity is based on statistics. It’s based on anomaly detection. So you have three standard deviations plus or minus with in the two standard deviations whose covers 95%. That’s normal. So anomaly detection is dealing with the two tail ends that are 2.5 apiece. And that’s something that I helped me transition very well in the cybersecurity because I have statistics background.
38:39
Definitely, definitely. People always crap on community college, but Community College be having the classes that you will not find that universities, plus they’re like 1/10, the cost and so if you listen and like I said, I’m taking my best classes at the community college outside of that community college instructors are usually professionals that you know, like moonlight on the side. So they have recent experience. So yeah, do not prep all community college classes. Because yeah, you can take all your classes there and get you a better job like super easily and then pay one way.
39:21
Yes. Those are the practitioners those are the people who actually work in the field and also especially in an economically challenging time like this. When things are drying up. If you are a community college student, you qualify for sale. So what what happened was I because I was eligible for student, I was eligible for the Microsoft student hub. So from now until June, they’re still giving out free Microsoft fundamentals training, and practice tests and exam vouchers until June. What’s happening now is they’re starting to pull back on the Microsoft fundamentals live virtual training days. So before now, before 2020 23, if you attended the online, say, Azure fundamentals, which is az 900, after five working days, you complete the webinar, you will get a free exam voucher, they’re pulling back from that. But if you are a community college or eligible student, you will still qualify for that program. And I tell people all the time, take advantage of those programs. Even though it may be fundamentals at there, if you go on Indeed, or Microsoft, and type in Azure fundamentals, their literal jobs that have that as a requirement. So don’t knock the fundamentals. They are there’s something I’ve looked at. They have Azure fun minnows, as battle fundamentals as your AI like right now everybody’s talking about artificial intelligence, and the future of work, getting your Azure AI fundamentals is great. They haven’t updated it yet. I do think with Azure open AI service, they’re going to update the fundamentals certification. But the one thing about fundamentals is it never expires, so you always have it. And then you can always put that on your resume. And that will distinguish you from other people. So just to build on top of lightning Community College, how just being an eligible student really protects you when they start pulling a little vouchers and those things away. If you are in community college or any type of eligible student, they’re still holding on to the student programs longer.
41:46
Definitely, I keep my university email actually. I’m on Spotify right now like and I wasn’t a student, like a couple a couple of months ago, you know what I’m saying? I got that discount. And so you know, I don’t know how to be check it or whatever. But shoot, I’ve asked I stay with my law student discounts through my email, but But ya know, I guess eventually, I guess I should give my my AI fundamentals and data fundamentals since I’m studying data science now. Because yeah, I’ve been trying to figure out like, is there a certification I think I want to get, because one reason why I’m like, Oh, I’m gonna try to move away from data from, you know, like Cloud is because I’m targeting certification. I’m just like, I’m over it, you know what I’m saying? Like, I rather go be a mathematician or something, you know what I’m saying? So it’s like, you know, I ain’t got no certifications. And you know, I guess, but luckily, Microsoft doesn’t have renewal fees or anything like that. But once you start getting into, like, you know, CISSP and CIA, NSA and Security Plus, it’s like, you got renewal fees and stuff like that. Like, it’s a, I don’t want to say it’s not a real profession, but you know, I also have my insurance licenses, and that cost me $150 Every two years. And I’m like this thing even really nothing, you know, that ain’t even regulated by nothing. So it’s very different. But But yeah, I’m just another question I want to ask you. Because I mean, you’re you’re really off the beaten path. Let me see. What what are some tips and tricks you give somebody, whether it’s being like economists or you know, a cloud person or whatever to sure get in the field.
43:40
What I would always do is look at your current skill set, and see how, what what transferable skills you can go to other industries. So, like, right now everyone’s talking about artificial intelligence, future work. But if you set that aside, look at what you currently do, what you’re currently good at, and where use you can see a job or a similar job, and a growth area. And that’s how you pivot in transition. Also look for training. And, like don’t discount, you know, online can like Community College. Also don’t discount the Labor Office. A lot of people talk about unemployment, but they don’t talk about the Workforce Development, which is the other side of the Labor Office. And they have, you know, US Department of Labor opportunities that are available, like the workforce opportunity innovation ACO WIOA that I took advantage of to get my idol three foundation and to have my artificial, not artificial AWS, I got my certified cloud practitioner, my solutions architect, associate certifications through through workforce development, training, so I got to train him for that. And the voucher passed all of my certifications. And those two AWS certifications paved the way for me to get accepted into Amazon Web Services community builder. Was it volunteer program, but it’s but yeah, that’s something else I would talk about. Because it’s one thing to tell someone to develop skills, and you need to do this, but you’re not really giving them like options, or where you can potentially get these skills at. Also, check out your library card. And see, if your library subscribes to LinkedIn learning that saves you $29 a month, because LinkedIn learning is it comes from a premium subscription. So if you qualify for if your library subscribes to LinkedIn learning, you can get the exact same catalog as LinkedIn learning for free. It, I use LinkedIn learning to renew my project management, professional certification, a lot of those professional certifications. You can use LinkedIn learning to renew it. They’re called continuing education units, or is project management is professional development units. But you can use those either to apply or sit for certifications. And if you were to go through the your library check to see whether or not they have you know, LinkedIn learning subscription, if they do use that to upskill and get the skill sets that you need.
46:39
Udemy is on there too, sir. Yes. But yeah, I always be forgetting about the library. I used to live at the library. When I was a child, my, my father picked me all the way to the other side of the city, to the black library to Martin Luther King Library. Because they had all the Black Books. Um, so ya know, people forget about the library. And I mean, YouTube, YouTube is free, you know, Coursera missed another one. Those are those are, those are huge for a whole bunch of stuff. I’m taking me a Udemy class right now with a guy. I’m trying to remember how he says integer, because I was like, I’m not even understanding what he’s saying. But I like the way he’s, he’s teaching it, you know, with the screen and everything. But I’m like, he ain’t saying the word. Like how we say him in English. But yeah, but I’ve taken some really good courses on Udemy for sure, for sure. If you’re more like a visual hands on the type of person, project type of person for sure. Let me see. Last question, what has been your favorite career so far?
47:54
My favorite career so far, I will say is, is torn in between my economist because it just validated my work in in my degree, and being able to teach people Project Management Institute, I mean, instructor just being able to help other people get certified, and seeing how they were able to make more money, help, you know, fortify their family economically, those are the things that are truly to be like, so I like doing those things. That’s why I gravitate so much to education, technology, of em and certification in pass the CompTIA you know, take technical training and exam I still have to do the online thing. But because I like technical training, and I like helping people like reach their potential in that and like I mentioned, like that, that those are still like jobs that are necessary I just like being able to help people and being in STEM and being in it. So those are the two career that I think I do like I like where I’m at right now. I am looking for new opportunities. So reach out to me but yeah, those were the two jobs I liked the most
49:11
about being a trainer I mean another plug I do a monthly seminar usually sometimes I’ll take a break but like you said I enjoy doing you know I enjoy teaching I do live resume review the live LinkedIn reviews every month and you know had seen people say hey, you know, getting testimonials and things like that some people’s resumes and LinkedIn says crap, so So yeah, I enjoyed doing that. But you know, I got my Microsoft certified trainer when I was at Microsoft, and I thought that you know, all these opportunities would be coming my way and is it they did nothing so I’m like, Microsoft certified trainer costs a lot of money to get into maintain. So I’m just like, What is this but yeah, now I Um, could be other reasons as we both know, but but but ya know, so yeah, I get you on that and yeah, like I got validated. It took me a month to find the auditor position and that’s, that’s damn good in the government, mom. And yeah, I was were we working in a month to know I’m sitting here thinking I think it might have been like a month and a half and you know, that position required a clearance and I’m telling my parents I’m like yes, I’ll take like a couple months, couple of weeks, you know, to get the clearance and stuff like, ya know, you can start what is this? But you know, some of my
50:46
comments, I never forget, I interview there on April 18. On April 21, I flew back, they said I got the job, like 72 hours later, I got the job. And my initial start date was going to be made the 30th but then I realized I had to start early, because my first pay wouldn’t have been a June June 8. And I needed to have like the rent money by the 15th. So my team, I got paid, and I had no money. I never forget my first paycheck. See $1,218.23 I was like girl, I made it because my rent was like 900 bucks. But I just kept I just kept moving from there is but yeah, the government like any other time and it takes you three years because it actually took me like three years to get the interview to get the thing with the mini I interview on Friday. And next thing you know, I had it on Monday and I just started working from here.
51:53
Definitely, definitely. Yeah, nobody believes me when I when I tell that story of Oh, yeah, I got my my clients that click and then I believe me, but But yeah. Tell us where to find you, Carla.
52:09
Sure. You can find me on Carla jenkins.com That’s my universal social media handle on LinkedIn is Carla or Jenkins, Facebook Carla or Jenkins. And you can also email me at info at Carlisle RG can go directly to my website page, click on contact, and you’ll get me directly but yeah, thank you for the opportunity to interview and talk about career changes. I greatly appreciate Elyse.
52:37
Yeah, Carla post good stuff. She has a she has a newsletter that she sends out every week. Yeah. All right. Thanks car for doing another show. Because you did one before. Y’all see that one. And yeah, my name is Elise Robinson. And nobody wants to work though. Podcast. We’re on Google podcast, Spotify, Apple podcasts. And of course, if you’re watching us on YouTube, if you haven’t subscribed, make sure you subscribe. This is number 25. I think 25 So I’m gonna do 30 And then I’m gonna take a season break because that’ll move me into the summer and I ain’t doing and during the summer so then we’ll start up Season Two I guess in the fall. I got five more to go and then we’re done. So again, thanks for watching ya is y’all next time