Her Story
About Alicia
My career path has been quite a journey spanning over 22 years across multiple industries. I started in the fashion industry where I spent about 14 years working in operations, merchandising, design, and sales. I wanted something different, so I transitioned into operations within financial services and talent solutions, which is a fancy way of saying recruiting, where I spent 7-8 years. Along the way, I went into education, and I'm now an adjunct professor teaching a career seminar class to freshmen. I'm also a business consultant for an organic, sustainable athletic leisure wear startup company, where I work hand-in-hand with the CEO on everything from marketing and sales to production and manufacturing, design, shipping and logistics. My role right now encompasses all my 20-plus years of industry experience and allows me to apply my passion for health and fitness and overall wellness. I got to where I am today by being open to new opportunities through my network, having people know my background, and not being afraid to take chances and explore those opportunities, including making the leap from being a full-time W-2 employee to entrepreneurial 1099 work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Alicia
01What do you attribute your success to?
My family, my parents. Their work ethic is what I attribute my success to. They're both entrepreneurs, blue collar individuals, but have built everything that they have. It wasn't handed to them, they built it all. That's by far what I contribute my success to.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Lead with passion. Lead with what makes you happy. You could have a career that brings you financial success and income, and that could buy you this and buy you that, but sometimes all the money in the world can't buy you happiness. If you don't lead your life with passion and what you believe fits you, you can't live your life trying to please everybody else, because you'll have no energy left for yourself. My recommendation for any young woman is lead your life with passion, lead what makes you happy, because in turn, you'll find success if you're happy at what you're doing.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I feel it's AI, if I'm being perfectly honest with you. We have to approach artificial intelligence as a means of growth, as a tool for us to utilize. However, that is a challenge now, especially as we get older. We're not as flexible to learning new things, but I myself have been immersing myself into understanding what AI can potentially take away from what I do now, but also how it can help me do my job now. I think that is a challenge, not even just for me, but for individuals in general. How can that impact their future from a career perspective, both positive and negative?
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Work ethic. I believe that opportunities aren't always given to us, and sometimes they do happen organically, but your work ethic is how we have to create opportunities for ourselves. We have to put ourselves out there and meet people and share our passions. Your work ethic and your drive, you know, I always say when I hire people or tell my students, is that life doesn't just hand you things on a silver platter. You have to seek them, you have to go after them, you have to create them, and without that drive or that desire, it's very hard to really go through life. That desire and drive is a huge core value that I feel will get anybody further in their career, because one thing is, you can't teach work ethic and drive. You could teach skills, but you can't teach work ethic and drive. That's something that has to be built from within.
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