Brittani Green

I would say perseverance has been the most important for me, being able to be a problem solver. I attribute my success to my willingness to understand where I'm gifted, how I can help, and how I can be an asset to whatever job I take. I try to work with excellence in every job, even when I was working at Panera Bread when I was younger. I want to do every job that I take on well and I'm committed to it. I think most of my employers or coworkers would say I'm good because whatever I commit to, I'm gonna do well. It's also about being really good at understanding how you fit within an environment and how that contributes to the entire work environment, not just having the skill to do a job, but understanding how to collaborate with others. My willingness to collaborate with other people and committing to doing what you say you're gonna do when you sign up for something is key.

The best career advice I ever received was from my mom: tell yourself yes before you give yourself a chance to say no, and stop worrying about other people saying no. I still struggle sometimes to think, am I qualified, am I worthy? Even for this interview, I was looking at the website and all the magnificent things that women have accomplished, and sometimes it's a bit of imposter syndrome and self-doubt. But she was like, don't tell yourself no before someone else does. Tell yourself yes. Go for those opportunities. You are qualified. I'm constantly working with younger people and for my son, I want to build that self-confidence, because you are going to get some no's. I come from a competitive field in acting where you're gonna get told no. There's only one role and 25 of you will audition. But don't tell yourself no, go to the audition anyway. If you were invited or if it's open, go to the audition anyway. Apply for the job anyway. Tell yourself yes before someone else can say no. The worst thing that someone can say is no, and that's it, and you move on. But telling yourself no is even worse because you're not even giving yourself a chance to be in the room.

If you're going into teaching, you have to be passionate about what you are doing and what content you're teaching. I always tell my theater students, I'm not here to make sure that you love being an actor at the end of this, but you need to have respect for everyone you encounter. Be passionate about what you're doing. Find something about your job that you love before you take it on, because everyone is not gonna always show you outright appreciation for what you do, but you gotta love what you do. You have to love some aspect of what you do.

I think a lot of teachers would agree that pay is a major challenge. Speaking to full-time classroom teaching, which is why I pivoted to doing more part-time adjunct faculty work, it was hard finding a work-life balance. The challenges come when you have to answer a whole lot of emails, grade a lot of student work, and being able to prioritize what needs to be done now versus what can hold for a few days. Planning in advance is really helpful. Understanding that the pay might not always fit what the requirements are for the job is important. You might have set hours from 8 to 3 where you're in a school building, but your job continues after that, so you may have to commit more time to specific jobs in education. But again, if you love it, you have to look for other ways to make it fulfilling. There should be a reverence for the people who are leading and educating the people who will be taking on careers in the next generation. I have students in my class who are going to be doctors, and I want them to understand the skills that will carry them no matter what career they enter.

Work-life balance is incredibly important to me. I'm not a big fan of taking a lot of work home because I need to be a mom, and I want a chance to be Brittani when I'm home. Being able to separate my professional life from what I need to accomplish at home is so important to me. Empathy has been a part of all of my work. I try to teach that in theater, it's important because you're literally walking in someone else's shoes when you take a role. Even if I'm not teaching theater, I teach my students how important it is to have empathy for other people's experiences. I love when people are able to just communicate with each other. We're so used to working and socializing on a digital form that people are forgetting how to actually socialize human-to-human in person. So empathy is really important to me, and having a good work-life, personal and professional work-life balance are top tier for me.