Andrea Hidalgo

My career journey has been anything but linear. I started at a large law firm in South Florida working in accounts receivable, collecting money for the company, and then moved into working on motions and editing documents. After having a baby, I took three years off, and when I returned to work, I joined a roofing company as an operations administrator. From there, I transitioned into an HR generalist assistant position, and eventually was promoted to HR manager, a role I've held for about three and a half to four years now. When my director left after I'd only been in HR for about a year, the company believed I could handle everything on my own, and I've been managing all aspects of HR by myself ever since. I oversee over 300 employees across four different locations throughout Florida, handling everything from benefits, COBRA, 401K integration, ADP, PTO approvals, employee status changes, employee relations, safety violations, and worker compensation. It's been challenging managing all of this alone, but also self-rewarding because I didn't think I would be able to manage all of this by myself. I've learned along the way through a lot of ups and downs and trial and error. I'm currently working toward my SHRM certification and will keep taking the exam until I pass it. Before all of this, I actually graduated from Le Cordon Bleu with an associate's degree in culinary arts. I loved to cook and thought I wanted to be a chef, but I learned that the restaurant business was too demanding, with long hours, working holidays, and time apart from family. I decided to finish my degree anyway, and even though I didn't end up doing anything with it professionally, I worked my way up from basically just an admin to the HR manager position I'm in now. I work for a roofing company that's all males, and the company is now expanding into Georgia and Tennessee. My mentor, Zarellis, was the director here before she left, and we remain very close friends. She really believed in me and always helped me, and even to this day, if I have any questions or doubts, she takes my calls and is there for me as a friend and mentor.