From Retail to Tech: Venesha Morris on Navigating Industry Transitions and Commanding a Six-Figure Salary

You interned at Target while you were in college. How was your experience at Target? Some of the soft skills that I gained from working at Target really helped me in my career.

Yeah, so I feel like I took a lot away from Target, but at the same time I realized that that wasn't the direction that I wanted to go into, but it taught me different skills that I could take away sales, human resources. I really enjoyed the HR department for some reason, and which I'm doing HR now as well. Great experience if you ever want to get into it.

So how was that navigating the pandemic as a new graduate, because I know it was pretty tough.

Yeah, i feel like I already secured a job before I graduated When the pandemic did hit. I believe it was like March of 2020. I was already like almost a year into corporate America working at M&T Bank at the time. We had to transition. It was very difficult because I was working in the branch at the time and we had to transition immediately to do what is it? the PPP loans. We were doing that and I had a hand in helping with the PPP loans and securing that for businesses.

All right. So if you was getting 70, 80, i'm assuming you took a large jump and you could just say TC, so you don't have to say base.

Yeah. So in terms of salary change, i went from that 80K base to making six figures now space salary stocks and then also sign-on payments and bonuses, along with any types of commissions or things that come along with that.

All right, so before we start recording, you just tell me about. You were really into sports. So what are some of the sports that you're into?

Yeah, sure. So I'm into volleyball bowling and I used to do track and field outdoor and indoor, basically in high school. So I stopped doing that because I don't got no more like that to be running. But definitely volleyball is something that I really do enjoy and as a pastime.

Cool. What about basketball?

I tried basketball in the sixth grade. That didn't work out well, So they would rarely put me in and then, when they did, I didn't even make any shots. And then I just remember making one shot the whole season and that was the best I could do at the time. So basketball is not there.

I mean, do you watch it?

I know the different teams, but I'm not too into basketball or watching sports specifically.

OK if you get another boo or something they may want to know about that Right.

that was like a first question.

Exactly. But what's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Tech Show Talk podcast. I'm your host HD, where we break down everything that has to do with tech careers advice. You name it And today we are joined by the lovely Vanessa Morris and I probably butchered her name because I'm talking fast, but Vanessa Morris, and if you haven't noticed her, she's on TikTok. She also works for a big tech company right now. She has a lot of experience and we're going to get into it in the episode And primarily some where it's been resonates with me because she worked at a place that I used to work at. So I love when people used to work at Big Red. So, without further ado, let's introduce our guest.

Yeah, hi guys, my name is Vanessa Morris and I'm currently a talent acquisition recruiter in tech And I recently started posting on TikTok about well fully a year ago. But then when I started doing the career advice and all that stuff on TikTok it was back in November when I started taking it seriously And then since then I was really pleasantly surprised that a lot of people had questions about career and wanted to understand the job search process. So I've made my channel primarily about that. But I also do lifestyle content to show a day in my life or things that I do, or really just food, just random things as well. But the main focus is career because I realized that especially in black community and marginalized communities is that people they want to get into top tech companies, they want to understand the process And there's a lot of information on the internet but there's just not a lot of access for us. So I just really wanted to just present that on my TikTok. And then, since I've had the tech side of things, where I'm a recruiter and I see that, and I've also had the job search thing as well, i've been in the job search process and I see both sides. So I really wanted to present that on my TikTok so that you guys can understand the process a little bit more and hopefully I can provide some insight.

That's dope. So how many years of experience do you have overall, like in your career right now?

Well, i graduated in 2019. So that's about four years of experience, and a lot of people would say that that's not a lot of experience or whatever. I'm relatively new to corporate America, but at the same time, i would say that it is good enough, especially when you're seeing the ins and outs of the hiring process. You see how hiring managers think, and then you also understand yourself as a job searcher as well. You understand the hardships of going through job search and even being a college student trying to find a job as well.

Yeah, i definitely agree And I like that Pretty much been what? four years since you've been in college? I think that's pretty good. I think that still puts you in a place where, yeah, you're kind of new but you're not, but you still can resonate with the college people, versus an old head like me. So I definitely agree with you And I believe that your experience of also recently being in college, being new to corporate America, some of the things that you recently experienced that you could probably help other people kind of mitigate in their career, like kind of for me it's like a different time, because I've seen that Some of the talks on Twitter will be like, hey, don't listen to these veterans in a game, the game has changed and all this yada, yada, yada stuff. It's a lot of back and forth, especially when it comes to technical roles. We just it's probably like every four or five weeks, certs and degrees come up. Or do I get all these certs and all these other things? And the people like me that have like 10 years or we got people that have five plus years we're saying, hey, we don't care about them degrees when we interview y'all, just focus on learning how to do this stuff. And then you got the people that's trying to get in. Nah, i'm going to get all the certs and all this other stuff. And, like you, i see it both ways. But since I've been doing a career coaching thing, i've worked with people who have like certifications And they have like some limitations because they just focus on the certs and not the skills, and that's what we're trying to convey to people. And then some people get their panties in a bunch because they've invested a lot of money into these certifications And it kind of makes them feel a way when we talk about these subjects. But I want to ask you what's a random fact about you that no one would know? Like, what's so random about you?

A random fact I went to 13 different schools growing up. 13 to 14 different schools growing up, So that's pretty random in like different countries and states, not military at all.

That was going to be my next question. I was like you know families in the midst, That's cool, So you're an actual nomad.

Yeah, I mean not by choice at that time, just like due to circumstances. But you know, coming from Jamaica, moving to California, moving to Arizona, just like so many different things, Yeah.

Where were you born and raised And I could actually slide that in right there. It's like OK, so being from Jamaica, i know like it's a culture shock when you come from there and you come here, because it's different. It really is different. And then you have to learn how to assimilate and all those different things, and then you have your heritage and how you, you know your ethics and morals about things, how you feel about things, and then, as you get into being an adult, it's even different when you have to experience some of the things you experience Like this is not it. So, even though that wasn't a question, i kind of want you to talk about that like actually being like Jamaican, being in corporate also, you know, coming here as a young lady or a young girl how was that for you, that experience?

Yeah, it was. It was a shock. It was a hundred percent shock, because when you're in Jamaica, it's like at the age that I was at, like you don't really understand certain things, you don't really understand how the world works or anything like that. And when I was born in Jamaica, you know it's I was born in a little yard. My family, like 12 people, live in one yard And it's like everybody has their own houses. So it was completely different. When I came to America, the first place I went to was California, and California is completely different than New York. So then I had to assimilate to California And I I was like always like the only black girl in my class And I had a white stepfather, and it was just like everything was so different to me then. And then I moved to Arizona again like the only black person in my class And just trying to understand, like who I was and also what the heck is going on in this world or in this state that I'm in, or in the US. Because you know, when you're coming from Jamaica they're telling you oh, go to foreign. Like you know, this is the best thing to go to America, or whatever. But at the same time it's like you're trying to understand. You're trying to understand, ok, what's so good about it? Like you know the young age. So then moving to New York, that was like even more, but called culture shock, because then I was surrounded by Jamaicans again, and my family again, and then different people again. So I don't know. I just feel like that has made me who I am and has made me extremely adaptable, and then also has allowed me to understand myself and even, you know, be more entombed with my roots of being Jamaican and just being very proud to be Jamaican as well.

I think that's pretty cool. I mean, that's a unique experience. So you did high school in New York, right?

I did high school in New York Yeah.

OK, so you know one of my questions about kind of you being in high school. We talked about, like you did, sports in high school. What did you want to be like going into college? for me, i wanted to be Well. I went through phases young, early on in life, i wanted to be a wrestler. Then, after that, i decided, you know what I want to be architect, and I changed that to going into IT For you, what did you want to do when it came to being in high school?

I had no idea what I wanted to do And it drove me crazy because I just I at one point I thought I wanted to be a news reporter. I knew I never wanted to do like the traditional job, like you know doctor, lawyer, teacher, like what you know, basically Nigerians, jamaicans and immigrant families tell you to be. I knew I didn't want to do that, but I like the idea of being a news reporter because I like to speak, i like to travel or go to different places, and you know. So I thought that would be a good idea. But I was like, yeah, they don't make money. So I was like I, i don't want to do that. I saw that, you know, entry is like twenty thousand dollars And I'm like, yeah, i need to be able to eat. So that went out the window. And then when I, you know, got to college, i switched my major, like so many different times, because I had this idea I'm like, ok, i need to make my family proud, but I also need to do something that I love And I'll be damned if I get stuck in something that I don't like. So so then, you know, i chose psychology and political science because I genuinely enjoyed it. And then my parents were like what are you going to do with that? And I'm like I don't know. We'll figure it out as I go. So I just always had the knowing that I was going to be OK at the end of it. You know.

I agree. I think for 18 year olds, there's a lot on them to ask them about What they want to do for the rest of their life. I think that's a lot Oftentimes. A lot of people are sometimes the first time generation college kids or we just been told go be a doctor, go be a lawyer, go do this, do that. I'm not really realizing that Some of the people don't even like those careers that they chose. They just did it. They just did it because it made them a lot of money And you know it has to prestige with it. But there's been a new Like a tide has been changing. Now you have people either be an entrepreneur Influencers they are doing stuff in tech or startups, investors, whatever right and they're making. Some of them are making money like they're doctors and lawyers. Well, actually, contrary to popular belief, depending on what type of lawyer you are and how much experience you have, you don't always make that much money. I think a lot of people have a misconception about being lawyers, like they don't just start off making a lot of money. You could Go do another route and make more money. That's why, when I got to school and I found out about architecture and I wasn't as gifted as other people and I looked into it And I seen that what they were trying to start them off at, for all the work, i said, oh no, i'm not, i'm not gonna do all this work. For architecture to be making like 40k, i say I can go do some easier and come I make 40k early and that's.

That's the thing. It's like you go to school for all these years and then you do something you don't even know That's what you fully want to do and that's just not a path that I'm willing to take and a lot of people like don't really understand That tech is a thing out there. You know, i was speaking to this one girl, my friend, who's Studying to be becoming a doctor. His sister and he was. She was just like yeah, i'm 29, i have no idea what I'm doing with my life And I don't want to be a doctor. Like my brother and my parents is like I feel forced to get into that because I don't know What else is out there. So you know, there's definitely a lot of opportunities and it's just tapping into that.

Yeah, funny enough, though, even the brief bit of skills that you probably learn, like trying to pursue a medical career, could be translated over to some type of Healthcare type of company where she could actually do some she might be more passionate about with, you know, less stress. So that's what I'm all about like, when I have consultations with different people and they tell me what they currently doing, i say, hey, well, let's look in this industry. So I have a client like right now I think he's already working at a healthcare company and he's doing like a kind of help, this stuff, but based on his skills and kind of the path that I helped him with, now we're doing we're still looking at healthcare industry, but the roles are paying more because they're different roles. I was like you're already in healthcare, they're probably gonna be more inclined to interview because you understand, you already understand HIPAA, hatra's, nist, pci, all this different crap you got to do when it comes to healthcare data. So that's kind of like a little nugget for the people out there when they're like what am I transferable skills and what am I supposed to do? You know, people are trying to Unfortunately, they're trying to Know a fence to you, but they're trying to be like you. They want to start over and Go to big tech right away when they can go, get it back somewhere else and get their experience up. And people don't really understand how. And I noticed because I did it the other day on the On the TikTok I Screenshot of blonde house saying like pretty much they had a kind of manipulated some people to come back into the office With return to office and I realized like some of the bigger companies rule like with an ironclad fist. It's like how dare you say you don't want to do with no meta Amazon, google, apple, whoever, how Netflix, how dare you say you don't want to do what we want to do? like That's kind of sometimes you got to go into that and then a lot of people the prestige of even working at those companies because you know people like you said, new York, california, people were in the badges out Oh, i'm big time I'll work at someone. So yeah. It's a lot and I experienced that from when I used to work at Goldman Sachs, like I found out when I left people were like, oh, how dare he want to leave? Like I mean, hey, y'all was blessed to have me, right, i don't care about y'all, like. That's why I tell people to realize to And we may get to some of that in a little bit. I want to stay on top because then we'll just start be rambling off, but it probably will still be good regardless. Yeah, so Let's talk about you going to Union College, kind of what made you choose Union College and how was that college experience?

Yeah. So what made me choose it? It was I did an early decision and They were offering me a full ride. So I Actually I visited the school way before I had to make a decision and I met someone in admissions And he was willing to advocate for me. I definitely wanted the liberal arts college education because I feel like I was in a place where I had no idea What I wanted to do and I kind of wanted to dibble and dabble into different things. So you know I, i chose it because you know, obviously, the money getting away from my parents, like you know, like going away, but not too far away still in the New York, you know hemisphere and everything. But I think that it had a great program. It's one of the top liberal arts schools out there and you know I, i Thought it was a great opportunity at that time And you know, i'm the only person in my family that went to, even went to college in the first place. So Just even being able to choose where I wanted to go, i was kind of difficult as well. If I could go back, you know, i would expand my options a little bit more, not like knowing what I know now, but I feel like you're where you study doesn't fully matter, unless you're like doing Something to get into grad school or something to get into like something else. Like I feel like where you go to school like yeah, i can open doors and opportunities for networking, but it doesn't really matter. In terms of my union college experience, i feel like It was a great experience because, like I said, i changed my major so many different times And I was able to do that because it gave me that flexibility. So at one point I was neuroscience, at one point I was like econ And I was able to like really take those classes and really figure out, do I like this, do I not? and and keep it pushing and even make my own major as well. That was something that was exciting. But I think my experience at union college opened me to being able to even start my TikTok, when I look back in hindsight, because I used to work in the career center as my work study and I would sit there and Take in everything I possibly could to learn about the job search process and the career process, because I'm like, at the end of this, i need to secure a job, um, so I need to see and understand what's going on. So you know I worked in the career center and I helped other peers with resumes. I saw firsthand like what you should do, what you shouldn't do, um. So I'm really, really grateful for that experience and then even being able to tie that into being a recruiter now, seeing from both sides like what they teach you versus what you should actually do, um, as well. So love my college experience as well.

That's dope, and I'm glad that you answered that question about you know, being the first gen college Kid, because it's it's tough. I mean you don't have anybody to guide you and navigate you over some of the pitfalls, like one of my shorts I was talking to my. Now I have another baby brother that's about to start, so I have two brothers in college. They're doing their own thing, but I'm, there's a lifeline. I try to give them a path but at the same time you gotta let kids live their life right. But that's the benefit of them having somebody who has a bachelor's and a master's now, who went through school, they undergrad 10 years ago and can tell you, hey, dude, this, this and this in the summer, by december, hopefully we should be able to get some internships. You know early on, until your freshman year. So we get internships, like every year for three, four years. When you get to the market, or you might even make it to the market, they might offer you before then you have a full-time job. A lot of us are playing the game backwards, you know like for me. They told me oh, go to the career fair your junior year. Mind you, my school wasn't even known for like IT stuff, so it was already a crappy career fair.

So it was no benefit.

They weren't helping me in a sense. And oh well, a plot of all these internships You know elsewhere, like all these different things are. Tell me what type of skills to learn like those. Those are the things that They're not really teaching you when it comes to college, especially curriculums where, if you're listening and you're in college right now, whatever role you think you might want, please use social media, whether it's tick tock instagram, twitter, linkedin, youtube. Use one of those mediums to find somebody that you want to be like and ask them what you need to learn Ahead of time so you can say yourself a lot of heartache and being miserable that you just spent four years in school. I feel like you didn't learn something. I'm telling you it sucks.

I think you just said something so important. The major key is like really talking to people and really understanding what their experience has been like, understanding what you're getting yourself into and I feel like network you can see that as networking is but it's like really making connections That's what networking is And really understanding and seeing and talking and being around those people already in the fields that you Are thinking about or even that you want to be in that as well.

So, yeah, Yep, and now what I want to talk about briefly is You interned at target while you were in college. Now I was trying to remember what number my store was. It might have been like 13, 87, 13, something, i don't know, because that's the code we set to put in to get into the door in the break room. But how was your experience at Target? Because I'm so biased, like if I don't really like going to Walmart, if I do a short, like I will stay in Target all day because I worked there through college. But some of the soft skills that I gained from working at Target really helped me in my career. Think about it. You're going to Target. People are going to ask you hey, can I help you find something? You're going to Walmart. They can see you looking for you know five minutes. They ain't going to ask you nothing, you just going to keep on walking. You got to go up to them. So, honestly, how was that experience at Target And do you think that it helped benefit your career?

Yeah, sure, wait before I jump in. what was your role at Target?

I did hard lines.

Oh, you did hard lines, Were you like the executive, you know okay.

No, so I was only what's your color, i was only like just a team member because I worked really in between school And I never and that's the thing too I never applied to do the intern thing because I was already a team member and I didn't want to be a ETL. That was like last resort. Last resort for me. Say you know what hey, i know I can get. I think they were paying, like they managed a 60, 70, 80,000, whatever they was paying them. So I was like I know I could be a manager somewhere at Target just because I'd worked whatever year and I got a degree. that's all you really needed like degree and whatever, and they'll let you be an ETL. But that was like the last thing that I wanted to do.

Gotcha Okay. So when I initially got into Target, i was already thinking about doing something within marketing sales. You know, this is towards the end of my college journey, so I think like junior going into senior year, so I already had an idea of like kind of what I wanted to do. So when I did the ETL so it's the executive team lead internship I thought that I was going into, you know, like the corporate, you know stuff like that. And then I later found out that it was actually the stores, which I'm like, okay, yeah, i can do the stores. And the way that they sold it to me was that you know, you're gonna be getting exposed to like the different parts of the stores, which is gonna give you skills within sales, marketing, all these different things, general merchandising. So I was like, okay, you know I'm sold on it And I really think, just looking back, it did give me those skills. Well, i'm gonna get into that after. But how was it as a whole? and what did I do? I was able to shadow different departments within the stores. So everything from human resources to, you know, the clothing, to soft lines, hard lines, the baby I was in charge of the baby department, electronics, like everything Target provides. I was able to shadow the people who were leading those departments and understand what they do, as well as the ins and outs of every single department, which was invaluable. I had a mentor, i had support, i had people that I could easily go to. But I think that the reason why it didn't work out for me is because it goes back to passion. I just really wasn't passionate about, like working in a store And it just wasn't for me in that sense. But I did take away a lot from it. I learned the importance of data being data driven utilizing. They had these little phone thingies that you could look through and see what the most selling product the most. What is it The product that sold the most as well? So, yeah, so I feel like I took a lot away from Target, but at the same time, i realized that that wasn't the direction that I wanted to go into, but it taught me different skills that I could take away sales, you know. Human resources. I really enjoyed the HR department for some reason, and which I'm, you know, doing HR now as well. So great experience if you ever want to get into it. But you have to decide for yourself. If that's something you want to do instead of getting stuck in something, so that's something I really want to stay away from.

Got it. So I say they want to work in the store. That's kind of my sentiments as well. But have you ever questioned like going to work in Minnesota? Well, you don't have to go to Minnesota, but you know that's where headquarters is. It's a corporate.

You know I would be open if it's something in the corporate offices, just not in the stores. I feel like Target as a whole. I just love the culture. I love their thought process on the guests We call them guests, not customers. You know just like just everything from how they think about guests, how they structure the stores, because you know they structure to keep you in there. So, yeah, exactly, right, exactly. So I feel like Target over Walmart any day. I went to Target like three times this week. So you know I still love the company.

I used to tell people back in the day look me, take you to Target is a love language right there. Listen, you ain't been on a Target run with me. I might not like you that much, to be honest. Matter of fact, Target, anybody from Target and the marketing department if you're all watching this, you want to sponsor some future episodes. Tune in, because we're right here standing for Target. But I only bought up Minnesota because last year I was interviewing for a role at Target And I actually really wanted it, only because I saw the storyline I could make for us. I used to do hard lines and came back 10 years later to be the lead C-SERF analyst for Target. So that was going to be pretty cool, because I was working at Target when they had the big breach in 2013. So I remember that. So I knew I was going to go to the second round. But then they had to close the rec because you know, they kind of started like crapping on itself And I think they opened it back up. I don't even know if they hired somebody for it yet, but I know the recruiter had spent the block on me about it. But that was going to be one of the selling points that I told. When it came to the technical things, like you know, i'm like maybe some of your other applicants. I seen firsthand of what happens at Target, especially at trusted brand, when something happens and it'll be my mission to uphold, to make sure we don't have any data expectation or anything like that, to make sure I'm always on 10 when I'm at work. But this isn't a target commercial or sponsorship. We can set up a live stream and talk about Target one day. I mean, if we got to. So how was it after college? So you got out in 2019 and for you that mean you were headed to now. Did you get out in 2019 in the summer or did you get out in the fall of 2019? OK, so that mean you had. I ain't gonna lie, that was probably like my last fun summer 2019 was. And then you know, the next year we get the world towards the end of the year pandemic. So how was that navigating the pandemic as a new graduate, because I know it was pretty tough.

Yeah, i mean, i feel like I already secured a job before I graduated, so I think that that was, excuse me, that was pretty. You know, if I had to find a job, like during the pandemic, that would have been even harder, but I secured it about like six to seven months before I graduated, working in the career center as well in my school. So that helped me have a lot. But you know, when the pandemic did hit I believe it was like March of 2020, i was already like almost a year into corporate America, you know, working at M&T Bank at the time. So you know we had to transition. It was very difficult because I was working in the branch at the time and we had to transition immediately to do what is it? the PPP loans. We were doing that And I had a hand in helping with the PPP loans and securing that for businesses as well as personal. You know like just like securing those things as well, and I got excited about that and then excited about the opportunity to work from home, because they sent everyone home to work on the PPP. So that was like my first taste of virtual working and all that stuff. So that was super exciting And once I had that taste. I did not want to go back into an office, so I immediately transitioned into a different role where I could work from home And you know when I even switched to my current company now you know that helped with the work from home. So I feel like in terms of the transition as a college graduate it wasn't hard for me particularly, but you know it would have been harder if probably, i didn't have something at the time.

That's dope, because that's one of my next questions was going to be about was you working at M&T Bank? But I wanted to actually get some fun stuff in here before we get back into the series stuff. So if anybody has followed her on TikTok, she loves to travel And it looks like I'm not going to lie. I enjoy traveling solo too, because I don't have to worry about I want to go do this, I'm going to do that. When it's solo, I can just do what I want to do. If I want to lay in the bed all day, then get up and you know, go work out or do what I can do. That You know it's perfect for me. Like I feel, like you know you got to have your solo trips and then you have to be prepared for the trips where y'all got an itinerary, where you do something. But for you so far, what's been like your favorite place that you travel to?

I would say this is a two-part thing. The Netherlands is one of my favorite places And then, in the Caribbean, definitely just keep going back to Jamaica. that's always going to be like my go-to. So the Netherlands, Jamaica, I just feel like even like just going to other countries, I feel like everywhere has their own little culture and I just really find something to enjoy in each and every place that I've been. So I mean, yeah, if I had to choose those two, I think that that would be it.

Got it, so have any of those places traveled been a vacation?

A bit. I No, ok. So the Netherlands was actually a study of broad one. I was studying the health care system And then the What is it? Jamaica is just like family and stuff like that. So none of those are vacations.

Well, let's broaden the question. What type of How you had a favorite vacation? I'm asking for the fellas, because they may want to, you know, put their head in the ring.

Ok, i would say that probably, like Puerto Rico, was like a mini vacation, but not really I wouldn't consider that a vacation.

But Fyllis, that means you do got a chance. You know I don't know what you got to say to get here to reply. I probably can give you some pointers on if you want to try to stand out or whatever. But you know that's going to be. That's going to cost you a consultation price right there. So how was it working in finance at M&T Bank, like I know that's kind of like what a book your experience came from. So how was it working in finance? Like how does it exit business to what extent? you've been to there, yeah.

So how would you liked to compete in finance, how would Iひ be? Let me just take a step back. I feel like that wasn't my, that wasn't my best like opportunity that I would say I enjoyed fully. I would say I would say I did take a lot away from the role, from the company, but at the same time, there were things that I just did not resonate with and I think I don't know if it was being in finance or just the company or whatever. Like I'm not gonna talk about it, but I just feel like I just remember just being very overwhelmed and, yeah, not feeling supported at times as well. So I, oh, sorry, okay, yeah, so not feeling supported at times. So I just feel, like finance, the specific thing that I was doing, i didn't fully enjoy it. So I feel like each role that I had was an opportunity to take away. You know, starting from the target internship to even going to finance, like I realized, okay, this is not for me, but this is what I can take away that I really enjoyed and this is what I'm good at. So I was able to gather all those different things in and figure out, okay, well, i kind of want to go into tech and go into recruiting or account management. So I was able to take away from each of those roles and figure out what I wanted to do.

Alright, man, so what made you want to get out of financing and go into big tech, or how did that happen? right, i think that's like a cool jump, because I know for me, i went from working at a MSS, where we had like a huge dedicated client, into pretty much working in the financial sector. How did that, you know, go for you? how's that transition? because for me, i know the one thing I do not like about finance, it's like so when it comes to technology, it's so behind the times of what you have and other companies or you've been in more tech focused companies. I think that's one of the things that take them forever to adapt, to change and you're like, why are we doing stuff like this? it doesn't make sense and it's a lot. You know. Other things I can talk about. Well, people can see them on, like all my I quit videos or fintech experiences. But how do you feel about that transition from finance? and kind of, how did you, i guess, like discover the opportunity?

Yeah, first of all, i second that with the being behind in technology. There was definitely a lot of that. But how I got into tech was actually because I had a friend she got into Google and she she well, let's go back before. She worked with me at M&T Bank and she was like I'm getting out of here, i'm going to Google. I'm like okay, girl, like go ahead. Like I never really understood like Google or anything you know in that realm of tech. So I was just like okay, like go ahead, girl. So she went through the interview process and I helped prep her through the interview process and then she eventually got in and became an account strategist at Google and I'm like dang, like oh, that's amazing. So that inspired me. And I'm like, okay, let me look, start looking into tech companies and start applying. And I just remember being just paralyzed with anxiety for even applying to jobs back then. And I did not. I did not send out a resume because I'm like, oh, what if I get rejected? and I feel like I was really in the thought process of like, oh, maybe I need to stay at this company that I really don't see a growth or or future with, because I was so scared of like just taking that leap of faith and jumping like she did. But you know, she was really, really inspirational to me and for me. So then I started applying. And as soon as I started applying I got my first rejection from Pinterest and I was like, okay, this isn't so bad. Like you know they let you know what they say rejection is God's protection. So, you know, i got that rejection from Pinterest. I'm like okay, let me go ahead and start applying to other stuff. So then, you know, i applied to my current company and within three days of applying they got back to me. They're like yeah, we want to interview you for this account management program. And I was like, oh my god, i immediately called my friend from Google and she actually helped me prefer the interview because, you know, when you get that initial phone call, you're like, oh, wow, like how I don't want to mess this up, i want to make sure I go when they're prepared. And the company I work at like they have a very strict process of interviewing, so that's where I get all my interviewing, you know, like the tech interviewing, all that stuff. Like that's where I really fully understood the interview process, the star method and all these different things, because prior to that I didn't fully understand it. But yeah, i ended up interviewing and it was the longest interview of my life, so I interviewed with six different people in the final rounds and then like three people in the phone screen and then the recruiter. It was just, it was so long. I eventually got in and and that's how that happened, with support, networking and friends- that's dope.

I briefly interviewed with AWS in 2021 or might have been I think it was late 2021 and I really didn't prepare. To be honest, i messed up on like the leadership principle, i know for a fact. But I at the time though, i was just like why did he ask me about diversity? you know, i understood, but I kind of gave him still a good enough answer for us, like what I've been doing, like my personal life or my, my clients and all this other stuff. So I was just like man, whatever. I felt like why you asking the black guy about diversity? I was like my background didn't much on that, like X me something else, but it is what it is. But this is the one thing I have not asked yet and I do a bad job with this in all interviews, because for me, i guess, because I'm a decade in, i'm not too much concerned about what you get paid. But I have to remember that a lot of, you know, entry level, mid-level people watch this, whether they're in tech or they're trying to get into tech, and they want to know about no salaries that they could expect now. Granted, i know it's probably. I will say I tell people all the time, like you know, finance is pretty easy and they actually paid pretty decently for you being, you know, newer into corporate but going to be, you know, account manager at, you know, amazon. How was that, that pay jump, or what could somebody expect to take a role like that, you know?

the page on. Plus immaculate I I was. I thought I had to work years in my career before I even like saw that. So I would say that, just jumping from finance as a college student, graduating, i was just like, oh, wow. Like you know, this is good, this is, this is okay for where I'm at. But then when I got into tech, i just opened a whole new world, especially even being exposed to, like the compensation for so many other different rules as well.

Like it is yeah, alright so when you did, when you were at the bank, what was that range like? you don't have to get specific yeah, i want to kind of give them some numbers here to work with, where they could kind of play around with their mind yeah.

So the bank was more like it was okay. It was like no, the bank was like 70, 80k, like yeah, base. So that's.

That's. That's pretty good. Coming out of school, especially considering other you know places, may not pay as much. That's why I do tell people about like finance, like finance gone, gonna pay you decently, you're not gonna get really any other you know in Seno. So I think it's my biggest issue about finances, like why are not offering people stock like the ones that's publicly traded? why don't y'all offering any equity? but so okay, so if that, alright. So if you was getting 70, 80, i'm assuming you took a large jump and you could just say TC. So you don't have to say base, because I kind of want you, as a account manager and a cruder, to kind of break that part down too, because a lot of people are sometimes confused when you say total compensation and how does it work, and about negotiations and that's what we might go into right now. So let's talk about that jump. And did you negotiate? because I have I just made a post the other day about on Twitter saying, hey, whatever you do, don't you know, don't accept the first offer, and I have people saying like, oh man, i did it. I, you know, i had somebody like kind of scared not to negotiate because they're they're like, well, i don't have no experience. I'm like, hey, they want you like negotiate, because I guarantee somebody else probably got a little bit more experience than you and they for sure negotiated. So I want you to get all the money you can on them, because if you're expendable and people remember that they're always trying to. You know, finist, the company's like I tell them to. But yeah, let's talk about that. Let's talk about salary change, salary negotiation and what that means for your breakdown over, like your tenure at the company yeah.

So in terms of salary change, i went from like that 80k base to, you know, making six figures now, especially like going into sales account management. There is a lot of growth for that especially. Well, let's talk about total compensation and what that compensation breakdown looks like and it might be different for every company, but, you know, in terms of, like tech or like my specific company, it's based salary, stocks and then also sign-off payments and bonuses, along with any types of commissions or things that come along with that. So you know four different components of total compensation. So even if you get like a low quote-unquote base salary, it can still be made up in other ways. So sometimes we were like, oh, like they're not giving me the money up front and in the base, like I can't take that. But at the same time it's like, okay, you're making it up in other ways. But for me, i had a really great you know base. I had a great sign-on payment was amazing, just like everything. Just the package was amazing. But at the same time I feel like they're never gonna give you the what they can actually give you and I've seen that on the other side of you know recruiting and stuff like that. So they definitely have a range that they can give you and they can give you anywhere from the low end, the mid-end or the high end of the range. So, especially as someone from a marginalized community black women, people of color, it's so, even like anyone, it's so important to negotiate because you never want to sell yourself short and just take the offer because you don't think that you can get anything else. You have to realize, because you said something earlier. You said you know you're they, they you're just as valuable to the company as the company is valuable to you. So you're bringing there's a reason that you know they're bringing you into the companies because they, you need them and they need you, you know. So it's that equal side. Someone is behind me, but it's that equal mutual benefit. But what I can say is, in terms of like total compensation, you really have to understand the breakdown and understand that you need to negotiate and you need to talk about why you're, you know you're a great fit for the role, as well as bringing in numbers and like competitive analysis of like what others are doing as well, as well as like what you see from the company and people in that role. So like levels of why I. It's like a great thing to understand that you know, to see what other people are making, so that you can bring in all that valuable information and say this is why I. I think that you would benefit from increasing the, the compensation for me as well.

I'm glad you said that, though, because that's why I can tell somebody and the DMs I was like show, tell them, like why your value, you know with, you know command this much money on the market. And a lot of people do forget that like for me I know. I tell people all the time they've seen my videos. I told them hey, the current company, i took a pay cut to go there, but I was able to negotiate a good sign on, and I was so listen, man, y'all just need to always tap into me like right now I haven't touched, i hit the like button. But please hit the like button, join the patreon. I'm always trying to give my free game. I was able to finesse the current company and my last company right, because now, the good thing about Goldman Sachs was Goldman Sachs said hey, regardless, if you start right here this month, you're gonna get your guaranteed bonus the next year of whatever, and so that amount was a bonus of like 30,000. Now that was pre-tax. The next company when I went to them, i agreed to like a higher base with us a lower bonus amount, and so I was thinking I was gonna get the whole bonus amount, and turned out they had, it couldn't have so based on whatever the company did. So how I finesse that was when I was getting my offer and stuff ready. I got a person in HCM to tell me when I signed on, what was my a bonus amount, because I needed a right in the show the new company and so when I had that, i was able to negotiate a comp buyout and a sign on. And when I started so that was the way I made up for some stuff. If I was getting less money, i'm like everything can always be negotiated because a lot of times finance companies don't do a lot of sign-offs like they'll. They'll do it because they you know what I came in as if I would have got the same base. It would have put me at the top of the range, of course. So you know how that goes. Oh well, we want room for you to grow yada, yada, yada B of stuff. So that's how I was able to finish that, cuz I, you know I got the power here. Yeah, i want me. So, briefly, could you tell us like what the day in the life is like for an account management? account manager at Big Tech.

It's a lot. A lot of it is meeting with businesses and advertisers. So basically, what an account manager is is someone who tries to help advertisers utilize our products so that they can expand awareness and drive loyalty and consideration for the products. So, in terms of like account management and the day in the life, a lot of it is working with account executives to create slides, to look at data, to understand what are they currently doing and what do they need to do to meet their goals. And they're the ones setting their goals so that and you're utilizing the products and services to help them meet that. So that's account management. But a lot of it is just like staying up looking at data analysis, looking at different advertisers and books of businesses and seeing what products they've implemented and trying to find opportunities to upsell and find opportunities to just really help them reach their goals and then presenting that to them, getting them on track with those goals and with the products and getting them to invest in those products and seeing the value and why they should be investing in those products. So that's a lot of it. And going back and seeing looking at the campaigns that they ran and did it run engagement, did it increase engagement or, if not, what happened? why? So really understanding the why behind that data and, like I was talking about Target, that's why I got my first taste of looking at data and all that stuff in the corporate environment.

What type of experience would someone need in order to do a role like yours? Like what would they need if they want to say, hey, i want to be an account manager, like soft skills, technical skills, software. What would they need to know? They?

would need to have a customer first mindset, because a lot of times people are like oh, like I have just like a customer service experience Sorry for the noise, by the way, i'm like I have to have a customer service. Can you hear noise? like background noise, okay, so, yeah, so you have to have a customer first mindset to understand, okay, what are their goals, what are they doing, and really trying to like be really invested in how you can help them grow. So problem solving skills is really really important, because not only do you have to just look at the data, you have to understand you know why do they have a dip at certain points, like and then pulling in different. You know stories and cases And storytelling is also really important. Being able to go back to stakeholders and tell them, like you know, the reason why you know this kind of dropped or this is doing really well is because you know maybe prime day or maybe this day, like certain things going on economically can be impacting you know your numbers and your revenue. So storytelling, problem solving skills, communication, being able to make a really good slide and convincing them, negotiating closing deals all those things are very important as well.

Dope, dope, All right. So let's let's get spicy real quick, right? Earlier on we were talking about, you know, being a recruiter, being an applicant. What are some misconceptions that job applicants have about the, you know, the job search process, as far as when they are applying for a role, either interviewing. what are some misconceptions that they have on their end that you can probably help clear up?

They probably. The first thing is they think that the recruiter is kind of in charge of the decision. The recruiter is like a messenger. They are the ones the midpoint between the hiring manager and the, the job seeker. So we're like the gatekeepers, so we're in charge of like sending hiring managers your resume. We're not necessarily saying yes or no. Like you know, you can move forward. Like we don't really have much of a say except for like in the phone screen process. But aside from that, like the hiring managers are making the key decisions in terms of like whose resume to move forward. Like, of course, like we find the people and we send it to the hiring managers. Like we do have a stake in that. At the same time, they're like they're the ones in charge of like who are the ones that we're hiring And then the team also makes makes the decision. And another mix misconception is the fact that probably like thinking that one interview skill works for all companies. I think when you're interviewing, you're going to have to understand how various different companies conduct interviews, because how you interview at Google is not how you interview at Amazon. How you interview at Amazon is not how you interview at Meta. So really, like diving deep and understanding, like the specific companies, like what they're looking for is essential. And then what else in terms of like, oh, last thing, debriefs. So recruiters are in the debriefs, listening in the conversations with hiring managers, and what a debrief is if you don't know, that's basically after you go through the interview process, like we sit back and we talk about the candidate and decide whether or not we want to move forward with them. So that's where everybody talks about, okay, what did this person do, well, what didn't they do, well, can we actually see them on the team? stuff along those lines. So, in terms of misconceptions is like yes, we do sit down and we do talk and we do. We do know what answers you gave to certain people and what answers you didn't give. So just make sure that you're diversifying your answers as well. It's going to be important.

That's dope. I know that will definitely help some people out. Now let's get into some spicy topics right. We have, like I said, tiktok, social media a whole bunch of BS information out there. How do you feel about people lying on their resume? And I want to clarify this embellishing and lying are two different things. An embellishment is you might have did, you might have successfully led three projects. You might say successfully led eight projects. It's kind of like an embarrassment. I mean anybody can really see if you did eight. Now straight out lies, you ain't led nothing at all. You said you successfully led 20 projects and whatever you did with that. So how do you feel about lying? And also, this is a thing too, because I've been in the interview process for us. People want to interview the company and I'm part of the technical team. Maybe that's conducting the interviews and looking at the resume. I know how to spot BS and that's outside of me. Even just on my career coast of can recruiters automatically spot BS on resumes And what a red flags, as you guys see, on resumes. I think this is going to be really perfect for the audience.

We can spot BS. And I do want to go back to your point of embellishment versus lying. If you're flat out lying and saying you worked at a specific company that you didn't work on, like work at, that's lying. And we do run background checks and we do see that information. So that's the part. Don't lie about that. In terms of embellishment, i think it's like how much do you embellish? Because I feel like different titles are at different companies. So save you know, i'm a recruiter at my company, right, and then I go to a different company and they have I'm applying for a job that says talent acquisition specialist. I'm not going to put recruiter, I'm going to put talent acquisition specialist, even like that's what I've done, like, if I have things from that job that I've done, that's who I am And that's the approach I took. I was talking to this other lady at my job. She's like a program manager and she's like, yeah, like put program manager if you've done things in program management as well. And if you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can put like, whatever your actual job title is, slash the you know title that you're applying for as long as you've done it before. So I feel like there's a certain extent to what you can change and what you shouldn't change, and those are like the obvious, like the company, the amount of time, like the length of time that you work there, or like sometimes the numbers can be embellished a little bit, but at the same time it's like if it's outrageous, like you can spot whether or not it's bullshit especially the hiring managers. They're like yeah, this makes no sense And they will call you out on that in the interview process as well.

Yeah, definitely. I was talking to somebody in my DMs about that and they were talking about you know. I guess and this was the thing I was telling them about It's like, you know, people will be laid off and maybe they didn't put the end date on their resume. That's a red flag for her And I was saying for me it's not. I mean, this whole job search process is a marketing thing. Some not all companies, but some companies will try to prey upon you being laid off and try to get you any type of offer and do you any type of way. Versus, hey, once you get in the interviews and they start asking about your experience, you say you know, well, you know, i was laid off because of you know, yada, yada, yada. Well, a lot of times in the job application you could state like, oh no, i was actually laid off on you know this day and this is why I do the organizational restructuring or this or that, and that's fine. But I was like on the resume I'm not like too concerned, like with you saying, oh, you know, this is the day it ended, because some people have got in a month and then got laid off. So putting that on the resume. Sometimes maybe like, well, why did they only be here for a month? Sure, be things, but sometimes people look at it like too crazy. So I was like the only red flag for me was, like you know, like you said, i've had people to be a help this worker, but then try to change their job to security specialist. I'm like, bro, you're doing help, that stuff Like stop.

If you didn't do the job, don't put that on there. But if you did specific elements of it, you can, you know, try to do that.

Big facts Like I've had people like I have helped this, people like I was telling you about a guy with his years of experience and now what he's getting like interviewing for And he does stuff that similar to like no identity access management or system administration or whatever. So I've actually did titles like that, where that is an embarrassment. However, the job functions that they are doing are serving the functions of those other roles, like the only reason why it's helped us, because that can. That is a way for them to say you know, we're going to pay them this much because this is where we pay. Help this And the companies. And so those are the things I do try to get people to understand when we start taking their resume and I look at the titles like I was like no, you've been doing this, this and this, this is what we're going to call this role. So that's cool. I wanted to ask you something about like two things like fake certifications, because I know I don't know if you were around when you about the PMP club. When there's time, i get fake PMPs And then you know what people a lot of people have been encouraging people to do fake degrees because they're saying, oh well, these companies didn't even check if they degree was real or not and all these different things. The thing is, my issue is always when it's us saying that it's bad because we are already have to be better than everybody else anyway. So convincing us to take shortcuts doesn't give us long term career success, because a lot of these people who are giving us advice not even not doing the role, like they're not recruiters and I T8 and not human resources I'll have to show you. I'll even show you the person's page after this, but they do none of these things and they're giving people advice and they think is like what it's supposed to be, because in today's time, only everything that's true is unpopular, opposed to stuff I can just say to make you feel good And I just pick some BS out and tell you apply to a thousand, a thousand roles and you'll probably find like a good paying job, whatever. Like these this is something that's going on here now or like people just manipulate and stuff in their resumes are basic. They never worked in tech roles, or especially technical tech roles at that. There's even a difference with that. I've had people come up to me and I don't even subscribe to be the best resume writer. Most of my resumes are built off the template of like my resume. That helps me interview other places, but I know how to write and when it comes to tech specific roles because those are roles that I apply to Well, some people have not written enough for those resumes as professional resume writers and therefore they're writing people in the faith of resumes, and so these are things that are happening too. When people are going to spend like a lot of money like the resume looks good, but it's not what we're looking for in a technical resume on top of people looking at probably like a hundreds of resumes a day, you only got six, seven, eight seconds to look at it. I say it all day. Crap to say How do you feel about fake degrees and have you ever dealt with like a candidate or somebody that lied about a degree?

um, i Feel like you should not do it because at the end of the day, like I said, there are things like background checks that happen and Regardless even if the background check did not happen Especially if you're telling me like not even just degree, but like people are lying about PMP certifications I think that you're only doing this yourself a disservice, because when you actually get into that job like it's one thing to Get to that job in there out, you're like, oh my god, i'm so excited, like you know, but you have to remember you have to do the job. You have to actually do the job. So like lying about the PMP certification or like a degree can really hold you back in, in a sense, like you know if you haven't even worked in that specific type of rule before, and you're just like, yeah, like here's my PMP certification and you know nothing about it, like you're only messing yourself up in the end. So I just feel like you shouldn't even bother to do that. I think just take the long route and actually get it, because you're giving yourself information that you might need and you're learning And different things that you might need that's going to help you in the future. So like there's no reason to lie. That's just my take on it. Don't don't lie and I don't know who these people are lying about. Or telling people to lie About certifications and degrees because they're messing them up, or even doing resumes if they don't even understand. Like I don't know, i just don't agree with that.

You'll be surprised. Like I said, like I try On on tiktok, like my kind of my creed is like if there's women with the misinformation, i won't kind of just go straight at them because I don't want to say how you attacking women, like you can't really have a sound point and attack someone's point anymore, especially if you're a man. So I try to Yeah right, so I typically is lead after the ladies to get under cases and not me. But One of the other questions I want to ask you about is the elephant in the room, artificial intelligence, ai when it comes to job search. How do you feel about it? How do you feel about enhancing the job search? I'll give you a little bit of kind of like a little bit. How I feel about it right now is I think it could be beneficial. I'd still think there's things that AI doesn't know about resumes, that it still needs to be tweaked by human. So it sometimes it does good. We're, like you know, traditionally like helping writing stuff, but there's still some things that doesn't know to add, because one, it doesn't have access to data, present data now, in certain words, that you need to use, or Trying to show that this and these other things. But I do think it could be beneficial in some ways. But and from your experience I remember you shit, matter of fact, let's do this because you shared this on tiktok the other day. I want you to give your opinion on that. And then, what are some AI Job search sites or AI tools that the listeners can use to help them in your job search?

so my view on it. I feel like AI can be very, very helpful in your job search, but you also have to not rely and Use it as a crutch, and what I mean by that is like It's a great resource to understand. Okay, what, what things should I highlight that I'm not highlighting in my resume? What are things that I should Add that I'm not adding, or things I'm overlooking in the job description that I'm not adding? But I feel like especially like with chat, gpt or you know any of the other, like even kick resume sometimes, like they don't give you the best type of templates And they don't give you like the exact things that you should necessarily put on your resume And I want to make a video on that in the future like, use it with a green assault. I think it's just like a certification. It's giving you a framework of What exactly your resume should have, but you're not gonna use whatever they give you Step by step by step, like that's not the exact thing that that you're gonna use. You're just gonna use it to set up your resume, and for people who don't know how to Really do a resume, or what should be looked for in a resume, can be difficult to Differentiate, like okay, maybe I should add this or maybe remove this. So I think, like AI is a great. I think it's great in its own sense, but there is a lot that still needs to be developed in order for people to literally take, copy and paste word by word, like there needs to be a lot done, but I think that you can utilize it to figure, okay, what are things that are missing in my profile or in my you know Resume that I can, and make it better. So that's my thought on that. In terms of, like specific AI websites, definitely I would say like Chat GPT I know That one I it's definitely overused by. I feel like it's it's really great to ask questions that You can see. Okay, hey, like, what skills should I add, or what are things I need to highlight in the job description? or, you know, give me information about XYZ, like whatever. So I think chat GPT if you know how to use it well, then That could be a great tool. Kick resume It can do, like the AI generation. You know it can create templates for you on your behalf. I think that's a good one, but at the same time, i don't love every single template that it has, because I feel like some of them are too colorful Or like it's just too much going on. So, like having a simple template the simpler this the better, and not necessarily saying color is bad, like colors okay, but I'm saying like when you have just too much going on, that's where it gets kind of iffy. Well, teal teal is a great website, i think. Yeah, i think teal is actually one of the better ones because it works closely with AI. But you can also, like have a scan the job description so that you know You can figure out what words come show up the most and what words you need to highlight the most. I think that's important. And then, also, like it can serve as a job search tracker for you so you can keep track of all the jobs that you're applying for Or change your resume for each job and use AI to change your resume. I think you know those are the top three that I would recommend right now, but, yeah, if you have any recommendations, i'll be great too. Like I think this AI thing is like this is is super new as well.

So no, we've been here a while and I appreciate you for Coming on the show today. What would be like three things you would want to leave maybe the listeners with when they're going through notice careers I need there in college, wherever they're at listening right now. What would be three things that you would give them to keep them, be encouraged and help them out in this? You know this time that they are trying to, like you know, make the best out of their situation number one Be patient with yourself.

It takes time. It's okay if you don't have a job right now. Like, the economy is just everything. There are a lot of people looking for jobs, so be patient with yourself and be kind to yourself, especially during this time. Like, though, that's like my number one thing and that's what my channel is all about. Like, you know, this whole thing is a process and Even whether or not we're going through this economic change or whatever, it's still a lot to even gather the courage to apply for a job and Even be rejected for multiple jobs. Like, it's a lot and it takes a lot. The second thing I would say is Gather your resources and utilize your resources. You have so much Resources out there, whether it's AI, whether it's the internet. Like, you can learn what you need to do and change, and You have tiktok as well. Tiktok is taking the world by a storm, so that's a great thing as well. And then the last thing is Just do your research and don't trust everything that you see on the internet as well. Like, make sure that you really understand what you're getting into for each and everything that you do. So do your research and understand things for yourself. You know whether you should get a certification or not. Do that like research on your own to figure that out. Yeah, um, they can follow me while using career therapy that is my tiktok handle, so career therapist. And or you can just search in Venetia, kate, okay, that's dope. I don't also have her socials in the description, so you can follow her.

Guys, i really appreciate y'all for tuning in to this episode and if you made it to the end of this episode And you want to part two, please let me know, because we kind of got a little rest of days. I just want those hectic Wednesdays. But we can always run this back on a live stream where they're going tiktok or YouTube, you name it but if you guys want that, go ahead and leave a number two In the comments, if you. If you want another one of these, and also, like I tell you guys, you know I always read the last rule, the rulebook, or your hair will be shaved and Until next time, let's stay textual. And we are out.